2015: ‘OBJ must back Jonathan’

The Presidency yesterday expressed optimism that should President Goodluck Jonathan decide to run for a second term in 2015, no individual or group can stop him from exercising his constitutional right. Specifically, it is of the view that former President Olusegun Obasanjo has no choice than to support President Jonathan for a second term in office, saying he was a beneficiary of a similar development, just as Nigerians have not conferred on him the authority to choose leaders for them. Speaking exclusively to Sunday Sun on Saturday in Abuja, Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Barrister Ahmed Ali Gulak, said the constitutional right of President Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential election is non-negotiable, even as he expressed confidence that in the event the president decides to run, he would perform better in the North than recorded in 2011. Besides, the presidential aide described the much talked about clamour by northern governors as a mere talk they cannot translate to reality, saying most of them are doing so for selfish reasons. Gulak’s position is coming a week after the controversial posting of the president’s campaign posters for 2015, a development the Presidency described as ‘antics of the opposition’, even as President Jonathan repeatedly reminded Nigerians that he thinks less of the 2015 presidential race, saying he would only decide in 2014 whether to run for a second term or not. Speaking on Obasanjo, Gulak said, “Nobody is God, nobody should play God, no one is indispensable. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, no doubt, is a well-respected leader who has played his part in developing the nation; he is a well-respected man who is like a father. But the truth is that just as people say he is a benefactor of the president, others have been his benefactors