2015 presidential election:

Nigeria boils as Jonathan declares for presidency

  -Senior ruling party official petitions court to reject Jonathan’s candidature

· -Renowned Islamic cleric predicts Jonathan’s re-election will set Nigeria ablaze

·  -Fears heightened influx of Nigerian refugees in case of instability could threaten Cameroon’s security

·  -Boko Haram threatens more attacks

By Kristian Ngah Christian in Yaounde with agency reports

Tension is reportedly mounting within the camps of political groupings and civil society leaders in Nigeria following the decision by incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan to seek re-election in February’s presidential polls. Even his ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, top officials have not only spoken out against his decision to run for presidency but have in anger taken to the law courts to seek for disqualification of Jonathan’s candidature.

President Jonathan who apparently conscious of the cat calls and protest that would greet his declaration for presidency had refused to confirm his candidacy for February’s election until early this week. The announcement to seek re-election comes as he faces mounting criticism over his handling of the Boko Haram insurgency and its abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls. The Nigerian government announced a ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram but with little to show for as the militants have continued to attack several localities there. Reports say the Islamic militant group has vowed to intensify attacks on the Nigerian soil should Jonathan run and eventually win next year’s presidential election.  

The Nigerian president is not only being accused of not doing enough to win the release of the girls, he is also blamed for failing to curb rampant corruption in government and state institutions. In addition, concerns have been raised about several high-profile defections from the ruling party, including most recently the speaker of the House of Representatives.

In what political analysts have described as rubbing pepper to an already deepening wound, an aggrieved presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from Adamawa State, Umar Ardo, has gone to court; insisting that President Jonathan lacks the legal imprimatur to remain in office beyond 2015.

Ardo, in an application he filed through a senior advocate of Nigeria, A. Amuda Kannike, urged the appeal court panel to allow him to join as an appellant in the substantive appeal filed against Jonathan by a PDP member, Cyriacus Njoku, challenging the verdict of Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi of an Abuja high court which had on March 1, 2013, declared President legally fit to vie for re-election next year’s crucial presidential polls. Aside Jonathan, other respondents in the landmark suit are the ruling PDP and Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Njoku who is a registered member of the PDP in Zuba ward, Abuja, in his appeal, insisted that the lower court misinterpreted the law, even as he urged the court to go ahead and determine “Whether Section 135(2) of the Nigerian constitution, which specifies a period of four years in office for the president, is only available or applicable to a person elected on the basis of an actual election or includes one in which a person assumes the position of president by operation of law, as in the case of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.”

Insisting that Jonathan is constitutionally barred from contesting the presidency in 2015, Cyriacus, further prayed the court to determine “Whether Section 137(1) (b) of the Nigerian constitution, which provides that a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of president, if he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections, applies to the first defendant, who first took an oath of office as substantive president on May 6, 2010 and took a second oath as president on May 29, 2011.”

He is also seeking a declaration that ‘the President Jonathan’s tenure of office began on May 6, 2010 when his first term began and his two terms shall end on May 29, 2015 after taking his second oath of office on May 29, 2011; and by virtue of Section 136 (1) (b) of the constitution, no person (including the first defendant) shall take the oath of allegiance and the oath of office prescribed to in the Seventh Schedule to this Constitution more than twice.

He further asked the court for an order of injunction restraining President Jonathan from further contesting or attempting to vie for president after May 29, 2015 when his tenure shall constitution end according to the Nigerian constitution.

While challenging his locus standi to be joined in the matter, Jonathan, through his lawyer, Chief Ade Okeaya-Inneh, has urged the court to even go ahead and dismiss the substantive appeal filed by Njoku’s lawyers led by Obono Oblah and Ugochukwu Osuagwu for want of merit. In an 18 paragraphed counter affidavit, he branded the appeal as “legally defective”, adding that Ardo’s application was filed beyond the period approved by the constitution.

Even if sources in Nigeria say the court would throw out the case against President Jonathan and allow him to run for presidency, renowned Nigerian Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmed Gumi has foretold of violence should President Goodluck Jonathan go on to contest and win the 2015 presidential election. Gumi made this known in an open letter he wrote President Jonathan last Friday.

Read portions of the letter: “...We will not want it a burnt country with hundreds of thousands dead, maimed or displaced people because of the thoughtlessness and recklessness of its stewardship...You need to come out of the cocoon and face the reality. Denial of the truth can never solve problems...And sadly by your recalcitrance, you are dangerously leading this nation to chaos and turmoil that only God knows where it will end...Surely with the Christian votes and northern PDP followers, you can win another election but you will also set the nation into another turmoil because that segment of the nation that rejects you do so because they believe rightly or wrongly you are involved negatively in the Boko Haram Saga. The natural thing any good leader will do in this situation is to step down...I for a start, I am hereby candidly advising you to relinquish your presidential ambition because of peace, stability and well being of millions of innocent Nigerians...I rest my case here.”

Already, it is being feared that should the Nigerian presidential polls result in instability, Cameroon’s security would seriously be threatened because of the influx of refugees.