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2007: ANPP Govs to Back Northern Candidate
• Southern senators form own coalition From Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja and Bala Nasir in Dutse, 12.10.2004
Regional bloc calculations aimed at deciding who will succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007 got into high gear yesterday as two groups representing the North and South made a pitch for the presidency. While in Dutse, Jigawa State Governor Alhaji Ibrahim Saminu Turaki, said he and the other eight governors elected on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) will only back a northern-presidential candidate in 2007, senators representing the 15 Southern states have formed a coalition on how their area can ensure that only a candidate with agenda to move the nation forward gets elected. Turaki said there is nothing wrong with the resolve of ANPP governors to ensure that a northerner gets the presidency in the next general elections. "But no matter what people will say, we already made our resolve," he said. He, however, said it does not matter on which party platform the candidate is contesting but "we are going to support only a candidate from the north." "If our colleagues from the South-west and Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors then can support President Obasanjo and nobody raised an eye-brow, what will then make our own case different?" he queried. Clarifying the speculation that he planned to decamp to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the governor said if somebody within the ANPP made the wild allegation and another, a prominent member of the party publicly debunked the claim, then the issue had been resolved. "I cannot join issues with somebody whom I helped to win election. Somebody who came to me begging to be considered to run for an election that he won when we offered him helping hand. "All I know is that there is nobody who has contributed o ANPP up to this time more than I have. Even the party's constitution was written in my house at Asokoro, in Abuja," he said. The Southern senators who will be meeting under the aegis of the Southern Senators Forum (SSF) yesterday held an inaugural meeting with a resolution to back any presidential candidate who can move Nigeria forward in 2007. The group, which comprises senators from the South-east, South-south and South-west, met in the Senate Hearing Room 1. Convener of the meeting and vice chairman, Senate Committee on Tourism, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume (PDP, Imo), said the group would ensure that southern senators play a dominant role in the 2007 race. According to him, "the Southern Senators Forum is not a response to the Northern Senators Forum but a response to what we think could be our roles towards Nigeria's development including 2007." "We are here to pursue those things in our collective interests," he said and added, "we would make decisions that would make this country remain as one entity and when 2007 comes, we would make decisions as appropriate." “We would ensure that the next president is not a tribalist. We would also support President Olusegun Obasanjo's reform programmes," he said. Meanwhile, the group has set up a 6-man committee to liaise with the various caucuses of the Senate, sensitise them towards the goals of the forum and fashion out a blueprint of action for the group. Members of the committee include Senators Araraume, Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu); Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River); Ewa Ekarika (PDP, Akwa Ibom) and Robert Koleosho. Northern senators who met in Sokoto earlier in the year in their resolution advised the people of the three southern zones particularly the South-east and South-south who are already scheming for the presidency to wait for their turn. They argued that after eight years of Obasanjo who is from the South-west, it is only fair and democratic for the topmost position to be occupied by a Northerner.
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