It was Dalhatu Tafida, the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, who first let the world into the working of the president’s mind.
At a press conference in Abuja in late 2010, a day ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan’s formal declaration to run in the 2011 presidential election, Mr. Tafida, then Director General of the Jonathan/Sambo campaign organisation, said the president won’t seek another term in 2015.
The president, he said, would be available for only a single term if elected.
“The President wants to run for one term…Let us give him the four years and see how he performs,” Mr. Tafida implored, in what now seems a campaign gimmick.
That explanation sounded logical at the time following the subsisting power rotation formula between the North and the South of Nigeria. Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner of Yoruba extraction, was in office for eight years. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s, a northerner, was therefore expected to take the north’s eight-year turn.
But death suddenly struck, foisting Mr. Jonathan, who was Mr. Yar’Adua’s deputy, on the nation.
So, when Mr. Talfida spoke, the president didn’t deny or fault his arguments. Rather he reinforced them in his actions and speeches.
Although he denied knowledge of the power rotation arrangement, he was unambiguous about his future.
Addressing Nigerians in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he attended an African Union Summit, the president regretted they would not vote on April 9, 2011, in a poll that was to return him for a fresh term.
“I would have loved that Nigerians in the Diaspora vote this year. But to be frank with you that is going to be difficult now,” he said on January 31, 2011,before striking home his point.
“Nigerians in the Diaspora will not vote, but I will work towards it by 2015, even though I will not be running for election.”
The presidency’s denial on Sunday that he has made no commitment to anyone not to run again has shocked many watchers of Nigerian politics with some describing Mr. Jonathan as a shameless liar.
The denial has also triggered debate on whether Mr. Jonathan’s tenure will, or not transcend 2015.
In a reaction to Niger state governor, Babangida Aliyu’s claim that the president endorsed a pact with the governors to exit in 2015, and former presidential adviser on political matters, Ahmed Gulak, said the claim was “frivolous” and a  figment of the governor’s imagination.
“The alleged agreement only exists in the figment of the imagination of somebody with presidential ambition,” Mr. Gulak said, referring to Mr. Aliyu’s own ambition to succeed the president in 2015.
The president himself has yet to personally speak on the subject. But that is not surprising as that is a well known Aso Rock’s tactic where the president pushes aides to express his position on issues. At times, when a sentiment expressed by an aide gets controversial, the president pushes back, disowning such a remark.
Still, Mr. Gulak’s response on the president’s behalf seems deliberate.
For a potentially stormy subject, the president, through his political mouthpiece, Mr. Gulak, needed to have made it clear he signed no agreement if indeed he didn’t. But he should also have explained if he had changed his mind about running again. He said it himself he won’t run in 2015.
At a time the presidency is being criticised over the disgraceful admittance of lying to the public about the health of the First Lady, it faces even greater condemnation should it continue to deny that the President didn’t tell the world he won’t run in 2015.
Nigerians seem to respect the president’s right to seek re-election. The concerns have been more about whether Mr. Jonathan once pledged to run for only a single term ending 2015.
The president’s remarks in Ethiopia, probably alongside others, provides a response to that concern. The president indeed said so. A denial today would be ungentlemanly and unpresidential.
Ahead of that famous Ethiopian speech, the resolution of a meeting of 18 governors and two deputy governors provided a much-needed weight at the time for the president’s ambition, with a statement backing Mr. Jonathan for one term.
Governor Aliyu’s claim probably derived from the outcome of that meeting.
Also, after the president’s declaration in Addis Ababa, former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, warmed up to that position on March 26, 2011.
Speaking in Abuja during the grand finale of the Jonathan/ Sambo ticket, Mr. Obasanjo  praised the president for agreeing to stand for only a term and urged Nigerians to give him that one chance. Mr. Jonathan was in the audience the ex-President addressed and he nodded in agreement to Mr. Obasanjo’s remark.
Mr. Jonathan should resist the temptation to be blinded by ambition. He should be a man of his words. He should not run again
- See more at: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/120981-editorial-jonathan-personally-promised-not-to-run-in-2015-a-denial-today-is-barefaced-lie.html#sthash.WigF4nEg.dpuf

Since gej has decided to run again for presidency i will suggest that who ever is against such should try and jump into the front of his motorcade

One thing is sure and permanent: CHANGE

[img]http://2.bp..com/-WLWJOgca-tE/UjhGjitCkfI/AAAAAAABPzc/ZVL2TDm_O_Y/s1600/GEJ+-+One+Term.jpg[/img]

Cry me a river

Sick9jarian.................Hahaha.....only u waka come........stop stalking Egift.....Go sleep

IS NAIRALAND BECOMING THE MEDIA WING OF APC/BOKO-HARAM?

JUST A QUESTION.

ANYWAY, JONATHAN HAS ALALREADY WON 2015 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE SPIRITUAL REAL.

@OP: Ok, so what is the fuss about? Is he not entitled to a change of mind? Don't we all change minds on certain things? Or has it become a crime to so do?

Oga Jona is a chronic Liar

emmydeep: IS NAIRALAND BECOMING THE MEDIA WING OF APC/BOKO-HARAM?

JUST A QUESTION.

ANYWAY, JONATHAN HAS ALALREADY WON 2015 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE SPIRITUAL REAL.

People like u're sycophant. Ur sense of gud judgement is heralded. I pity u

egift: [img]http://2.bp..com/-WLWJOgca-tE/UjhGjitCkfI/AAAAAAABPzc/ZVL2TDm_O_Y/s1600/GEJ+-+One+Term.jpg[/img]

what about ur buhari that cried and begged for vote ?on that occasion,he promised not to go to court if he lost,did he kept to his words?
what about ur same buhari dat swear that he will never recontest?what really is he doing now?

shachris03: Oga Jona is a chronic Liar

no ,u are the liar?
na like this u wan start ur own forum?u've failed already

what happened to defeating him at the polls?

Is that no longer the idea of democracy?

Buhari made same promise

Buhari vowed not to contest presidential election after 2011

Ebola Jonathan is liar aided by liars in the cause of lying. No matter what outcome 2015 will produce, Jonathan will go down in human history as a vile occultist who elevated corruption to indispensable acts of statecraft and cluelessness to an art!

Psylas: Buhari made same promise

mkpakanaodogwu: [s]Buhari vowed not to contest presidential election after 2011[/s]

It is foolish addressing an entirely different issue with this, if you want to discuss Buhari not contesting, open another thread for it!

nigerianvenom:

what about ur buhari that cried and begged for vote ?on that occasion,he promised not to go to court if he lost,did he kept to his words?
what about ur same buhari dat swear that he will never recontest?what really is he doing now?

Any attempt to link Jonathan not contesting on the basis of those lousy publications from Addis Ababa will be ludicrous. Jonathan kept to his word by proposing not to recontest ifthe National Assembly could approve one single term of six years, which he explained earlier as the context that speech was made. But northerners killed the Bill.

In any case, Nigeria is a fraudulent country. Nobody keeps to their word. Did Gowon abide by the Aburi Accord with Ojukwu, that too with a denial leading to the deaths of millions? Did IBB keep his word to hand over to Abiola's civillian regime which laid the foundation for ethno-religious bigotry in the country? Why shoul GEJ be stampeded out of office? Is it not our oil?

I like this. 'cos GEJ said whatever he is now quoted to have said then at gun-point, under duress by people who are now his bokoharam.

nigerianvenom:

what about ur buhari that cried and begged for vote ?on that occasion,he promised not to go to court if he lost,did he kept to his words?
what about ur same buhari dat swear that he will never recontest?what really is he doing now?

I believe change is permanent and events of life may force one to make a change of plans. So I do not have problem with GEJ or GMB for deciding to contest against their promise/agreement but when an individual denies he never makes a world aclaimed statement, then we call that person a liar and should never be trusted.

If GEJ can deny that he never had agreement/promise not to contest 2015 election as he has done on ASUU/FG agreements, then I (in my best opinion) can not support any movement to entrust our nation's administration to him. He has clearly shown is a dishonest and desperate man.

He made that statement then is his desperation to become Nigerian president and making many statements/taking many steps against the interest of this country just to become the next president. I bet you, please quote me Jonathan can never rule in the best interest of this country and Nigerians when elected for next four years .

He is a desperate man and a cronic liar. This is a fact.

Oga Buhari makes no reference to contesting next yr. time will tell.


2015: Next 5 months will be tough —Buhari •Warns Nigerians against treasury looters




FORMER military head of state and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, has warned Nigerians that the next five months would be tough, informing that nobody in the country should vote for treasury looters again in 2015.

He insisted that the APC wanted to control the government at the centre in order change what he termed mis-rule and mismanagement of treasury by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government.

Speaking while receiving prominent members of PDP in Kogi State, who defected to the party, in Lokoja, on Tuesday, Buhari advised party members to ensure they obtained voter cards, saying that was the only weapon to vote out PDP in 2015.

According to him, “this is the people’s money. It must be spent for their welfare, development and good governance. This country can afford all these. The money is not meant to be stolen, but for the development. So you should be up and doing so that we can change the system starting from the councillorship to the presidency,” he said.

“The next five months is going to be tough, because APC is determined to change many things in the country,” he said, insisting that leaders must be accountable to the people, while stealing of public fund must be stopped.

Among the defectors were former acting governor of Kogi State, Clarence Olafemi; immediate past speaker, Abdullahi Bello, six other former members of House of Assembly; former chairman of state PDP, Chief John Odawun and Ambassador Isaac Onu, among others.

National chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, speaking at the rally, implored the people of the state to endure for some time, saying, “as soon as APC takes over the ruling of the state, welfare of workers would be top priority.”

He assured the defectors of equal opportunity in the party.

Other prominent members of the party at the rally were former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; Kano State governor, Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso; APC deputy national chairman, Senator Lawal Shuaibu; national deputy chairman, South-West, Chief Segun Oni; former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu; former Minister of State for Petroleum, Shuaib Abdullahi; APC national treasurer, Bala Muhammed and the national organising secretary, Senator Osita Osinazo, among others

Reacting to the defection, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, Jacob Edi, said those that defected to APC were the bad eggs in the party, adding that their defection was “good riddance to bad rubbish.”

He said Kogi State “is a PDP state,” adding that politics is a game of numbers and that Governor Idris Wada was in firm control.
Read 2453 times

http://tribune.com.ng/news/top-stories/item/16872-2015-next-5-months-will-be-tough-buhari-warns-nigerians-against-treasury-looters

Now I see why seun apologised to the APC guys on Nairaland.

They've taken over...now back to topic, Yes Jonathan did not intend to contest but due to the pleading of the masses he has reluctantly obliged to serve them once more...

Don't play me "wayo"! I say that GEJ said whatever he is now alleged to have said then at gun-point, under duress. Let no one deprive him of his constitutional right please. Barak Obama did it and Goodluck Jonathan is a son of success too.

thegreatman4ww:

I believe change is permanent and events of life may force one to make a change of plans. So I do not have problem with GEJ or GMB for deciding to contest against their promise/agreement but when an individual denies he never makes a world aclaimed statement, then we call that person a liar and should never be trusted.

If GEJ can deny that he never had agreement/promise not to contest 2015 election as he has done on ASUU/FG agreements, then I (in my best opinion) can not support any movement to entrusted our nation's administration to him. He has clearly shown is a dishonest and desperate man.
He made that statement then is his desperation to become Nigerian president and making many statement/taking many steps against the interest of this country just to become next president. I bet you, please quote me Jonathan can never rule in the best interest of this country and Nigerians when elected for next four years .
He is a desperate man and a cronic liar. This is a fact.

my chairman,find a place n park well.where and when did he made such statement?
where u there or did u watched him say it?
what happened to ur buhari that openly said he wont recontest?

nigerianvenom:

my chairman,find a place n park well.where and when did he made such statement?
where u there or did u watched him say it?
what happened to ur buhari that openly said he wont recontest?

My brother google is your friend, and as for me I personally knows that part of Obasanjo statement then when campaigning for Jonathan was that He will only run for single tenure and many media (local and international) media reported same.

On Buhari he has not come out to say he never said such statement. Thanks, I dont drag political issues online.

In my everyday life, I do away with frnds and business partners who say one thing today and another tomorrow. So for GEJ, he comes from the same region with me. But I cannot support a leader who talk one thing today and another tomorrow like GEJ did and is still doing. So he should simply abide by his own words.

Wasted exercise

vedaxcool:

It is foolish addressing an entirely different issue with this, if you want to discuss Buhari not contesting, open another thread for it!

u lack good home training,if u like mention me a million time,i will ignore

mkpakanaodogwu: [s]u lack good home training,if u like mention me a million time,i will ignore[/s]

Empty as expected!