Just as everyone is sitting back to hear the date for the elections,
but for the people who celebrate valentines day, the celebration will
have to be limited as The Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) has finally fixed the date for the presidential and National
Assembly elections for February 14, 2015. In the 2015 general elections
timetable which INEC released yesterday in Abuja, the commission said
they would be followed on February 28 by the governorship and state
houses of assembly elections.
In a statement signed by INEC
secretary Mrs. Augusta Ogakwu, the commission said the Ekiti State
governorship election would hold on June 21, 2014, while the Osun State
poll would take place on August 9, 2014.
The statement added that
the commission arrived at the dates for the elections after its
four-day retreat which held in Kaduna from January 21.
The
three-paragraph statement read: "Pursuant to the provisions of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and
the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), the Independent national Electoral
Commission (INEC) has released the timetable and schedule of activities
leading to the 2015 general elections and the Ekiti and osun
governorship elections.
"After the deliberations at the four-day
retreat held in the Assa Pyramid Hotel, Kaduna from Tuesday 21st -
Friday 24th January, 2014, the commission has scheduled the presidential
and National assembly elections for 14th February, 2015 and the
governorship and state houses of assembly elections for 28th February,
2015.
"The Ekiti State governorship election is scheduled to hold
on 21st June, 2014 while the Osun State governorship election is
scheduled to hold on 9th August, 2014."
Jonathan to declare ambition in May - presidency
Although
the Presidency has played down the ultimatum given to President
Goodluck Jonathan by a group to declare his interest in the 2015
presidential race, there are strong feelers that the president may
declare his ambition in May this year.
A reliable presidency
source, which said the National Coalition For Jonathan/Sambo
Presidency's (NACOJP) 45-day ultimatum to indicate his interest in the
2015 presidential race or face its wrath, said Jonathan was not bound to
heed the demand, adding that the group was merely expressing its
freedom to be heard in a free society.
According to him, the
president who is at present concerned with the task of giving the
citizens good governance which they dearly needs will follow the rules
of the game and declare his ambition not later than May.
He said,
"I can tell you authoritatively that President Jonathan has postponed
his declaration to run for a second term till May this year. The
president has told us to wait till May. We wanted him to do it next
month as earlier planned, but President Jonathan called us last week and
directed that we should wait till May."
At a rally in Abuja, the pseudo-campaign body (NACOJP) threatened to shut down the country if President Jonathan refused to run.
While
insisting that that the 45-day ultimatum given to the president was not
binding on him, the seat of power described it as a "freely-given
charge".
He also dismissed reports that the Presidency was behind
NACOJP's rally which some opposition elements have described as a
return to the late Gen. Sani Abacha's era. The Presidency source said,
as a free society, the group was at liberty to call on the president to
run inasmuch as the laws of the land were not infringed upon.
"We
knew from the moment the rally was going on in the city that opposition
elements were going to use it as campaign point - that the presidency
was propping proxy bodies to kick-start campaign for Mr President.
"Little
will the opposition know that just as they have the unfettered liberty
to say whatever they want, including abusing the president at will,
others also have the same right to say what they want, including calling
on the president to run in 2015.
"But, honestly, the rally has
nothing to do with the Presidency at all because it is the right of the
people to associate and we see this as a freely-given charge even though
they seem to miss the point by giving the president an ultimatum.
"Nigerians
are aware that the president himself had severally said he would make
his intention known this year; so it is out of place not to wait for him
by giving him a time frame; even those of us working with him had
planned and almost convinced him to declare in February but, sometime
last week, he called us to say again that we should wait till May, that
it won't exceed May this year, so we are waiting," he said.
But
the national coordinator of the Concerned Northern Professionals,
Academics and Businessmen Forum (CONPABF), Dr Junaid Mohammed, has
warned President Jonathan not to plunge the country into crisis by
sponsoring campaign groups to threaten violence.
According to
Junaid, the Abuja rally by the pro-Jonathan group was a security threat
which both the police and the State Security Service (SSS) should wade
into.
"The Presidency cannot absolve itself from the threat
issued by its rag-tag campaign outfit in whatever name; that group is
the same as the hooligans around the president who daily mislead him.
"The
SSS and the police should, as a matter of urgency, look into these
threats upon threats that are coming from supporters of President
Jonathan because these are ominous signs that will throw the country
into turmoil if not checked by the security outfits in the country.
"For
the avoidance of doubt, there is a clear threat to national security
and cohesion that is coming from the so-called group: that Nigeria will
be made ungovernable without Jonathan.
"In all its ramifications,
we are back to the Abacha era; we are even in a worse era where
non-performance has been subjected to public rallies' scrutiny because
the government has lost legitimacy," he said.
At its rally held
at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja, NACOJP had
declared:"It is an incontrovertible fact that President Jonathan, apart
from the wonders he is doing with the Transformation Agenda that is
being felt in all the sectors of the Nigerian economy, has heavily
invested in the future of the Nigerian youths.
"The many seeds of
growth and development planted by President Jonathan in 2011 have
started bearing good fruits. We have seen that four years are not enough
to tender and continuously make these trees to produce fruits and feed
Nigeria.
"To this end, we call on President Jonathan to within 45
days make his intention to contest the 2015 presidency known to
Nigerians; if he refuses to do so, the youths in Nigeria will storm
Abuja and shut down Nigeria. We will make sure it is no Jonathan, no
2015 and therefore no Nigeria," the group's president, Godspower Denema,
said.
NACOJP's patron, Dr Benjamin Irikefe, had also threatened
that Nigeria would be made ungovernable if President Jonathan was
stopped from running in 2015.
