‘Consensus will be counterproductive’

The Goodluck Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation on Sunday dismissed the consensus arrangement and presidential ambition of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

The group said in a statement in Abuja by its Director, Planning, Research and Strategy, Chief Mike Omeri, that the consensus arrangement would be counterproductive. It said Nigerians must challenge against protagonists of zoning in the forthcoming elections, “to sustain the indivisibility of the nation.”

The group said, “Nigeria is too big to be reduced to the interest of an individual or group interest. The nation cannot be mortgaged into the hands of a few people masquerading as leaders of the North when in actual sense they are furthering their own interests.”

It wondered why an aspirant who desired to rule Nigeria would be championing zoning and sectional interest in a secular nation.

“I think such an aspirant should be told in no unmistakeable terms that the nation is bigger than him. Nigerians cannot be subjected to the apron string of an individual whose only agenda is to become president just because he hails from a particular part of Nigeria.

“The road map to 2011 is already clear because Nigerians believe and accepted the transformation programme of President Good luck Jonathan, needed to move the nation forward,” the organisation stated.

In a reaction, the Director of Media and Publicty, Atiku Campaign Organisation, Mallam Garba Sheu, said the consensus process was open and transparent.

“It rose out of the necessity to check the excesses and greed of a President who came to office through zoning but turned his back at it by saying it did not exist. The tension in the country should be blamed on the President’s reckless decision to subvert zoning, a process that has given Nigeria a stable democracy for over 12 years now,” he explained.
Source:punchng