Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, has insisted that President Goodluck Jonathan did not sign any one-term agreement with any group or persons.
He also disclosed that two of the seven aggrieved governors backing the Kawu Baraje-led faction of the party have come back to the main fold.
In an interview with PUNCH, Gulak said he had been asking those who claim that the president had an initial agreement with some people to come out with a proof.
Said he: “Eight months ago, when the Governor of Niger State came up with the claim on the one-term agreement, I particularly challenged him to come up with a copy of the agreement. This is because, as a political adviser to the President, I know there are only three organs of the party at where such decision can be taken. They are the national caucus, the Board of Trustees and the National Executive Council and there was no time that such issue came up at the level of any of these organs,” he said.
“Up till now, the so-called agreement is nowhere to be found. I have repeatedly said it that Mr. President has never signed any agreement with anybody, not to run for second term. The President himself said it at the last presidential media chat that he did not sign such an agreement with anybody.”
He alleged that some people were telling lies so as to intimidate the President or abridge his constitutional right to offer himself for second term if he so chooses.
“They should leave Nigerians to decide who they will vote for. It is not a group of five or six people that will tell the President what to do. I am happy to say that from G7 governors, they have reduced to G5. Two governors have backed out because they know it is not true. So there was no agreement signed by the President,” the aide said.
On what could have informed this insistence by the governors that there was an agreement, Gulak stated that it was all about the ambition of certain people who want to be President or vice president.
When asked if the aggrieved governors and other members of the New PDP can stop the president in 2015, Gulak retorted: “Nobody can stop him. Are we not governed by constitution in this country? The constitution allows the President to contest for second term. Nobody can stop him from contesting, if he chooses to contest. It is only Mr. President himself that will say, “Look, I will not contest in 2015.”
He further dismissed the claim that five more governors would soon declare for the G7 next week.
“Their claim was mere propaganda. I am telling you authoritatively that two governors have backed out. They are now G5. Only that I won’t mention names but go and find out. Even the statements that some of them have been making are also indicating that what I just told you is right. Two governors have backed out. It is authoritative, go and cross-check.
Reacting to a statement by the Kawu Baraje faction, asking the President to postpone the peace talk earlier billed for October 7, Gulak said, from the onset, he doubted the sincerity of the splinter group.
“I don’t believe they are sincere from the beginning. If you have followed the trend of events, you will see that the President has been bending backward to accommodate everybody. He is ready to go to any length to achieve peace.
“But it just appears that they are not ready for peace. Immediately after the last meeting was adjourned to October 7, they went to the National Assembly and you know there was no need for that. It was a fundamental breach of the agreement reached at the meeting, that all parties should refrain from further actions until October 7. Nigerians now know that they are not sincere. So whenever they are ready, I believe Mr. President will be ready to listen to them once more.”
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