PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN, FIRE ADVISER ABBA AJI NOW!

Icheoku calls on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately fire his Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, for breaching protocols in making inciting comments that can be attributed to the presidency. First the adviser said that the president will not sign the much anticipated and long-awaited Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) and now seem to have finally put his foot in his mouth by saying that the 2015 Igbo presidential agenda shall not be realized. Icheoku says a presidential adviser is sufficiently close to the president to know what the president's thinking and/or position on some issues are and could be safely assumed to be speaking on behalf of the president. Hence, when such adviser comments on national issues, it is safe to assume that he was just venting the president's inner recesses and speaking on the president's behalf and behest. So Icheoku calls on Nigerians to be aware that President Goodluck Jonathan does not intend to sign into law the FOI and the Igbos should also know that the president does not ascribe to their aspiration 2015.

If the president refuses to sign the FOI, then Nigerians will know who the real anti-people politician in Nigeria is and will conclude that the president is only paying a lip-service to his anti-corruption gimmickry. But why would any reasonable president refuse to append his signature to such a transparency-geared legislation? Anyway, that is an issue for the president to deal with, but faced with millions of Nigerians and their representatives who strongly believe that such a freedom of information bill will help reduce corruption in Nigeria, Icheoku does not think that President Jonathan has a choice but to consent to the FOI with his presidential signature. Although the Otta deity, Olusegun Obasanjo, refused to sign the bill when previously passed during his government because of his own so many skeletons which he did not want unearthed; but circumstances have since changed and Icheoku strongly believes that President Jonathan will sign it into law. The president will have no choice but to sign the FOI bill into law as soon as the Senate consents to it as is expected, following in tandem with the House of Representatives.

But on the issue of 2015 Igbo presidential agenda, Icheoku says it is a sacrilege for President Jonathan to crush the Igbo dream in this cavalier manner; and the only way the president can reassure Igbos of the South-East that Abba-Aji does not speak for him and that he, the president, will not stand in the way of realizing that Igbo 2015 dream is to fire Senator Abba-Aji now for embarrassing his government. Anything short of sacking the presidential adviser is tantamount to Jonathan condoning anti-Igbo elements in his government; except Jonathan is one of them. Admitted that so many northern politicians including Bamanga Tukur have voiced their anti-Igbo opposition to Igbo 2015 presidential agenda and Icheoku respects their opinion to say whatever they like. But for another northerner, who happens to be very close to the president to recklessly mouth such a diatribe against the Igbo 2015 agenda, asserting further that Vice President Namadi Sambo is the official 2015 presidential candidate in waiting of the PDP is an affront and a smack on the face of millions of South-East Igbos, who have since thrown their support for the President Jonathan-Sambo 2011 ticket. Icheoku says any attempt by anyone including the president through his adviser, to sabotage or try to deny the Igbos their long awaited 2015 shot at the presidency is unacceptable and will result in some unbargained for consequences.

This mallam presidential national adviser even went forth to insult the entire polity of Nigeria, including the president, by asserting that President Jonathan's 2011 presidency will be counted as South-South's turn? Icheoku says, if that were the case, it then means that the president will continue in office after 2015, since the South-South is equally entitled to a two term of four years each in office. So if Icheoku were to walk on the pathway now being charted by Abba-Aji, it means that in 2015; not even the north will have a shot at the presidency as no vacancy will then exist, since the South-South will still have four more years to complete its eight year tenure. What Senator Abba-Aji is saying by necessary implication is that President Jonathan intends to continue in office in 2015 contrary to his promise to serve one term and thereby calling the president a liar? In Senator Abba-Aji's own decrepitude words, "It is very clear, Vice President Sambo will step in, as soon as Jonathan finishes. Jonathan is serving  the South–South ticket, after that it will come to the North and when it happens, we  will want the institutional memory to be there, we don’t want  too many dislocation that will set us one step forward, two step backward and all of that. So when Jonathan finishes, it shall be Sambo for continuity." 

It is very clear that Abba-Aji was not definite about when President Jonathan will finish his term but cleverly only said "as soon as Jonathan finishes," which is an open-ended  phraseology. While Icheoku agrees that it is a good idea for a vice president to always succeed a president for continuity of policy; but the 2015 succession bid will be far too complicated than imagined. The Igbos want the presidency in 2015, Vice President Namadi Sambo would like to stake his bid thereon and the greater North would also want to have the presidency returned back to the north; so where would such a contentious scenario then leave the Igbos and their quest to produce Nigerian president of Igbo extraction? Icheoku foresaw such a jigsaw situation long before the nomination of President Jonathan for president and warned of the implication of Jonathan's run; as we fiercely advocated for a northern president to complete President Yar'Adua's Northern unfinished turn instead. Such a northern president would have overridden these nightmarish scenarios now popping its head everywhere as to who will succeed President Jonathan in 2015. Also the question of whether President Jonathan is serving the South-South turn and what becomes of Vice President Namandi Sambo in 2015 would have both been solved with a northern president. Icheoku concedes however that either way, it will be very complicated and will drastically task the political body-fabric of the country in a Catch-22 like fashion, with no proverbial silver bullet to fix all the problems.

However, pending how the problem is eventually resolved when the time comes in 2015, Icheoku calls on President Jonathan to solve an immediate problem that has reared its ugly head NOW and there is an immediately available solution. President Jonathan should fire his Adviser on National Assembly  matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji NOW, for recklessly overheating the polity, especially among the Igbos of the South-East, with his unguarded statement dashing the Igbo's 2015 presidential dreams. President Goodluck must distance himself from such a crushing anti-Igbo comment of his adviser Abba-Aji and reassure the Igbos that they, like other Nigerians, reserves the right to aspire for the presidency. Icheoku says to President Jonathan, the Igbos are waiting!