By Mohammed Umar-Puma
Middle Belt Consensus Forum (MBCF) has endorsed the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the 2015 Presidential election.
The forum also warned Jonathan to stop pandering to the wishes of the ‘core’ insisting that the region would never accept his candidature.
The MBCF, at its strategic meeting in Abuja at the weekend, noted that the strategy of appeasing the core North has failed to achieve any result, just as it stressed that in spite of the olive branch extended to some key political figures in the North by the President, it is clear that they will never accept him.
A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and signed by its National Coordinator, Mr. Bitrus Maisamari, stressed that from every indication, the core Northern political elements are only interested in their avowed mission of defeating President Jonathan without minding the consequences such moves could have on the nation.
The communiqué noted that Jonathan’s only crime was that being eligible, he contested the 2011 elections and is still eligible to contest the 2015 elections.
The MBCF said: “Mr. President, as a true son of Nigeria, we call on you to stop pandering to real minority. We are equal stakeholders in Nigeria. The era of people being treated as second-class citizens as a result of their religion or tribe is gone for good.
“We make bold to state here that no Northern leader has performed better than President Jonathan and considering the very difficult challenges he has faced from a section of the country that vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable, we give him a 70 percent pass mark and hereby declare our support for him to run in 2015 presidential elections,” the forum added.
