#BelieveItOrNot: Jonathan will run with Sambo in 2015 – Presidency
Some light has been shed on the second term aspirations of President Goodluck Jonathan as he is said to have declared that he will choose Vice President, Namadi Sambo as his running mate again.
The President is said to have stated that he had no intention of dropping Sambo if he (Jonathan) eventually decided to run for a second term in 2015.
This was disclosed by the president’s Special Adviser on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak even as Sambo’s political credibility is said to have suffered a big hit with the recent trend of mass defections from his home state, Kaduna, and even his own Local Government Area.
Leadership reports:
The president’s declaration may have come as a big relief to Sambo whose political base, Kaduna, has lately been hit by mass defection of members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
Rattled by this development that appears to have decimated the PDP in Kaduna, Sambo
has been shuttling between the nation’s capital and his home state to stave off further defections. This is even as speculations were rife over the weekend that close aides of Jonathan were already mulling options aimed at strengthening the PDP, not only in Kaduna but in the entire north.
A sister publication, LEADERSHIP Sunday, had exclusively reported yesterday that one of the options being explored was to enlist the support of two former governors who are now leading lights in the APC with the possibility of one of them running alongside the president as vice-presidential candidate.
But Jonathan, who spoke through his political adviser, Ahmed Ali Gulak, told LEADERSHIP last night that the gale of defections was not potent enough to adversely affect the PDP in Kaduna and Nigeria in general.
Besides, the presidential aide said, if Jonathan eventually made up his mind to run in 2015, he would do so with Sambo as his running mate.
He said: “I can tell you without mincing words that no serious-minded member of the PDP has defected from the PDP in Kaduna in particular and the nation in general.
“As vice-president of the country and having been elected on the platform of the PDP with the president who is the leader of the party, Sambo is the deputy leader of the PDP who enjoys the desired support of all members.
“That aside, the president and his vice are like 5 and 6 and nothing can separate them; if eventually Mr President listens to the clamour of Nigerians for him to again present himself in 2015, which I am sure he will, I can assure you that he would run with Sambo as his vice because there is no need for any change. This is more so that Sambo has the support of the entire north and the region is solidly behind him.”
