SECOND TERM: Northern leaders give Jonathan conditions •Replace Namadi Sambo •Create Arewa development fund •Remove onshore/offshore dichotomy

A cutthroat power struggle is now ongoing in the North, as some leaders are said to have listed some conditions under which they would be ready to support President Goodluck Jonathan‘s second term bid in 2015.
This is coming as suspicion lingers among opposition political parties over their planned merger, due to what a source called the sudden interest of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in the proposed grand opposition coalition.
Sunday Tribune was reliably told that some Northern leaders met in Kano, on Friday, after jumat to review the state of the North and the forthcoming 2015 presidential election with actors at the meeting said to be worried that the president‘s second term bid is almost a fait accompli, due to distrust among Northern political leaders.
A source close to the meeting who hails from Zaria, Kaduna State, said it was held at the residence of a Second Republic politician with about 11 top politicians from the core North in attendance.
It was gathered that the meeting discussed the increasing division in the North and concluded that the possibility of the region forging a common front before 2015 was becoming increasingly unattainable, thereby advancing a ‘Plan B’ which our source said included a conditional support for the president’s second term bid.
Actors at the meeting were said to have expressed worries that if the North should enter the 2015 race as it were, the president may secure his second term without any agreement or relationship with the core North.
“The fear is we are in trouble, if the man wins again without our organised support. We risk the top position going to the Igbo in 2019,“ the source noted.
Sunday Tribune was told that the meeting, which lasted for two and a half hours, agreed to link up with other Northern leaders, even as they agreed on some conditions the North should give the president, if the core North was to back him for the Presidency in 2015.
Our source narrated that the meeting listed three main conditions for the president, the most important of which is that he should change his vice presidential running mate.
The meeting was said to have advised that the president should pick his running mate from among one of the Northern governors as a way of rallying the Northern governors behind him.
Besides, the group is also said to be canvassing for a wholesale rebuilding of the Northern region through a federal Northern Development Fund, in view of the Boko Haram crisis and what the source called subsisting underdevelopment in the region.
The last of the conditions, according to the source, is a request for presidential support for the clamour of the North for the review of the onshore/offshore dichotomy, a division which the Northern states believe is depriving the region of close to N40 billion monthly.
An administration source, very close to the vice-president, who was contacted over the report, described the conditions as unrealistic, asserting that “Vice-President Namadi Sambo has remained a loyal and effective deputy since he came on board.
“That is wishful thinking of a faceless group. The Jonathan/ Sambo ticket is a winning team anyday.“
The source added, however, that “the president has not even taken any decision on the second term issue.”
Meanwhile, there is still suspicion about intentions of partners over the ongoing merger talks among the main opposition parties in the country.
Checks within opposition circles showed that the eagerness of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to effect the merger is been hampered by unresolved issues with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as well as fears over the real goal of the ANPP in the merger talks.
Sunday Tribune was told that both the CPC and the ACN were wary of the renewed interest of the ANPP in the merger with some chieftains of the CPC said to be afraid of a repeat of old ANPP feud within the planned party.
The ANPP was said to have directly written letters to both the CPC and the ACN, expressing its total support of the merger plan as a way to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015. The party also reportedly forawarded a list of its team’s members for the merger talks with former Borno State governor,Ali Modu Sheriff, as the head.
The direct involvement of Sheriff, who is the ANPP Board of Trustees chairman, is said to have alarmed the CPC whose chieftains reportedly regard the former governor as a sympathiser of the ruling PDP.
A CPC chieftain, who expressed fear about the ANPP, said “we are wary and we are looking over our shoulders because of our previous experience with the old ANPP.“
Meanwhile, the CPC itself is battling with questions about who made up its negotiating team, with a group within the party canvassing that no member of the National Executive Committee or Board of Trustees should be part of the negotiating team.
This position did not, however, go down well with some entrenched interests within the party who believe doing that will hand over the negotiation to the Mallam Nasir el-Rufai-led Renewal Committee.