Presidency: Yar’Adua Under Pressure To Recontest

By Dotun Oladipo - 05.01.2008

There were indications during the week that President Umaru Yar’Adua has come under intense pressure to seek re-election in the event of his election being annulled by the Presidential Election Tribunal.

Sources told Saturday Tribune that shortly after Yar’Adua said he was not going to seek a fresh mandate in the event that his mandate was annulled and a fresh election ordered, a group within the Peoples Democratic Party and the government circle had brought intense pressure to bear on the President to rescind the decision.

It was learnt that the group, made up of some eminent politicians, has told Yar’Adua to do away with the idea that he was not going to seek a fresh mandate.

The group rather advised the President to start preparations for a fresh election even before the tribunal’s ruling.

Yar’Adua, sources said, was advised to fix a fresh election for August next year and his inauguration, which they believed would be unstoppable through the ballot again, for September 1, 2009.

When asked if it would be possible for the President to hold on to power for such a long period before ordering the conduct of another election, a source in the Presidency said the period of waiting could not be determined now since the tribunal did not have a time frame within which to deliver judgment on the election petitions brought by presidential candidates of other parties.

Among those challenging Yar’Adua’s election are the presidential candidates of the Action Congress (AC) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari.

Another source said that the reasoning of the group was that it was possible for the President to play around the lacuna in the 1999 Constitution to stay on in power while the process for a fresh election was being put in place.

It was also said that the major reason that would be adduced for the long period of waiting before the election would be to allow the presidential candidates the opportunity of campaigning.

It was gathered that the reasoning within the group was that Yar’Adua, since coming into government, had gathered a lot of goodwill that would stand him in good stead to win a fresh election.

The group also feels that within the period of waiting, public opinion would have been swung in Yar’Adua’s favour for his decision to abide by the tribunal’s ruling annulling his election and standing for another.

The President, sources said during the week, had not yet shifted his position not to stand for election again.

He reportedly still insisted on sticking with his position not to seek a fresh mandate in the event of his election being annulled.