Unless there was any last minute change, a lot of people were expecting that by the time the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) met  in Abuja, the choice of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as its candidate for next year’s presidential election would have been signed, sealed and delivered. Perhaps, the only thing that would be left would be its ratification by the special convention of the party, which might be convened sooner rather than later to make it official.

It would appear that towards this, its caucus and the Board of Trustees (BoT) met on Monday and Tuesday respectively to harmonize positions to be canvassed in the NEC meeting, preparatory to the party’s decision to modifying its zoning and power rotation policy in order to pave the way for the president to be nominated.

There was a snag though; members of the caucus were thought to have been unable to decide on the spot on the matter and wanted wider consultations before the PDP could possibly jettison a policy which they considered central to unity and stability of the country.

The caucus, as an advisory body on government policies and programmes, seeks to harmonize the relationship between the executive and the legislative arms of government and coordinate their activities and those of the party. This means that its position may not necessarily be binding on the President or the party.

That is to say other organs of the PDP, such as  the BoT and NEC, could yet ignore the caucus’ position and come up with a stance favourable to the anti-zoning movement of the party.Until that is done, there is no doubt that President Jonathan will remain in quandary largely because of the ambiguity in northern governors’ position and the unyielding posture of other elements in the North particularly members of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLPi), led by former Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma.

The forum has been consistent in its advocacy of the retention of the zoning policy of the PDP that would ensure that power shifts back to the North in 2011, even though the forum has been tempered by the anti-zoning Northern Leaders Summit (NLS) of Chief Solomon Lar, which wants the policy discarded. However, what the Ciroma group could not get fromthe Northern Leaders Summit, it has been able to extract from some politicians from the South-East, including former Senate President Ken Nnamani, Chief Jim Nwobodo, Senator Uche Chukwumerijie and others who have resolved to work with the northern politicians to preserve the zoning policy of the PDP and prevent the president from remaining in power.

If, indeed, President Jonathan is considering running in the election, he will certainly feel concerned that in spite of what seems like a groundswell of favourable opinion, there is still significant opposition to the idea. And with little time left before the election, he will have to act quickly, either to brave the situation and dive headlong into the race or to announce his exit from government at the end of the current tenure. Many people are confident within the power circle that he will choose the former rather than the latter option. But it will raise the question of what sort of president he will be when he gets the PDP’s ticket and wins the election.

Nigerians are perceived to be difficult to manage because of the tendency to do things in abnormal ways. People seek shortcuts to wealth and throw decency to the dogs in the quest for quick bucks.

Wanton corruption in both high and low places, nepotism, violent crimes, ethnic and religious bigotry are some of the vices Nigerians leaders have neglected to demonstrate enough courage or the wherewithal to tackle.

People talk of a firm and respected leader with the necessary clout to confront these ills and, at the same time, initiate desirable policies, no matter how hurtful they may be in the short term, to put the economy on a sound footing; a leader that will not be constrained by deals with godfathers and a leader that thinks not about himself, but about the lowliest of citizen struggling to have a meal a day.

A soft and vacillating President Jonathan will do more to convince such doubting Thomases that he is primed for the onerous task.

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