SOME Northern political leaders, under the aegis of the Northern Political Leaders’ Forum (NPLF),  have commenced  consultations with members

of the National Assembly on the possibility of impeaching President Goodluck Jonathan, sources have said.

The G-15, led by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, had, on Tuesday, issued a statement asking President Jonathan to resign over the bomb blasts that rocked Abuja on October 1.

Sources in the National Assembly told the Nigerian Tribune that some politicians had started reaching out to senators who resumed plenary session last week.

A source also said that members of the NPLF had started reaching out to members of the House of Representatives who are due to resume on Tuesday.

It was confirmed that based on initial contacts with members of the Northern Senators’ Forum (NSF), some of the senators made an attempt to hold a meeting of the Forum on Thursday.

A source, however, said that some pro-Jonathan senators pleaded that the meeting should be held next week to allow for more consultations.

Senators, who were initially opposed to the idea of raising impeachment issues as a result of the bomb blasts, were said to have been divided during the week following other issues that were said to have cropped up.

It was gathered that some senators became angry during the week following the delay by the Ministry of Finance to release the last quarterly allocations of the National Assembly.

Sources said that though the consultations between members of the NSF and the Northern Political Forum were exploratory, the lawmakers were ready to listen to the proposals.

The main argument, according to sources, was to hang the  charge of inadequate security on the government of President Jonathan.

A source said that one of the allegations against the president was also the widespread bomb alarm being raised in Abuja during the week.

“The charge is to ensure that the question of instability is highlighted. They are trying to ensure that the government is portrayed as being incapable of securing the people and if that is the case, it becomes a serious national issue. A charge of impeachment can then be hanged on such a plank,” a source said.

It was gathered that while some senators who are working with the camps of General Ibrahim Babangida and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar were disposed to exploring the impeachment option, some of the senators, who championed the Doctrine of Necessity in February, were of the view that the argument against Jonathan was being taken too far.

The President of the Senate, Mr David Mark, had on Wednesday cautioned some Northern statesmen to stop politicising the bomb blasts issue.

Mark said it was distressing to listen to comments by some respected Nigerians on the bomb blasts saga.

Meanwhile, the Director-General (DG) of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation, Dr Dalhatu Tafida, has accused members of the Mallam Adamu Ciroma-led NPLF of wanting to wrest power by force.

Speaking at a press conference at the campaign headquarters in Abuja, on Thursday, he said their action was not based on the president’s wrongdoing but their desire to return to government at all costs.

Senator Tafida, who said that President Jonathan did not absolve the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) of blame over the bombings as claimed  by the elders, but suggested that the group was not solely responsible, added that “what is happening now is not because President Jonathan has done something wrong but it is because people want to wrest power at all costs.”

While reminding them that they could only take over power through the ballot box and not by engaging in provocative statements or introducing sectional and religious dimensions, Dr Tafida also noted that the nation had passed the stage where a few people would sit in one place and decide who should rule the country.

He observed that those who planted the Independence Day bombs had no reason to cut short the joy of the golden jubilee, noting that innocent lives had been taken but instead of commiserating with the families of the deceased, the northern elders were trying to use the incident for political gains.

According to him, “instead of some of the elders who are vicariously responsible for the frustration of many of our youths to be sober, they are desperately trying to milk this national tragedy for political gains.

“While the security agencies are busy trying to unearth the details of the national  tragedy, the provocative comments of some of our yesteryear men, laced with demeaning ethnic chauvinism, suggest that they do not mind if Nigeria explodes if they don’t acquire (power) at all costs in the 2011 primaries and the general election,” he said.

Dr Tafida declared that in spite of their antics, President Jonathan would not lose focus but was on track as “no amount of blackmail, will stop the president from moving forward.”

The campaign DG stated that the time to play politics had not yet come but added that the Jonathan/Sambo camp would want President Jonathan to win when the time comes, saying that, if however, his opponents won, “we will follow them.”

He added: “A presidential election is not a game of life and death. I, therefore, enjoin all members of the PDP in the race to remember that there is politics after presidential election. Let us be careful.

Whatever religion you belong, let us remember that it is the Almighty God and He alone who gives power to whom He likes and takes away power from whom He wishes.”

Dr Tafida also recalled the good work done by the founding fathers, whom he said strove selflessly to provide a good foundation for the country which he also noted had been destroyed by the military which struggled with themselves for succession.

He said: “Many suffered in the course of the struggle without looking for any personal reward. Many died so that we, their children, could have a good life.

“They built roads; they provided hospitals; they set up universities that competed with the best anywhere in the world. This was the Nigeria they handed over to us.

“But what do we have now? Regrettably, most regrettably, almost everything they worked for, they laboured for, for which they kicked out the British colonialists, have been compromised. Much of the compromise and decline occurred during the period of the military rule when people had no say in the choice and conduct of governance.

“As a result of consistent struggle for democracy, Nigeria has achieved democratic governance at last.

We should, therefore, sustain these gains and jealously guard them,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the Ndigbo Unity Front, in Abuja, on Thursday, categorised as “utterly irresponsible,” the seven-day ultimatum issued to Jonathan by Mallam Adamu Ciroma and his Northern Leaders Political Forum to resign from office or face impeachment.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, the national president of the front, Pastor George Onwuka, said “the call for Jonathan’s resignation or impeachment is utterly irresponsible. People who have nothing to offer anything good for Nigeria should not resort to petty issues that have no bearing with what is at stake and, by so doing, jeopardise our cohesion as a united people.

“We should not be colouring purely security issues with politics. We should return to politics of issues rather than engaging in arm-twisting diversionary tactics. This is the only way forward.”

They added that “as responsible and patriotic Nigerians, we cannot but express our disappointment at the subjugation of morality, civility and pragmatism displayed by Ciroma and his group. What is the basis for apprehension of insecurity in the North as a result of Mr Henry Okah’s ridiculous claims over the Golden Jubilee celebration bomb blasts in Abuja?”

The front added that “if simple logic prevails, what will it profit the president to indict northern politicians through killing innocent citizens or putting the lives of 14 world leaders at risk? This is even beside the risk to the lives of his immediate family, loved ones and innocent Nigerians that came to celebrate with him. When the US 9/11 bombings, which claimed over 4,000 lives occurred, the citizens neither called for the resignation nor the impeachment of their president.

“It is, indeed, sad that Mallam Ciroma and his co- harbingers of doom are already dancing naked in the market square, when investigations by relevant security agencies are yet to be concluded on an issue as grave as terrorism, instead of discarding political and sectional interests and sympathise with  the president, the families of the victims, and the generality of Nigerians over a national calamity.

“Where has Mallam Ciroma been since Plateau State had been turned into a slaughter slab by religious and tribal extremists? Where was he during the Boko Haram onslaught that dispatched over a thousand innocent law-abiding citizens to their untimely graves in Borno, Bauchi and other parts of the North? Why did he not call for the resignation or impeachment of governors of the affected states on grounds of growing insecurity in his region?

“Or was the Abuja bomb blasts and impeachment threat pre-arranged as a prelude to an already-mapped out sinister plot? Ciroma should note that the victims of the Independence day anniversary bomb explosions cut across diverse ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. He should strive to explore peaceful and acceptable democratic means in pursuit of political goals. Resorting to crude and uncivilised antics capable of creating national disharmony would do no one any good.

“Ironically, Ciroma and his co-travellers in the Northern Political Leaders Forum have not thought it wise to reflect, in their sober moments, on how they squandered a golden opportunity to lift up the standard of living of the large number of unfortunate Talakawas in the Northern Region while they held sway in positions of authority for over three decades during which they were only interested in massaging their egos and the welfare of their wives, relations, children and cronies.

“What can Ciroma boast of in terms of education, health and other basic necessities of life he provided for his people?

“Yet, he takes pride and joy in thwarting the progressive aspirations of the young northern Turks such as Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, and others who, in a bid to take their destinies into their own hands by disengaging from the old brigade, have become politically endangered species.

“Ciroma should realise that we, in the South-East zone of the country, have suffered marginalisation in all ramifications since Independence, yet, we’ve never allowed ethnic sentiments to dissolve our sense of morality. What is paramount to us is national integration and national stability,” the front stressed.

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