Gov Lamido Endorses Jonathan For Presidency Because…

Jigawa State Governor Alhaji Sule Lamido was allegedly convinced by the leadership of the Northern Governors' Forum to endorse the presidential ambition of President Goodluck Jonathanin 2015.
According to Vanguard, the chairman of the Northern Governors' Forum and Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, who is said to have the ears of the Jigawa governor, was given the task to work on Lamido to join the train in endorsing Jonathan.
As competent party sources report, Aliyu told Lamido that Jonathan had accepted to abide by all the commitments that he made to Jigawa people during his electioneering campaign in the state in 2011.
Indications emerged last night that the leadership of the Northern Governors' Forum scored a big political point on Thursday by convincing the Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido to endorse the presidential ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
Reportedly, the Presidency will refund the sum of over N15 billion expended by Lamido to build the Dutse International Airport, a project which the Federal Government promised to undertake but failed.
According to the sources, the Presidency also agreed to undertake the immediate construction of the Auyo Irrigation Project, which was started by the Shagari Administration but abandoned and has remained an electioneering topic by successive presidential candidates and parties.
Moreover, the government agreed to construct a major road in the state to connect the state-owned university at Kafin Hausa, as a means of appeasing the governor and his people.
Lamido accepted to support Jonathan's candidature at the PDP NEC meeting in Abuja on Thursday because President Jonathan is ready to fulfill his campaign promises to the people of the state, a top source in Jigawa reports.
"All along, Governor Lamido had insisted that he would only support the president if he fulfilled his campaign promises to the state and not that he wanted to replace him as some persons were insinuating,"a top official said.
But the Director of Press to Governor Lamido, Mr. Umar Kyari, in a phone conversation with Vanguard, pointed out that the governor had never had any disagreement with Jonathan on the issue of running for the same office.
"As a matter of fact, the governor has never declared his intention to challenge Jonathan in the Presidential race but it was only his admirers, who suggested that based on the brilliant performance he has put up in the state, he could replicate same if he becomes the president of Nigeria.
"It must be made abundantly clear that governor Lamido has never told anyone that he was going to challenge Jonathan in the presidential election in 2015," Umar explained.
It would be recalled that Lamido had distanced himself from the initial endorsement of President Jonathan by the North-West Zone of the PDP two weeks ago but did not give any reasons.
The development was then taken to mean that he was ready to slug it out with Jonathan at the polls come 2015. But the position changed dramatically when Lamido turned up at the NEC meeting of PDP and endorsed Jonathan as the sole candidate for the presidential race next year.