Nigerian Ruling Party Governors Back Jonathan

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan received the backing of 20 state governors to win the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s nomination at primaries on Jan. 13.

The governors, all members of the PDP, said Jonathan should serve “for a period of four years only” if he wins the election set for April 9, according to a statement handed to reporters yesterday after a meeting in Abuja, the capital. Six PDP governors didn’t sign the statement, and Nigeria’s remaining 10 governors are members of the opposition.

Jonathan became president of Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer and most populous country, succeeding Umaru Yar’Adua, a Muslim northerner who died in May 5, three years into his first term. As a southern Christian, his candidacy is contrary to an unwritten party rule to rotate the country’s top office between the mainly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south for two four-year terms.

Jonathan’s decision to contest in next year’s vote has divided the PDP, with a group of northern politicians backing former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to challenge the president for the party’s nomination. The state governors supporting Jonathan cut across the West African nation’s regional and religious divide and described his candidacy yesterday as a continuation of his joint ticket with Yar’Adua.

Former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, who dropped out of the race to back Abubakar, threatened last week to quit the PDP if a northerner isn’t chosen as its candidate.

Peaceful Change

Abubakar added to tension over the dispute on Dec. 15 when he told supporters in Abuja that “those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable,” in reference to Jonathan’s candidacy.

The State Security Services, the security police, told politicians today to tone down the rhetoric.

Politicians should “henceforth desist from making unguarded statements which have the capacity to undermine and subvert the stability of the nation,” SSS spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar said in an e-mailed statement. “Appropriate sanctions will be brought to bear heavily on any person found violating this warning.”

Nigeria has suffered periodic outbursts of religious and communal violence that have claimed more than 13,000 lives since 1999, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.