2015: Plot to divide Jonathan, Mark unfolds

A grand plot to cause divisions between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Senate President, David Mark, ahead of the 2015 election, has unfolded in Abuja, sources in the political circles have said. The design was said to be part of the grand design to emasculate President Jonathan ahead of the expected contest for the 2015 presidential race. Although President Jonathan is yet to announce his intention to seek re-election in 2015, sources said political stakeholders are getting reassured that he would seek re-election and that one of the strategies to weaken his resolve is to set Mark apart from him. A source in the know said while Jonathan and Mark had remained intimate in recent times, Mark had been able to oil the relationship by his loyalty to Jonathan “Mark has deployed his legislative experience and acceptability among the two houses of the National Assembly to the advantage of the Jonathan-led administration and he is the strong pillar mitigating the situation in the legislature in favour of the president. “A number of times, the legislators would want to go one way which would not be in favour of Jonathan, but Mark has always come up as the peacemaker,” a source said. It was learnt that those seeking ways of ensuring a northern president in 2015 were moving to float a “Mark for President” platform, a development they know would anger President Jonathan, who had declared that it was too early to talk about 2015. According to a source, one of the strategies was to ensure that Jonathan lose the support of Mark and, at the same time, foreclosed the possibility of handing over to the Senate President, if he decides not to seek re-election. “The arrows being fired are two-pronged, the strategists believed that if Jonathan does not show interest in 2015, he could support Mark to succeed him, but if the duo are set on political collision, then a situation of Mark emerging as a possible northern candidate would be remote,” another source said. Two weeks ago, a broadcast station ran a scroll indicating that “Mark for President” campaigners had stormed the National Assembly. A source close to the Senate president, however, said “Mark is not desperate for power, as the stakeholders in the PDP would decide the direction of things when the time comes.”