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The people of the south-east have given
Goodluck Jonathan their word that they will support him during the
coming presidential elections, but he would be expected to pay a price
for it. The price, according to the governor of Imo State, Ikedi
Ohakim, is that Mr Jonathan must take a good long look at the region
and find ways of improving the lot of its people.

This assertion is coming after the
south-east governors had said they were still undecided about whom to
support for the presidential bid.

Speaking after a private visit to Mr
Jonathan in the company of the Speaker of the Imo State House of
Assembly, Mr Ohakim said the region was obviously waiting for “the big
masquerade to emerge” and since this has happened, negotiations have to
begin.

“The south-east governors had said that
they will not mention who they will support; nobody will force us to
support anybody until all the big masquerades emerge. Yesterday, the
big masquerade emerged, President Jonathan declared and told me that he
will run,” he said. “Before, it was mere speculation. It is only when
he tells me he will run that I will decide whether I will support him
or not. He told me he will run. He told all of us he will run. That’s
why I am here with my Speaker. That’s why I’m here with my leader. We
have decided that we will work with him. But we have to negotiate.
Politics is give me, I give you; you take, I take.”

Uneasy about timetable

Mr Ohakim said what he wanted from Mr
Jonathan was that he must “continue the good work he is doing” and he
“must look at the marginalization of the south-east.” “He must look at
the fact the south-east is the only zone in Nigeria that has one
transmission line of electricity and we must look at the innate ability
of the people and design Nigerian development to capture innate ability
of all the sections of the country,” he said.

Speaking on the election timetable, Mr
Ohakim said if it were possible to buy an extension, he would. He said
he has reservations about the timetable but would only speak about it
after going through it thoroughly.

“INEC has given its own timetable; the work of a politician is to
bend himself to be able to meander through the thorns of politics in
order to achieve his goals,” he said. “We are yet to digest the
timetable which was recently released. I have my own reservation about
that timetable. I am looking at the practicability and the possibility.
We must possibilize the impossibility, if we must make the country move
forward. But we will still re-examine that timetable. I will make
comments on that timetable when I look at it critically.”