[attachimg=1] The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Goodluck Jonathan, seem not convinced that they have won the confidence of the electorate in the regions. This occured after the conclusion of its first round of campaigns in the North-West and South-West geo-political zones,
In a post-campaign appraisal, the PDP's leadership and the President, according to sources, are disturbed by some issues that cropped during their rallies in the two zones, which they feared might affect their chances at the April polls.
One of them is alleged misrepresentation of the President describing the South-West leaders as "rascals" and the ugly incident in Kaduna, which led to the PDP supporters leaving the venue of the rally before Jonathan addressed the crowd.
The Guardian learnt that as part of the plans to get the block votes from the regions, the President and the PDP have agreed to embark on another leg of campaigns in the zones using political organisations to sway support for the PDP and Jonathan.
The President's men have reportedly embarked on personal and group's efforts to create platforms for Jonathan to clear his comments and position on certain national issues and those credited to his aides that have attracted the wrath of the public.
It was also learned that special campaign materials including traditional wears have been prepared for the fresh rallies that would be held in selected places in the South-West and North-West after the end of the ongoing exercise, which ends in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Saturday, March 26, 2011.
Jonathan is expected to use the Northern Economic Summit organised by Northern Political Summit Group in Kaduna on Thursday to kick-start the special campaign.
A PDP official said yesterday that this campaign will make up for the mix-ups at the zonal rally in Kaduna last February 11 where some members of the crowd left in droves before the President made his speech.
But at a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the Chairman of the Northern Political Summit Group, also known as the G-20, Prof. Jerry Gana, said the summit was not at the behest of the President. He explained that when the maiden meeting of the group was held last year, it was agreed that they should organise both economic and social parleys with a view to addressing the socio-economic problems of the North.
''When we held the maiden meeting of the group sometime last year, we agreed that as part of the efforts to develop the region, we would organise an economic summit to address the situation in the North. After the economic summit, we are still going to hold the social summit later. These are some of the plans that we have to develop the North. The summit will address several aspects of the economic problems in the North because we have arranged for experts to deliver lectures, which will be put together to be used as a road map,'' he said.
Asked whether the forum was a designed to check the influence of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) led by former Minister of Finance, Adamu Ciroma, Gana said his group was concerned with the development of the North and had no other agenda.
He added that the letters of invitation to the summit were extended to all northerners of note, including presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN's), Nuhu Ribadu, and Ibrahim Shekerau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Speaking further on the summit with the theme: ''Agenda for economic and social transformation of Northern Nigeria,'' Gana, who was accompanied by Senator Jonathan Zwingina and some members of the planning committee to the conference, said it would ''develop an well articulated blueprint for restoring and placing the North on the path of rapid and sustainable socio-economic development."
Gana further said the summit would produce an integrated socio-economic charter that could be implemented by northern states and also serve as a viable instrument for policy making at the federal level.
Gana confirmed that Jonathan had been invited to the summit as a special guest of honour.
Party sources hinted that PDP is worried about the North-West, which has seven states and a huge population of voters.
According to them, the presidential candidates of the ACN and CPC are from the zone and any slip could be disastrous for PDP.
In the South-West, the party is losing sleep over the growing influence of the ACN.
These are some of the issues the PDP plans to use the special campaigns to address.
The North-West zone has seven states: Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa and Kano. Others are Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states while the South-West has Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Ekiti states with Lagos having the largest number of registered voters in Nigeria.
And as the general elections approaches, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in collaboration with local election partners have set up a National Election Incident Centre (NEIC) to electronically monitor and gather reports from the polling stations across the country and transmit the results to the stakeholders.
At the presentation of the centre yesterday in Abuja, Country Director of NDI, Mr. Carlo Binda, said the plan is to use cell phones and text messaging to transmit observed data for analysis and presentation to the public, so as to facilitate impartial, accurate and timely reports.
He explained that NEIC would be used in identifying flashpoints for serious violations of the voting and counting process, including election related violence, disappearance of materials, ballot box stuffing and intimidation of voters, among others.
Former President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Peace Obiajulu, said NEIC would act as a watchdog for political parties, which plan to commit electoral malpractice.
Source: PDP, Jonathan in fresh plot for North-West, South-West (http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41664:pdp-jonathan-in-fresh-plot-for-north-west-south-west&catid=1:national&Itemid=559)