Nigeria: Next President from the North? John Paden, One of America's Foremost Africanists, Has Revealed That President Obasanjo Has Convinced His Ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) to Field a Northern Candidate for the Next Presidential Elections in 2007. Jim Fisher-Thompson Reports from Washington DC

Fisher-Thompson, Jim, New African

At a time when Nigeria "lost its moral compass", spiralling into sectarian violence, President Olusegun Obasanjo, helped preserve national unity by encouraging Northern Muslims to continue working within the political system.

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To that end, he helped convince the ruling PDP to agree that in 2007 their candidate would come from the Muslim North. This was revealed at a recent meeting in Washington DC by John Paden, professor of international studies at George Mason University.

"Now, whether that's true or not, everyone in the North believes that in 2007, the president will be a Northern Muslim," the scholar said at a discussion on Sharia …

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Publication information: Article title: Nigeria: Next President from the North? John Paden, One of America's Foremost Africanists, Has Revealed That President Obasanjo Has Convinced His Ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) to Field a Northern Candidate for the Next Presidential Elections in 2007. Jim Fisher-Thompson Reports from Washington DC. Contributors: Fisher-Thompson, Jim - Author. Magazine title: New African. Issue: 428 Publication date: April 2004. Page number: 52. © 2005 IC Publications Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group.

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