Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Adamu Aliero have said those plotting against President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's second term in office will fail.

They both argued that Yar'Adua deserves a second term and that the President has performed satisfactorily.

The two PDP bigwigs spoke in separate interviews with THISDAY at the weekend in Dutse, Jigawa State and Abuja.

Yar'Adua's first term ends on May 29, 2011.

While Aliero said the country's constitution and that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) make it "normal, legitimate and encouraging" for Yar'Adua to aspire for a second term, Lamido said the PDP was solidly behind the President.

Lamido who is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Aliero, former governor of Kebbi State, spoke against the backdrop of THISDAY's exclusive report last week of a plot by some Northern leaders to block Yar'Adua's re-election in 2011 on account of his reported health challenges.

Those behind the plot include retired generals and some politicians from the North, with former Minister of Defence, Lawal Batagarawa, and former Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ghali Umar Na'Abba, as their foot soldiers.

The group allegedly aims at preventing Yar'Adua from clinching PDP's presidential ticket but in the event of their failing to achieve this, they also allegedly plan to engineer a mass exodus of credible politicians and leaders away from PDP to another party platform with which they hope to defeat Yar'Adua at the poll in 2011.

But responding to the plot, Aliero dismissed it as inconsequential ranting of "political featherweights".

The Jigawa governor condemned the reference to the President's alleged health problems as immoral and indecent, contending that Yar'Adua is fit to continue to rule the country.

Lamido said: "The Nigerian constitution is very clear. It gives the incumbent the right to go for a second term. Our own party, the PDP, is solidly behind the President and therefore it is not for anybody outside the PDP to begin to think on behalf of or for PDP members. We will work very hard as a party. We will campaign vigorously. We know we are the only party that Nigerians can afford to trust. We know Nigerians cannot think of an alternative.

"The issue is that some persons and groups are afraid. There are 50 political parties in Nigeria and PDP is only one of them, yet they are afraid of PDP. PDP as a party has got its own programme, its own strategy and intelligence. We will campaign very vigorously and it is left to others to work by their action, not by asking us not to field anybody. So, Yar'Adua is a PDP member and the PDP has its own constitution. That constitution is very clear about your rights as the President and therefore we do not have any reason to answer to that kind of question because it is our own affair. It's a PDP affair and we have not seen anything wrong with Yar'Adua's style, his integrity, his commitment."

On the reference to the President's health challenges, Lamido said he was saddened by the fact that all the hues and cries about Yar'Adua are coming from the North.

According to him, "I'm more saddened and more disturbed that they are coming from his people in Katsina State. I'm equally worried about the vicious propaganda of some persons in the North who offered themselves as presidential materials but were rejected by Nigerians. The same people have found their way again to begin to take on Yar'Adua at personal level. It is simply indecent. It is immoral; it is evil. How do you expect our own brothers, our own kit and kin, our fellow Muslims, to find a pastime in perpetually picking on Yar'Adua, simply because they lack the moral standing he commands in the North?"

Lamido said those plotting against Yar'Adua were "simply fighting a lost battle" stressing that "they will end up with disgrace".

Dismissing their arguments against Yar'Adua's candidature as "the ranting of failure", the governor said: "They are people, who are failures comprehensively, failures politically, failures morally, failures patriotically, failures in understanding the Nigerian dynamics. These are people who take things for granted and who are seeing Nigeria from their very narrow prism and it offers them a personal avenue for selfish attainments. I know them, all the characters involved. Mention them by names, go to their wards, their local governments and their states and find out what is their standing. They are nowhere."

Commenting on allegations that Yar'Adua was slow and had failed to build on the foundations laid by his predecessor, Lamido hit back at the critics to take into consideration the type of transition the nation was going through.

He said part of President Yar'Adua's burden was to ensure complete transition from a quasi to a full blown democracy.

"We transited from military rule to a democracy headed by a retired military man. So under Obasanjo's administration there were still manifestations of some of those instincts of a military culture. Now, under Yar'Adua, the country is moving into an era of full blown civil democracy and that is why he has placed a lot of emphasis on rule of law, "he said, adding that Yar'Adua believes that democracy could only work under defined rules which the people believe in and upholds.

Said Lamido: "If you want this culture of doing things right to work out as a logical step forward from the para-civilian system under Obasanjo, that can only flourish under defined rules and regulations. What Yar'Adua is doing is to bring the country to equilibrium, to proceed as a strong country under law and order. So, Yar'Adua is doing wonderfully well. It is people who are simply so narrow in their outlook; who fail to relate and link up; people who fail to appreciate our background by looking at history; people who don't consider the warped value system that we have been through for so long, that hold the notion that we are not doing well."

The FCT Minister said the President is in a sound health for a second term. "Health is something that is in the hand of God. Today you may look healthy and tomorrow you may be sick. Few days ago I was sick and I couldn't just stand up, suddenly here I am now. That is in the hands of God but I can assure you Yar'Adua is in a sound health to continue the leadership of this country. I meet with him regularly; I can say I see him more often than any other minister and from what I see he is sound and healthy and he can continue his second term."

Aliero was the first politician to say categorically that the President would run for second term.

He denied that he was pushing Yar'Adua into contesting for a second term, saying rather that the President is as determined as anyone of them pointing out that in politics there is no compulsion.

Aliero gave reasons why some of them are backing the President's ambition for a second term, saying "this is going to happen because we believe he is focused, he is honest and he is committed to moving Nigeria forward. Look at the electoral reform, never in the history of Nigeria have you got a leader who has come out to implement a reform that is credible, a reform that is transparent, a reform that is devoid of any selfish interest, a reform that has no hidden agenda whatsoever".

He also praised the president's approach to power problem pointing out that "Yar Adua is going to solve the power problem, all the mistakes of the past have been identified, solutions have been proposed; money has been gotten both from the Federal Government and from the states. What remains to be done is the implementation; the road map to getting out of the wood as far as the power problem is concerned is designed. We are simply following it and by the grace of Allah by the end of this year we would be able to generate 6000 mega watts. That will solve more than 60 per cent of our power problems'. Because of all these we are all solidly behind him, all the people that matter".

Aliero said that the plot against Yar'Adua's second term was being hatched by people trying to seek political relevance, but added that all those that matter politically in the North were solidly behind Yar'Adua's bid to get second term.

He said: "I can assure you that the political leadership in the North is solidly behind President Yar'Adua and when the time comes we are all going to gather ourselves together to give him the necessary support to clinch the ticket.

"The political class in the North are unanimous in their support as far as President Yar'Adua is concerned and this would be demonstrated en masse when the time comes to enable him get a second term."

The FCT Minister said that opposition is non-existent in the North and this was facilitated by his exit from the ANPP followed by some of his other colleagues, adding that the remaining elements in the North would soon follow suit.

According to him, "If you look at it generally where really is the opposition party in the North. If you talk of the North-west I come from the North-west, we killed the opposition in the North-west. I moved out of the ANPP, not only did I move but I also moved supporters and luckily my sister state governor, Mahmud Shinkafi, also joined. Politically, historically if you look at it, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara have always been in one direction right from independence up to the Second Republic when the entire zone was NPN and then third republic when the entire zone was also NRC. In this republic, the entire zone was ANPP and later PDP. Jigawa joined long time ago, the only state we have left is Kano and we will do our very best to get Kano."

Aliero said: "We know those who are plotting against Yar'Adua. We are watching them. We know where and when they hold their meetings. We are monitoring them closely."

The issue of second term for Yar'Adua left the rumour mill to the front burner last month when former PDP Board of Trustees Chairman Anthony Anenih prayed at a public function attended by both Yar'Adua and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar that God should grant President Yar'Adua good health to enable him complete his remaining two years and his second term.