President Goodluck Jonathan appears to be wooing the Yorubas, the large ethnic group that are located in the South West area of the country. In the past few months and weeks, Dr Jonathan has made a series of deft moves which perhaps may not be interpreted any other way but that Mr President has his ears tuned in on happenings and events in this area of the country. Last week, the President took an unscheduled visit to Lagos to pay a condolence visit to Lagos State governor, Mr Raji Fashola who had lost his father, only few days earlier.

Even though the visit looks innocuous enough given the tragic event but the fact that the August visitor—the President and the unlikely host, Fashola, are in rival parties(PDP and APC) that have been involved in some serious political sabre-rattling in recent times.

Although politicking and the next general elections may yet be almost two years away, but the leading contenders in the Nigerian power game appear not to be leaving any thing to the last moment. Nor are they waiting until when the election umpire blows the whistle, before they open the political fireworks.

Observers believe that the President’s new gambit to woo the Yorubas, may have started few months ago, when the President personally flagged off the over N2 billion rehabilitation work for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the major gateway between the Yoruba hinterland and the commercial nerve centre of Lagos by the coast. Pointedly, the President apologized for the long neglect and poor state of the road, promising that the road would soon be fixed.

The President also made a dazzling run to show his sympathy and solidarity at Abeokuta for his spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati during the recent burial ceremony for Abati’s late mother. Abati had openly expressed his surprise that the President would show up himself, after having delegated his Chief of Staff at Aso Rock, Mike Ogbodiame to represent him. The President also visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who resides in Abeokuta in what he called a courtesy call.

 If Dr Jonathan’s visits and gestures of solidarity in the South West were already becoming noticeable, he showed up once again last week in Lagos to commiserate with Governor Fashola who belongs to the opposition, All Progressive Congress, APC over the recent death of his father.

Since last year,a formidable opposition which is perhaps, smarting from its defeat in the last general elections and also trying to forestall a repeat at the next one-- has been relentless in its political rhetoric and sometimes, direct verbal attacks on the President.

Whereas, the opposition appears to be coalescing into the newly-registered All Progressive Congress, APC, the President may be reaching out to various ethnic groups in the country.

He has reached out to the Ndigbos of the South East were he recently personally commissioned the refurbished terminal of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport and more recently that of the Enugu Airport. He has also been deeply involved with the political manoeuvring in the South South region where earlier in the year, he got an endorsement from a meeting of governors of the South South which met at Asaba, the Delta State capital.

The South West which is the ancestral location of the Yorubas is politically strategic to the President if he intends to return to power in 2015.Block votes from the South West against him could dash his political calculations. The now defunct Action Congress which is a major part of the new opposition ‘mega’ party, APC has its strongest base in the South West where it has five incumbent governors. Therefore, the President may ignore the region at his political peril.

Indeed, the President’s hand-holding strategy may appear quite subtle but analysts believe he may gradually be warming his way back into the hearts of the various key ethnic groupings in the country—starting from the big ones.

The question is: Where next in the South West would Mr President show up?