• Party holds presidential primary election Dec. 6
• NEC meets today over amended guidelines
• President tasks S’West leaders on polls
• ‘He has not failed the North, Nigeria’
PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan was Wednesday night endorsed by governors on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as its sole candidate for the 2015 presidential election.
The announcement was made by the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Governors’ Forum, Chief Godswill Akpabio, after a meeting in Abuja.
The AkwaIbom State helmsman, who addressed journalists along with other governors, said that the meeting also urged all the faithful of the PDP nationwide to support the decision to enable Jonathan become the only presidential aspirant and candidate of the party.
The communique read out by Akpabio said:
“*The Forum hereby endorses Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR) President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for a second term in office and resolved to support his bid for re-election come 2015
“*The Forum urges all PDP faithful to support this gesture which should enable the President to become the sole Presidential candidate of the PDP come 2015.
“*The Forum commends the efforts of the armed forces in fighting insurgency in the North East and other parts of the country and urges Nigerians and the International Community to continue to co-operate with the federal Government of Nigeria in order to stamp out terrorism in our country.
“On the issue of the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in Nigeria, the Forum notes the success recorded by the health ministries and commends Mr. President for the effort.”
Akpabio said the meeting encouraged the PDP in Osun State to continue its litigation on the outcome of the recent governorship polls.
He said the meeting also congratulated Adamawa State’s Acting Governor Umar Fintiri, over his victory at the PDP primary election and urged thepeople to vote for him.
Present at the meeting were Governors Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Jonah Jang (Plateau), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Theodore Orji (Abia), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Idris Wada (Kogi), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Ramallan Yero (Kaduna), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Saidu Dakingari(Kebbi); Ahmadu Fintiri and Umar Garba (acting governors Adamawa and Taraba); as well as deputy governors of Jigawa, Katsina, Sokoto and Nasarawa states, Mahmoud Gumel, Abdullahi Faskari, Mukhtar Shagari and Damishi Luka.
The PDP will on December 6, 2014 hold a primary poll to elect its presidential candidate for the February 14, 2014 election.
Briefing journalists at its national secretariat yesterday, the PDP national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, also disclosed that the party would hold its National Assembly primary election across the country on November 22, 2014. The governorship primary election willl be held on November 29.
It was gathered that the sale of forms for all positions would be between October 27 and 28 of 2014.
The National Working Committee (NWC), which rose from a meeting yesterday evening, would present this timetable for the approval of the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) which meets today.
The NEC meeting will also formulate guidelines for all primaries and the December 6 national convention for the presidential primary election.
President Goodluck Jonathan and other top leaders of the PDP Caucus on Tuesday night brainstormed on amendments to be made to the party’s guidelines towards the 2015 general election.
Also present at the caucus meeting that started by 8.37pm on Tuesday were Vice President Namadi Sambo; Senate President David Mark, House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha, Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba; Deputy Senate Leader Abdul Ningi; PDP Chairman Adamu Muazu; Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus, and a former PDP Chairman, Ahmadu Ali.
The Secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Walid Jibril; Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Rufai Alkali; PDP National Women Leader, Kema Chikwe; Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation also attended the meeting.
Governors at the meeting were Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Jonah Jang (Plateau), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) and Theodore Orji (Abia).
Jonathan yesterday said he wanted a return of the South-west zone to the center of political activities in Nigeria in 2015 and shed the toga of opposition.
Receiving some leaders of the zone under the aegis of PDP Turn Around Team for the South West (Egbe Iyipada Yoruba), led by Chief Olabode George, who were at the presidential villa to brief him on the outcome of their meeting which held last week at Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja, Jonathan enjoined all the party’s members to be committed to its progress.
George had told the President that the South-west PDP was determined to win all the states in the zone in 2015 for the purpose of returning to the center, and had set machinery in motion to that effect.
Presenting a copy of the communiqué at the meeting to Jonathan, the former PDP Deputy Chairman, South-west informed Jonathan that the PDP in the zone had collectively asked him to declare his intention to run in the 2015 presidential election.
The president noted the importance of the Yoruba in the socio-political and economic wellbeing of Nigeria, adding that the zone’s return to the center would greatly ensure that it enjoyed more dividends of democracy by 2015.
Also at the meeting were Sambo, Mu’Azu, PDP Board of Trustees chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, Mark and Secondus among others.
Southwest leaders at the meeting included former House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, Jide Adeniji, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Chief Shuaibu Oyedokun, Alhaji Saka Balogun, Chief Adesiyan Jeilili, Dr. Eddy Olafeso, Captain Caleb Olubolade and Adetokunbo Kayode.
And against the backdrop of the allegation by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) that Jonathan has failed the North, the Chairman, Mobilisation and Organisation Committee of the PDP, Prince Buruji Kashamu, has berated the President’s critics, saying such a conclusion was “most unfortunate.”
Kashamu said what was expected at this crucial time was for all Nigerians to rally round the present administration in its efforts to end insurgency in some parts of the North.
In a statement issued yesterday in Lagos, he said: “I note with dismay the attempt by the ACF to heap the blame of the security challenges bedevilling the North East on President Goodluck Jonathan as if they were his creations. Terrorism is a global phenomenon and requires broad-based cooperation. It is unfair that whereas the rest of the world is collaborating with the Federal Government to arrest the situation, some of our otherwise respectable citizens are promoting disunity among our people. We should take a cue from other climes where the citizens support those in government once the elections are over.”
He noted that it was important for all patriotic Nigerians to support the present administration to achieve its Transformation Agenda, so that the nation’s development could be steady and sustained.
He went on: “Anything to the contrary would be tantamount to drawing us back by several years. Perhaps there is a sense in the claim that the ACF has become a political group that is pliable to the opposition. If that were not the case, there is no reason why the body would make such a sweeping statement to the effect that the whole of the North is in disarray, whereas it is only the North East that is facing some security challenges.
“Even at that, President Jonathan is well aware of his duties and responsibilities as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is doing his very best to manage the situation and bring it under control. While he is providing the resources needed to combat insurgency in the North East, he insists that utmost restraint must be exercised in order not to cause more problems in trying to solve one. All that is needed is the cooperation and support of all Nigerians across political, religious and ethnic divides.”
Kashamu said it was disingenuous for any group to insinuate that “the current policies and the government attitude towards the insurgency suggest that there was a deliberate plan to emasculate the North politically, reduce it numerically, disunite its people religiously and divide them politically.”
Kashamu noted that as part of the measures by the Jonathan administration to end insurgency, it launched a “Save Our Schools” initiative as well as the “Victims Support Fund,” “just as it pursues the Almajiris education programme and other job creation initiatives.
He wondered how anyone could accuse Jonathan of any wrongdoing on the security challenges “when he is striving day and night to end insurgency in the North East? Indeed, it was because of his firm belief in the Rule of Law, democracy, equity and justice, that he declared a state of emergency in the affected places and yet retained the democratic structures with the governors still in office. The ACF and other lovers of our nation should work towards the sustenance of democratic and more egalitarian Nigeria, which are the necessary ingredients for peace.”
The party chieftain further contended that Jonathan has not failed the North or any part of Nigeria. “He has done marvellously well. He is arguably the only President who has led with the fear of God, empathy and sincerity. He is a stickler for the justice and equity. He does not believe in imposition and marginalization,” Kashamu maintained.
On the insinuation that the ACF’s intervention has political undertones, Kashamu said it was advisable for the Northern leaders to support Jonathan for a second term so as to have the “political equity” to negotiate in 2019.
“Our Northern brothers and sisters need to know that we all need to jealously guard and protect this edifice called Nigeria because if it is destroyed, there would not be anywhere to call home,” he stated.
Kashamu added: “From his antecedents, it should be clear to all and sundry that he is divinely ordained. No other Nigerian leader has enjoyed the benevolence of the almighty Allah. He rose from Deputy Governor to Governor, from Governor to Vice-President, from Vice President to Acting President and then President. His is a classic example of the race not being to the swift, nor the battle to the strong...And to my Northern brothers and sisters, most of whom are members of the Muslim Ummah and indeed all Nigerians who believe in the supremacy of the Almighty Allah, I wish to plead that we accept President Jonathan as God-ordained and support him for a second term. Then, it can go back to the North. After all, it is an indubitable fact of history that the North has ruled more than any other part of the country in the 54 years of the nation’s existence as an independent entity. Besides, a lot of our Northern brothers and sisters hold very important and sensitive positions in the present administration.”
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