Be truthful to Nigerians, Jonathan charges opposition With not even a single dissenting vote, 2,812 delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday morning affirmed President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s presidential candidate for next year’s election. This was at the party’s national convention at the Eagle Square, Abuja, where Jonathan was the sole consensus aspirant and the delegates from across the nation were still required to vote either YES or NO for Jonathan, in line with the electoral law. Recent defector from the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Foreign Affairs Minister, Tom Ikimi, announced the results, with no voided votes, at about 12:30 p.m. while chairman of the convention committee and former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, formally declared Jonathan as duly elected as the PDP flag-bearer. The convention also unanimously affirmed former Bauchi State governor, Adamu Mu’azu, as the substantive national chairman of the party, having replaced Bamanga Tukur early this year. In his acceptance speech, Jonathan thanked the delegates for giving him the honour to lead the party to another electoral contest in which victory is assured because the PDP had remained in tune with the yearnings of Nigerians. He declared that while the opposition was chanting ‘change’ and changing from one name and logo to another, and members moving from party to party, “we have already brought change to our countrymen.” He said political parties must rise above the fray to provide development to Nigerians, and enjoined those who had defected from the PDP to the opposition to endeavour to be honest and tell their members and voters the truth about his administration’s achievements as exemplified in milestones performances in the rail, aviation, education, agriculture and other sectors of national life. He pointed out that many of the projects bandied about by the defectors were initiated while they were in the PDP as part of the party’s transformation agenda. The President said his priority in the last four years had been to stabilise the economy and following recent developments, he has raised a team to work out modalities to evade the consequences of volatility in global oil market prices. He assured Nigerians that the war against insurgency in the North East was been won “little by little’ and that with the steady progress, elections would be conducted in the affected North-eastern states by 2015. ”We must give a voice to all Nigerians. I will work to secure Nigeria’s future. I ask all Nigerians to support me to finish what we started together. “We should be building and not destroying. The next election is about going forward and not going backward,” he stated and tasked his supporters not to descend to the low level of opposition antics who resort to intimidation, false accussations, and hostile media, among other underhand tactics. With a promise not to let the party and Nigerians down, Jonathan announced Vice-President Namadi Sambo as his running-mate in next year’s elections, describing him as a loyal, dependable worthy and patriotic gentleman and assistant. Daily independent.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 06:17:15 +0000
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