2015: Jonathan ‘ll soon declare for presidential race —PDP •Says NWC ‘ll provide

2015: Jonathan ‘ll soon declare for presidential race —PDP •Says NWC ‘ll provide

AS various groups and individuals continue to appeal to President Goodluck Jonathan to re contest in 2015, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Tuesday, assured the nation that the president would soon make his intention known.

The party said Nigerians would not be disappointed on his final decision on the matter.

National secretary of the party, Professor Wale Oladipo, made the declaration while receiving a pro- Jonathan campaign group, House-2-House Campaign Organisation for Democracy, led by its Director- General, Honourable Ogidi Ben Bara, who paid him a courtesy call at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

The group called on the president to recontest for next year’s presidential election for the continuity of his transformation agenda.

Professor Oladipo, however, assured party members nationwide and Nigerians in general, that the members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party would provide a level playing ground for all other aspirants, who might be joining the presidential race as well.

According to him, “I am not a prophet, but I am sure as a democrat, he (Jonathan) will listen to the clarion calls and I promise that the NWC will do the needful.”

Professor Oladipo, who expressed confidence that the PDP would win the presidential seat come next year, made it clear that it was in the interest and for the survival of Nigeria as a nation for President Jonathan to recontest.

While stating that PDP stood for internal democracy, he pointed out that the party believed that politics should be service to humanity and anything contrary to that was not found in the PDP.

He explained that the PDP was being guided by four cardinal points, among which “were service to humanity and upholding of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” saying “Jonathan contested once and if he so desires, he has the right to contest again in 2015.”

He pointed out that the administration of President Jonathan had performed credibly well in all sectors, including energy, aviation, road network,education and others.

Oladipo, who blasted the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), describing it as a party which represented nothing but violence and a party with a single leader, who ruled with decree.

“APC, as far as I know, is an expired drug which had been banned all over the world, as it is synonymous to violence. Our party (PDP) is not one, where a single man will sit in Lagos and decree who will be the next governor. We follow due process and do the needful,” he said.

While maintaining that the PDP was remodelled according to the United States of America’s democracy, where the right of first refusal was usually given to the president, as seen in case of President Barack Obama, when seeking re-election and nobody contested against him from his party, Oladipo said: “We in the NWC will deliver your message to the national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, the NWC, Board of Trustee (BoT) and the national convention.”

Speaking earlier, the Director-General of the group, Bara said the group had mobilised and saved N19.5 million for the purchase of nomination form for the president as soon as the sales of nomination form of the party commenced.