Jonathan Picks up Nomination Form, Pledges to Redouble Efforts

National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu'Azu with President Goodluck Jonathan as he pick Express of Interest to run the 2015 Presidential election next year at the Party headquarters in Abuja.  Photo: Sunday Aghaeze.

 

PDP offers performing governors right of first refusal

Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The National Organsing Secretary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha on thursday  handed over the presidential nomination and expression of interest forms to President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s sole candidate for the 2015 presidential election.

Also, PDP extended automatic tickets or the right of first refusal to its governors eligible for a second term in office and had performed creditably. Those seeking second terms during the 2015 elections are the governors of Gombe and Kaduna States.

Accepting the forms, Jonathan said he would have still picked the forms had he not been given an automatic ticket by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

According to him, “First let me thank God for today, and thank Nigerians who were here today for this brief ceremony. Let me thank the leadership of our party and all members of our party for believing in me and for giving me the right of first refusal.
“I would have still picked the forms if you did not give me the automatic ticket. But giving me the right of first refusal has attracted more people than it ordinarily would have.”

He thanked the National Chairman of the PDP Adamu Mu’azu and asked him to extend his appreciation to other members of the party, especially members of NEC who unanimously endorsed that decision.

“Secondly, let me use this unique opportunity to thank the PDP Governors’ Forum for providing the N2 million for the procurement of the expression of interest form and the N20 million for the procurement of the nomination form.

“Let me also thank members of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) for providing N2 million for the expression of interest form and N20 million for the procurement of nomination form. And let me also thank so many Nigerians that I cannot enumerate because it is quite difficult.

“It has been formally announced that youth groups, women’s groups, civil society groups, even students from the North-west, North-east, North-central, South-west, South-east and South-south contributed to the procurement of the forms today.

“I remain most grateful for their gesture and I thank them for believing first in this country, secondly for believing in the PDP because they know that this form is for the PDP ticket, and lastly for believing in me.

“What I can do is to reassure you that I will work with all Nigerians and I will always maintain that no matter how strong a president is all over the world, the president is only one individual and cannot go it alone; you alone cannot change the society.

“For you to succeed, you must work with people. So if you are succeeding, that means we have a team that is working to transform this country. So I will work with all Nigerians to make sure that we move our country to the next level.

“I always say that the days we used to say that Nigeria is a potentially great country are over. Nigeria is a great country. And we just demonstrated that in the way we collectively handled the Ebola case. And the whole world is happy with us.

“For us, this is the time to do more in the years to come to really move the country to where we want Nigeria to be.
“Let me again thank all of you who are here for this brief ceremony and reassure you that we will not let you down,” the president said.
Mustapha, who heaped praises on the president before handing him the forms, described him as the “peoples’ president” and a humble Nigerian.

Thereafter, the president signed the register and exchanged pleasantries with Vice-President Namadi Sambo, Mu’azu and the Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus.

Earlier, the national chairman said that the NEC of the party decided to endorse the president because he has performed creditably, wondering why some people were bothering themselves on an issue that is entirely a “PDP family matter”.

“As you see, I am not supposed to be in the programme but it gives me great pleasure this afternoon to on behalf the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP welcome our president, our leader, who has been given the right of first refusal by our party as our own candidate.

“I am happy today that he has made history, that he has come to pick his form himself. I sometimes wonder why people want to dabble into family affairs that are surely not theirs. PDP is PDP and PDP is a family.

“We have decided that our governors, president running for a second term that have performed creditably will be given the right of first refusal and all of us know that Mr. President has done so many things.

“This is not the forum for us to enumerate them. However, we look forward to the campaign where we will unfold them to Nigerians,” Muazu said.

Dignitaries at the occasion were the Secretary to the Government of Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, the governors of Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, Cross River, Bayelsa, Ondo, Delta and Katsina States, the deputy governor of Sokoto State, some members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and members of the PDP NWC.

source:http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/jonathan-picks-up-nomination-form-pledges-to-redouble-efforts/192791/