The Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido, who was touted as a challenger to President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 Presidential contest under the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has chickened out, leaving the coast clear for the President to be the sole candidate of the party.
This was even as the party’s Board of Trustees, last night sealed the deal by endorsing the President as the party’s sole candidate after the governors under the party, including governor Lamido, had earlier done the same thing.
Briefing newsmen shortly after the meeting of the party’s BoT at the Banquet Hall of the presidential villa, Abuja, which started at about 8:16pm and ended at about 11:20pm on September 17, former Nigeria’s Information Minister, Prof Jerry Gana said that governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom state confirmed that Lamido “phoned him during the meeting and directed the deputy governor of Jigawa who attended the meeting to sign the document.
“In other words, he (governor Lamido) authorized the deputy governor to sign on his behalf, and therefore the answer to your question is that he too endorsed that decision. “We asked the same question and that is the answer we got,” Gana added.
Professor Gana was responding to a question as to whether the decision of the governors was in line with the aspiration of some of their colleagues like governor Lamido who was reported to be aspiring for the position of the president.
Professor Gana who spoke to journalists alongside the Senate Deputy President, Ike Ekweremadu and PDP BoT Secretary, Walid Jibril that the BoT’s endorsement of the president as PDP’s sole candidate for the 2015 presidential race was unanimously done by BoT members with a standing ovation after chairman of the PDP governor’s forum and Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio briefed them that PDP governors have unanimously endorsed Jonathan as the party’s sole candidate for 2015.
He said the PDP governors agreed that non of them will present themselves for the position of president in the PDP primaries, which means no PDP governor would be interested to contest the office of president with Jonathan.
“Hence, BoT was so informed today about this and that decision by the governors was fully endorsed in a motion by the BoT on its own. Having received that news, the BoT also unanimously resolved that because of the excellent work which Mr. President has done, because of the mature way he has been leading Nigeria, because of the humble and dedicated and pathetic way he has been handling very sensitive issues, the Board of Trustees is delighted, the Board of Trustees is convinced, the Board of Trustees is overwhelmed by the fact that we have a very impressive candidate.
“And therefore, the BoT also unanimously resolved that president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan be the sole candidate of the party in the forth coming election. That was unanimously resolved with a standing ovation and the BoT is very excited. I will like to take this opportunity to also say the BoT thanked the governors for their wisdom, for their maturity, for their love of the party and I want to emphasize, we asked the governors and they said all the PDP governors signed the document which is going to be presented to the president in another session.”
On whether internal democracy has not been compromised, deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu said, “The name of our party is the Peoples Democratic Party. So, Democracy is part of us and we are very concious of the need to have internal democracy in our party. But you must remember that concensus building is also part of democracy. For us in the PDP, we believe that the BoT is the conscience of the party.
“So, if the BoT has agreed to endorse Mr. President as the candidate of the party, what we are simply saying is that we are persuading every member of the party to accept that position. So, we are not going to force any person, but we are making a strong statement, we are persuading our people strongly to accept this position for the reasons earlier mentioned. It is also important for us to know that we need to reward hard work, we need to reward commitment, we need to reward achievement, we need to reward performance.
“We are borrowing from other democracy, including the United States of America where a sitting president who have done so well is expected to be rewarded by his party wit a ticket. So, we are building a tradition which we hope that those who will come after us will be able to imbibe. This is also within the tenet of democracy, not only in Nigeria but in other parts of the world.”
The BoT also approved the party’s timetable and guidelines for the primaries and national convention for the 2015 polls. The document is expected to be presented to the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) at its meeting for final endorsement today (Thursday). [myad]
