Jonathan picks Nov 11 for re-election declaration

President Goodluck Jonathan will on November 11 formally declare his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election, his declaration committee has disclosed. The committee today picked the date for the president’s declaration during its meeting held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja. The governors of Abia, Katsina, Gombe, Ondo and Cross […]

President Goodluck Jonathan will on November 11 formally declare his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election, his declaration committee has disclosed.

The committee today picked the date for the president’s declaration during its meeting held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The governors of Abia, Katsina, Gombe, Ondo and Cross River were among members of the committee present at the meeting.

The president had, while notifying the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of his decision to contest the election Thursday, raised the committee to come up with modalities for his declaration.

The president had asked the committee to pick a date between November 7 and 15 for his formal declaration.

The chairman of the committee, Haliru Bello, told State House journalists after the inaugural meeting that the committee had chosen November 11th.

He said there would be a forum on November 11 for the president to meet Nigerians and make his decision known to them.

Bello, who stressed that the committee would decide the venue of the forum at its next meeting, said Jonathan would face Nigerians and say yes or no to their calls on him to declare interest in the 2012 presidential election.

The committee’s chairman, however, said since Jonathan had not said yes to the demand by “multitude of Nigerians” asking him to declare his interest in the 2015 presidential election, the committee could not do so for him.

Bello emphasised that president only assigned the committee to organise the modality of creating a platform for him “to meet Nigerians and announce his response to the various calls for him to come out and declare his interest in the presidential election”.

He said: “The president has not said anything yet, but it is like all Nigerians have called on him. It is our honest hope that he will come out and say yes to the demand of multitude of Nigerians. We expect he will say yes, but we cannot say yes for him. We will wait for him to speak.

“The date that is fixed is Tuesday, November 11th. On that day, there will be a forum for the president to meet Nigerians to announce his decision. The venue is yet to be decided. That will be decided at our next meeting. When we come out on November 11, the president will face the people of Nigeria and say yes to their demand.

“If he says yes, it will be yes. If he says no, then it is negative. But you are aware that our party, the PDP, in all its organs, from the caucus to the Board of Trustees and the National Working Committee had decided that President Jonathan should be given the first option of refusal with the PDP ticket.

“If he is going to contest, the PDP will give him preference. As the president, he has performed and we’re satisfied with what he has done. It is only when he declines that we can look at any other contestant”.

Katsina State Governor Ibrahim also told journalists that during the meeting, committee’s members were grouped into such subcommittees as secretariat, venue and decoration, media and publicity, security, protocol, mobilisation, among others.

The governor expressed optimism that the committee would come up with enough preparations that would ensure a hitch-free declaration for the president.