PDP okays Jonathan as sole candidate

The National Executive Committee of the party took the decision yesterday in Abuja, a day after Jonathan’s lone challenger, Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, agreed to forego his aspiration.Yesterday’s decision by the NEC followed similar resolutions by the PDP Governors’ Forum and Board of Trustees which held separate meetings Wednesday evening where they endorsed Jonathan […]

The National Executive Committee of the party took the decision yesterday in Abuja, a day after Jonathan’s lone challenger, Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, agreed to forego his aspiration.
Yesterday’s decision by the NEC followed similar resolutions by the PDP Governors’ Forum and Board of Trustees which held separate meetings Wednesday evening where they endorsed Jonathan as the only presidential candidate.
The decision by the party’s key organs means no other candidate can seek to run for president on PDP’s platform in 2015.
During the NEC meeting, Niger State Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu spoke first and told party leaders that PDP governors had “unanimously without any reservation decided to endorse the sole candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election.”
He then called on Governor Lamido to stand up and recognise the decision of the governors, to which Lamido responded by standing up and nodding.
Aliyu said PDP hopes to win more states in 2015 while also getting back the five states whose governors, previously PDP members, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Chief Shuaibu Oyedokun, who spoke on behalf of the board of trustees, said at the board’s meeting Wednesday members saw need to take advantage of an incumbent president and adopted Jonathan as sole candidate of the party.
For his part, Senate President David Mark said the National Assembly was keen on continuity.
“At the PDP Caucus of the National Assembly, we have decided that a sitting and performing president should be given a chance to continue to perform even better,” he said.
Mark added that the need to ensure a sitting president is adopted by the party as its candidate is not for Jonathan alone, but that it was a legacy the party wanted to leave behind.
Former PDP national chairman Dr Bello Halliru Mohammed moved the motion to adopt Jonathan.
“We cannot change a winning formula that has been working for us since 1999,” Mohammed said.
“In PDP we have a tradition of queuing up behind our leaders. President Jonathan has performed creditably well as attested to by all the organs of the party.
“Therefore, for the good of Nigeria and for the good work that the PDP is doing for the country, I move that the NEC endorse the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s candidate in the 2015 election.”
The motion was seconded by former Anambra governor Jim Nwobodo, following which the party’s National Chairman Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu put the question and it was unanimously agreed to.
‘Humbled’
In his response, Jonathan said he was humbled by the endorsement.
He noted that the PDP has bounced back to reckoning as the leading party in Nigeria.
“I am overwhelmed. Thanks to the governors for coming with the idea. I am overwhelmed that I lack words to express. I know the press wants me to say something but I would reserve that for an appropriate day,” he said.
Jonathan promised not to disappoint the party for the confidence it has in him.
Governors Aliyu and Lamido had been about the only PDP governors who had spoken publicly against Jonathan’s candidature in the past couple years.
The Niger governor stoked controversy in February last year when he said Jonathan had signed an agreement with PDP governors in the run up to the 2011 election to serve for one term only.
For his part, Lamido had up till Tuesday said he and Jigawa would not support Jonathan because he had not fulfilled his 2011 electioneering promises to them.
On Wednesday evening, the PDP BOT announced after a meeting that the Jigawa governor had ditched his 2015 presidential ambition to support President Jonathan’s re-election.
BOT member and former Information Minister Prof Jerry Gana said PDP governors’ forum chairman Godswill Akpkabio told the trustees that Lamido “phoned him…and directed the deputy governor of Jigawa who attended the (governors’) meeting to sign the (endorsement) document.”
The capitulation of Governors Lamido and Aliyu means Jonathan is unlikely to encounter any opposition within PDP ahead of 2015 presidential elections. The December 6 presidential primary is effectively going to be an affirmation of his candidature.
His challenge would now be only at the main election scheduled for February in which he will face the candidate of the main opposition APC.
When contacted yesterday for comments on the PDP’s decision to adopt Jonathan, APC National Secretary Mai Mala Buni told Daily Trust by telephone that the party will speak on the issue later.