Why Jonathan is not backing any candidate for PDP chair –Gulak
Ahead of the PDP national convention, there were reports that the president seems to favour a particular candidate and was surreptitiously working for this candidate? Who is saying this? The President is not favouring anybody; all the aspirants are Mr President’s people and he has said that the polity should be opened up for everybody […]
Ahead of the PDP national convention, there were reports that the president seems to favour a particular candidate and was surreptitiously working for this candidate?
Who is saying this? The President is not favouring anybody; all the aspirants are Mr President’s people and he has said that the polity should be opened up for everybody to participate and that the party should be given to people who will elect their leaders. Mr President is not favouring anybody, he has not asked anybody to contest and he has not stopped anybody from contesting.
As the leader of the party, everybody is his person and everybody is his aspirant and whoever emerges at the end of the open contest is the one Mr. President will work with.
The PDP has adopted the zoning formula. Don’t you see this as preventing some people from contesting for positions of their choice?
The zoning formula is entrenched in the PDP constitution. It is clear that it is to make every zone to belong. If Mr President comes from the south, for example, the vice president should not come from the south, but the north. After the emergence of the president and vice president, then other party positions follow.
The president is from the South-South, the vice president is from the North-West, the chairman of the party has been zoned to the North-East, the Deputy National Chairman has been zoned to the South-South, secretary has been zoned to the South-West, the National Publicity Secretary has been zoned to the South-East.
What we are saying is that zoning is to make everybody belong so that everybody will be speaking on the same page and party re-engineered to deliver on it’s manifestoes and programmes.
There were complain’s across the states that godfatherism and party patronage are being played up and some people are already being imposed ahead of the national convention?
That is not the case. There are political gatekeepers. Mr President is the leader of the party and, as far as he is concerned, anybody that emerges as party officer will be the one Mr President will work with. These positions have been zoned and there are stakeholders in these zones, the party expects them to sit together and work things out. We have three slots in each zone and the slots will be zoned again in the zones. These are the types of arrangements that will reduce rancour and acrimony for peaceful convention. That is the exercise and it’s ongoing. We are expecting that at the end of the day, PDP will come out even stronger.
Would the president have given an order that there should be a level playing ground rather than the imposition that is generating controversy?
But Mr. President had come out clearly, during our last meeting. Mr President had given a marching order for a level playing ground and entrenchment of internal democracy, and as such, this party will march forward and deliver its programmes and manifesto.
Finding solutions to the nation’s problems seems to be difficult. Before one is resolved another crops up, especially poverty and insecurity, what is government doing on this?
Firstly, we have the president who is experienced, and has the dynamics of the economy. His major challenge is unemployment; youth employment, power and road network, especially the railway system that has been in comatose, is now being refurbished. He has vowed that before he leaves office, our railway will become functional again. He understands the dynamics and he’s tackling them headlong.
How do you react to recent divisions in the umbrella body Goodluck/Sambo campaign and the allegation that you rather imposed your own group on others?
That was a figment of their imagination. It was a presidential directive that I coordinate youth town hall meetings across the country and that was not to say that you involve everybody. We are only trying to enlighten the youths because when the over 50 percent of Nigerians who are the youths are better informed then we have less problems.
Some people feel that there is money to collect and once they are not involved they go berserk and begin to make insinuations and frivolous allegations. Goodluck Support Group, Goodluck/Sambo State coordinators are working together and are on ground and they are not concerned about money, employment or patronages in government circles. They believe in Dr Goodluck Jonathan. This is their project and would always support it. Anybody who thinks there is money to share is making a big mistake. There is no money to share; they should look elsewhere.