President Goodluck Jonathan
President Goodluck Jonathan has assured members of the Peoples
Democratic Party that no gang-up among the other political parties was
capable of removing the party from power.
Mr. Jonathan said he liked the way opposition political parties were
attempting to merge in order to confront the PDP, but added that the
merger of opposition parties was not a threat to the PDP.
The president made the remarks today at the National Executive Committee meeting of the ruling party, which was held in Abuja.
President Jonathan’s full speech:
I wouldn't say much but when we come for NEC, they will expect the President to make [a] brief remark about topical issues.
Presently, you know there are political issues on ground, there are
security issues and, of course, economic issues. I wouldn't want to go
into details.
Political issues, we also listen to INEC, they have warned us not to
go too far because they are yet to open their doors for politicking. But
one thing I have to appreciate the party and especially the PDP
governors is the formation of the PDP Governors Forum. It has really
helped to stabilize the polity.
Governor Akpabio said it all that at the beginning, there was no need
for PDP Governors Forum but now that we have reduced in number to 23,
definitely, this should be the least. We cannot shrink below this level.
We must build up.
As the time of formation of the Nigerian Governors Forum, focus was
slightly different. In every organization, over the year, there must be
some change direction and so and so forth.
So, looking at the number of PDP governors vis-à-vis the total number
of governors, it becomes very clear that the PDP needs to have their
own thing because we have realized that some of the other political
parties, the governors used to meet before coming for general meetings.
But PDP being the elephant among did not really bother much. But over
the period, we have realized that there is the need for them to also
meet because politics is politics. Politics is a game of interest.
I
remember the first time I read Obasanjo's book, that was 1981, My
Command, and he said something in one of the place there that in
politics, there is nothing like permanent friends or permanent enemies
but permanent interests.
I believe in even in local politics, the interest matters so much.
There is no permanent friend, no permanent enemy but permanent interest
and as long as people have different interest, there must be
disagreement. But as a member of political party, we must know that no
matter what, the party's interest must supersede any other interest. At
the end of the day, all our interests will converge to one interest,
that is the interest of PDP.
One good thing that Nigerians should commend PDP now is that if you
look at the evolution of political parties, it is now stable. Before
when elections are coming, by now you will be hearing about new parties
being formed and at a time, the ballot paper was becoming too long, INEC
was finding a way of deregistering parties.
Because PDP has come on very strong, no matter the criticism they
are criticizing us, they know that we are very strong and they realize
that what they need to do is not forming new parties but parties coming
together. So, we are helping to stabilize the polity.
We will encourage
them to come together more. We want a situation where it is PDP versus
one. In that case, the polity will be more stable. Even our members will
be more loyal to the party because you will have nowhere to go.
All this time, immediately we disagree in PDP, somebody is picking
form in one PPP, DDD party and contesting House of Assembly or House of
Reps or Senate. When we have only two, before you get there, they have
already occupied that place. So, even if we disagree, we will agree at
the end of the day and it will even help to build a stronger party.
So, Nigerians should commend PDP. If PDP were weak, people wouldn't
have gathered together. There wouldn't have been any reason for parties
to come together to fight PDP. But when you have so many parties on
their own they know they cannot face us until they come together then
you know that we are formidable.
And PDP will become stronger and no matter the gang up, I don't see
how they can uproot the PDP.
The other one is the issue of security
which I wouldn't want to dwell on. We are all aware of the issues of
kidnapping in southern part of the country, the excesses of terrorist
groups in some parts of the north and the steps taken by government are
known to all of us.
But one key thing sometimes that get people confused about Boko Haram
is this communal conflicts, ethnic cleansing. It was not so prominent
before. Animosity between tribes and society has been a part of human
society; it has been a part of the history of the human race. People
living together must have disagreement. But this idea of minor
provocation, youth will carry weapons to attack and kill massively like
what happened in Zamfara State recently, it has nothing to do with Boko
Haram.
But because Boko Haram is an issue, whenever somebody is killed,
everybody says it is Boko Haram. What happened in Zamfara state had
nothing to do with Boko Haram.
It is one area the governors will also be discussing in their
meetings. This ethnic rivalry is becoming embarrassing. Government
cannot continue to sit down and allow ethnic rivalry between
communities, between different ethnic groups leading to deaths.
Definitely, if we send soldiers to such places, soldiers carry guns,
they don't carry canes, the result may not be too palatable.
So on our
own, the leaders of this country, governors and all of us, we should try
and continue to talk to our brothers and sisters that killing is not
the best way to resolve conflicts.
As long as we liver, there must be conflicts but we should use
dialogue to resolve our conflicts.
The other area I may touch briefly
is economic issues.
Of course, if you ask a president or somebody who
wants to contest election or the president of any country and you ask
what will be your area of interest, he will tell you the economy of the
country. If you ask again what will be your second area, he will tell
you the economy of the country. If you tell him, what is the third
interest, he will tell you the economy of the country.
Of course, you
talk about education, about roads, about power and so on, but you cannot
do any of these without a robust economy. So that is the core.
The key areas they will raise is insecurity and corruption. As long
as we can handle these two, there is no reason the economy of Nigeria
will not be the biggest in very few years.
In terms of economic focus,
it is quite bright. All what we need as a nation is for us to believe in
Nigeria and no matter the interest we have, not to compromise the
interest of the state.
Somebody may want to hold office including that of the president or a
councilor, the country must be there for you to hold that office and as
long as you don't compromise the interest of the state in our political
struggle in Nigeria's interest, it will not take us more that five
years for this country to get to the point where the issues of
unemployment and job creation will no longer be a big thing.
For us, myself and the Vice President and members of our team, I
promise the party that we will not disappoint.
We must make sure that
anytime PDP has any reason to campaign, we must have reference point, we
have solid material to show.
We have not reached where we want to go,
no doubt about that.
We are totally committed that we must move this country to where we
want our children to be but we need the maximum cooperation of ever
member of our party.
We promise our party that in spite of the noise people are making,
political environment, there is so much noise, they are just noise. We
will continue to move forward in PDP.
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