PDP BoT Endorses Jonathan, Approves Party’s Timetable, Guidelines

by Oladapo Oreoluwa

The PDP Board of Trustees on Wednesday endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s sole candidate for the 2015 presidential election.

Rising from a meeting held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, the board also approved the timetable and guidelines for the party’s primaries and national convention.

A former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting which ended in the early hours of Thursday.

Gana was joined in the briefing by the Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, and the PDP BoT Secretary, Mr Walid Jibril.

Gana said members of the board unanimously endorsed Jonathan after the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Mr Godswill Akpabio, addressed them on the forum’s earlier endorsement of the president.

Gana said the PDP governors agreed that none of them would contest for the party’s presidential ticket with the president.

He said, “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, he should be the party’s sole candidate.

“The decision was also informed by the mature, humble and dedicated way the president has been leading Nigeria.

“When you add to that, the way he has been handling very sensitive national issues, the Board of Trustees is delighted, convinced and overwhelmed by the fact that we have a very impressive candidate.

“Therefore, the BoT also unanimously resolved that President Goodluck 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.”

He commended the governors for “their wisdom, maturity and love for the party.”

He said, “I want to emphasise that we asked the governors and they said all the PDP governors signed the endorsement document which is going to be presented to the president in another session.”

Gana said Akpkabio also confirmed to the BoT members that Gov. Sule Lamido of Jigawa State phoned him (Akpabio) during the governors’ meeting and directed his deputy, who represented him, to sign the document.

The former minister was responding to a question on whether the decision of the governors was in line with the aspiration of some of their colleagues like Lamido, who was reportedly aspiring for the presidency.

Gana added: “In other words, Lamido authorised his deputy 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.”

On whether internal democracy had not been compromised, Ekweremadu said democracy was a part of the party, going by its name.

He said, “The name of our party is the Peoples Democratic Party. So, democracy is part of us and we are very conscious of the need to have internal democracy in our party.

“But you must remember that consensus 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.

“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 has done so well is expected to be rewarded by his party with 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.”

On the new guidelines and timetable for the party’s primaries, Gana said the documents would be presented to the party’s National Executive Council at its meeting on Thursday for endorsement.