President Goodluck Jonathan Thursday stormed the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with top government functionaries where he picked his expression of interest and nomination forms to contest the 2015 presidential election.
President Jonathan who was accompanied by PDP governors, members of the National Assembly, ministers and top party leaders after obtaining his forms thanked the leadership of the PDP for giving him the right of first refusal.
Jonathan had recently been endorsed by the party as its sole Presidential candidate and has been enjoying support from various groups rooting for his re-election.
“I could have still picked the forms if they did not give me. But giving me the right of first refusal has attracted more people than ordinarily it would have had. Let me use this unique opportunity to thank PDP governors’ forum for providing the two million for the procurement of the expression of interest form and the N20 million for the procurement of nomination forms.
“Let me also thank members of TAN for providing N2 million for the expression of interest form and N20 million for the procurement of nomination forms.
“Let me really thank Nigerians because it is quite difficult. It has been formally announced; youth groups, women groups, civil society groups even students from the northwest, northeast, north central, south west, south east and south south; contributed to the procurement of the forms today.
“I remain most grateful for their gesture and I thank them for believing first in this country, secondly, for believing in the PDP because they know that this form is for the PDP ticket and lastly for believing in me,” Jonathan said.
He assured that he would work with all Nigerians stressing that no matter how strong a president is, he alone cannot change society without active participation of citizens in the development process.
He added that: “if you are succeeding, that means we have a team that is working to transform this country. So I will work with all Nigerians to make sure that we move our country to the next level.”
He said Nigeria is a great country as demonstrated in its ability to contain the dreaded Ebola Virus disease, which recently hit the nation adding that his administration would not let the citizens down.
PDP national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu in a speech on behalf of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party said President Jonathan has been given the right of first refusal by the party as its sole Presidential candidate.
“I am happy today that he has made history, that he has come to pick his form himself. I sometimes wonder why people want to dabble into family affairs that are surely not theirs. PDP is PDP and PDP is a family. We have decided that our governors, president running for a second term that have performed creditably well will be given the right of first refusal and all of us know that Mr. President has done so many things,” he said.
National organising secretary of the party, Abubakar Mustapha who presented the forms to the President said history has been made by the PDP for giving President Jonathan the right of first refusal.
