Jonathan: I Won’t Give Opposition Chance to Rule
Tuesday, 03 March 2015 05:02
Written by Isiaka Wakili
Nigerian Daily Trust
President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that his government would not give the opposition the opportunity to rule Nigeria.
Jonathan made the assertion while launching the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Wards’ Volunteer Scheme at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The scheme is a campaign strategy targeting the grass-roots using about one million volunteers.
He accused some unnamed people of bitterly criticising his government because of their “frustration, anger and guilt”.
He said: “And I always say that when you see people talking and you see the bitterness in their hearts, you see the frustration, the anger, and you see them as people who are already feeling guilty, if you don’t have a forgiving heart, if you don’t have a clean heart, you cannot rule Nigeria because you cannot give out what you don’t have.”
Jonathan said the PDP had set standards in governance which the opposition could not match because they never had governance experience at the federal level.
“At the state level and at the national level; well, at the national level, we cannot compare our standards with theirs because they have not had the experience, and we will not give them the opportunity. But I know they will not do well,” he said.
He also asserted that the PDP was the only party with members at every voting unit, but lamented that leaders and members of the party had not been marketing its achievements.
“If you go to agricultural sector, transportation sector, education sector, petroleum sector, we’ve opened up the sector such that it has created a lot of room for the big boys in the Nigerian oil sector.
“There is no other party whether two, three, four, five parties coming together. They cannot reach that level. PDP has members in every voting unit in this country”, he said.
PDP states are working
The president also stated that it was only in the states controlled by the PDP that things were working.
He said: “PDP has done very well, but we have not been marketing the achievements of our party.
Sometimes, you see people that have done nothing coming to intimidate us.
“We’re doing better than others. It is only in PDP states that things are working. If I compare the quality of Government Houses and Presidential Lodges, the ones in PDP states are better in quality, even state universities opened by PDP states are better.
“The PDP states are committed to education. But sometimes, people come and say we have done nothing. “The intimidation is more, to the extent that even in the states where we are more, where we even have PDP governors, they come to intimidate us. And we have to resolve that we cannot allow people who are not up to us to intimidate us”.
Our democracy is different
Earlier, PDP BoT Chairman Tony Anenih and PDP Presidential Campaign Council Director-General Ahmadu Ali had stressed the need to strengthen the party at all levels.
They had also called on all members of the party to work as team players ahead of the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
Ali said some countries, which he described as Nigeria’s former partners, were against Jonathan’s re-election because of the same-sex law.
Ali. however, noted that regardless of what the positions of those countries were, Nigeria has its culture to protect.
He said: “It does not matter what our former partners feel because we did pass the same-sex bill. We are a nation with culture; we have tradition. We have taken our decision and we will abide by it and believe you me the whole of Africa are looking up to us in Nigeria.
“Democracy is not a panacea for all cultures, every country has to interpret a bit of its own culture into it to be able to understand and work it. So, for us to think that what is happening there must happen here is wrong. We must be able to nurture democracy from our own perspective and that is what we are doing. We may falter, they have been there for more than 200 years they are still faltering.”
Ali explained that the event was to unveil the next phase of the PDP’s campaign that would take members deeper into the grassroots.
While urging all party members to work for Jonathan’s victory, he assured them that in the President’s second term, “monkey go work, monkey go chop.”
He assured that those who had been sidelined in the past would have cause to smile in Jonathan’s second term.
Also speaking, the director, Contact and Mobilisation of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Professor Jerry Gana, said the event was aimed at forming greater synergy in the party’s campaign so that a candidate will be campaigning for all party candidates.
“You don’t have to be ashamed to campaign for the President because he has done well. He has done many projects in states. He has done it before, he is doing now, he will do it better in the future,” he said.
Written by Isiaka Wakili
Nigerian Daily Trust
President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that his government would not give the opposition the opportunity to rule Nigeria.
Jonathan made the assertion while launching the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Wards’ Volunteer Scheme at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The scheme is a campaign strategy targeting the grass-roots using about one million volunteers.
He accused some unnamed people of bitterly criticising his government because of their “frustration, anger and guilt”.
He said: “And I always say that when you see people talking and you see the bitterness in their hearts, you see the frustration, the anger, and you see them as people who are already feeling guilty, if you don’t have a forgiving heart, if you don’t have a clean heart, you cannot rule Nigeria because you cannot give out what you don’t have.”
Jonathan said the PDP had set standards in governance which the opposition could not match because they never had governance experience at the federal level.
“At the state level and at the national level; well, at the national level, we cannot compare our standards with theirs because they have not had the experience, and we will not give them the opportunity. But I know they will not do well,” he said.
He also asserted that the PDP was the only party with members at every voting unit, but lamented that leaders and members of the party had not been marketing its achievements.
“If you go to agricultural sector, transportation sector, education sector, petroleum sector, we’ve opened up the sector such that it has created a lot of room for the big boys in the Nigerian oil sector.
“There is no other party whether two, three, four, five parties coming together. They cannot reach that level. PDP has members in every voting unit in this country”, he said.
PDP states are working
The president also stated that it was only in the states controlled by the PDP that things were working.
He said: “PDP has done very well, but we have not been marketing the achievements of our party.
Sometimes, you see people that have done nothing coming to intimidate us.
“We’re doing better than others. It is only in PDP states that things are working. If I compare the quality of Government Houses and Presidential Lodges, the ones in PDP states are better in quality, even state universities opened by PDP states are better.
“The PDP states are committed to education. But sometimes, people come and say we have done nothing. “The intimidation is more, to the extent that even in the states where we are more, where we even have PDP governors, they come to intimidate us. And we have to resolve that we cannot allow people who are not up to us to intimidate us”.
Our democracy is different
Earlier, PDP BoT Chairman Tony Anenih and PDP Presidential Campaign Council Director-General Ahmadu Ali had stressed the need to strengthen the party at all levels.
They had also called on all members of the party to work as team players ahead of the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
Ali said some countries, which he described as Nigeria’s former partners, were against Jonathan’s re-election because of the same-sex law.
Ali. however, noted that regardless of what the positions of those countries were, Nigeria has its culture to protect.
He said: “It does not matter what our former partners feel because we did pass the same-sex bill. We are a nation with culture; we have tradition. We have taken our decision and we will abide by it and believe you me the whole of Africa are looking up to us in Nigeria.
“Democracy is not a panacea for all cultures, every country has to interpret a bit of its own culture into it to be able to understand and work it. So, for us to think that what is happening there must happen here is wrong. We must be able to nurture democracy from our own perspective and that is what we are doing. We may falter, they have been there for more than 200 years they are still faltering.”
Ali explained that the event was to unveil the next phase of the PDP’s campaign that would take members deeper into the grassroots.
While urging all party members to work for Jonathan’s victory, he assured them that in the President’s second term, “monkey go work, monkey go chop.”
He assured that those who had been sidelined in the past would have cause to smile in Jonathan’s second term.
Also speaking, the director, Contact and Mobilisation of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Professor Jerry Gana, said the event was aimed at forming greater synergy in the party’s campaign so that a candidate will be campaigning for all party candidates.
“You don’t have to be ashamed to campaign for the President because he has done well. He has done many projects in states. He has done it before, he is doing now, he will do it better in the future,” he said.
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