Why Jonathan should be re-elected – Ahmadu Ali

Text of address by Dr. Amadu A. Ali, Director-General,
Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation, on the
occasion of the inauguration of the Presidential Campaign
Organisation (PCO) headquarters, in Abuja, last week.
Mr. President, we wish to thank you sincerely for finding us
worthy of being at the helm of your campaign team. It is an
honour every member of this team holds dear and we assure
you that we will do everything within our power to achieve the
set target of returning our candidate to Aso Rock Villa via a
free, fair and transparent election.
Mr. President and distinguished ladies and gentlemen, most of
us on this team have been in politics for a long period of time
and have seen it all. We can’t be intimidated by all the noise
and fear-mongering of the opposition. I have heard and read a
lot about how 2015 presidential election is going to be
different from past elections. There is talk of a more
formidable opposition this time around. It is good there is
such a claim, although personally, I think it is a creation of the
social media. On the ground there is nothing formidable about
the opposition. Even then, we at the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) welcome a more vigorous challenge from the
opposition, which is not only good for democracy but will
equally make our victory at the polls even sweeter. But I can
assure you that on February 14, 2015, our candidate, President
Jonathan, will be re-elected by the Nigerian people who freely
gave him their mandate in 2011.
Let the word go out to all and sundry that our conduct during
this presidential campaign will be exemplary because we have
the fear of the Almighty God. Let me restate the fact that our
party, the PDP, is in power. We are the defending champion,
with the belt tightly around our waists. Therefore, we will not
behave like a desperate opposition. In the course of this
campaign, we promise Nigerians who we are coming to meet
in their communities that our language will remain civil and
presidential. We are going to stick to issues and dwell on
facts. Let those who have mastered the art of blackmail, lies
and deceit continue in their trade. From our own experience,
they only lead to defeat at the polls, which they will suffer yet
again in our hands on February 14, 2015, a day Nigerians will
once again rekindle their love affair with our President and our
party, the PDP.
We are proud of the product that we are marketing. Our
product is young, dynamic, vibrant and ready to move Nigeria
forward. In this 21st century, where great nations of the world
are fielding young men and women in their 40s and 50s as
presidents and prime-ministers, it is ironic that Nigeria’s APC
is fielding a septuagenarian with fossilised ideas of how to run
a government and social engineering. Nigeria deserves a better
leadership than their candidate who has no certificates to
tender as requirement for entering an election. We should be
proud of our party with umbrella as logo. The umbrella
signifies integrity, rulership, authority and dignity. Never in the
history of the world has a sweeper in a king’s palace ever
become a king. APC with the broom as their symbol is out to
deceive Nigerian children to be hewers of wood and sweepers
of our streets. God forbid! Tufia kwa! Allah ya sawaka!! Olorun
oni gba!!!
By the grace of God, Nigeria will transit from Goodluck to
Goodluck. Let the opposition hold on to their bad luck. The
PDP has ensured that democracy has come to stay in Nigeria.
The nation has transited from civilian regime to civilian regime
four times in our fifteen years democratic experience.
We are going to this election with renewed confidence. All
available statistics point to the fact that the PDP is still the
preferred party by most Nigerians. We are confident that our
candidate, President Jonathan, stands out as the preferred
candidate and the most trust-worthy, without a tainted
democratic past. President Jonathan, without any shade of
doubt, is the most prepared and equipped candidate. A fact,
which our opponents and traducers, have glossed over or
have refused to accept, is that perhaps, except for Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe, Jonathan is the best prepared Nigerian for democratic
leadership at the top, boasting of incredible years of hands-on
experience. It is also a fact, that with a doctorate degree,
President Jonathan is the most educated President Nigeria
has had. In this knowledge-based world why would Nigerians
choose a leader with doubtful academic records?
Apart from qualifications, we are going to run our party’s
campaign and seek the votes from Nigerians not by making
empty promises. We are going to ask our people to continue
to vote for our candidate based on concrete achievements
recorded in President Jonathan’s first term. We are not going
to pretend that we are already there. But certainly the
foundation for the rebuilding and the long-term development
of our country has started in earnest with the president’s
transformation agenda.
Nigerians are now travelling across this great country by rail
again; Our economy is being diversified with the on-going
revolution in the agriculture sector, with farming now as a
thriving business engendering food security and farmer
prosperity; The most difficult aspect of the power sector
problem has been satisfactorily dealt with the transparent
liberalisation of the sector and what is now left is to avoid
any rear-guard action or policy reversal that can only block
the benefits of improved electricity supply to our people; More
kilometres of roads have been constructed or rehabilitated
now than at any other time in our history; We have broken all
world records with the successful fight against the dreaded
Ebola Virus Disease; Today, Nigeria is proud of President
Goodluck Jonathan for signing the health care bill into law
just last week. Nigeria is the first country in Africa to achieve
this feat. Today, the United States of America has the
Obamacare and Nigeria has the Jonathancare. This is an
impressive performance by any world leader! The Peoples
Democratic Party has done the Nigerian nation proud. We
thank the National Assembly for this Jonathancare Bill.
Women participation in government has been taken to an
unprecedented level with one-third of the federal cabinet
reserved for them in this government; Women have never had
it so good. Education is on the rise with improved access and
quality (each state now has a federal university). We can go
on and on. And more importantly, no other government in the
history of our nation has upheld democratic freedom and
personal liberties the way President Jonathan has done. For
those who do not know, these values, which include free
speech and free choice at the polls, are the major yardsticks
for measuring any democracy in the world today.
Under President Jonathan electoral integrity has been greatly
enhanced, thus making votes to count and be counted. Our
people now hold their opinions freely without being herded into
prisons as some people now seeking the votes of Nigerians
did in the past. It is indeed, the irony of life and the beauty of
democracy that those now enjoying the rights of criticising the
government, seeking to be voted for in an election are the very
people that truncated an elected government, suspended the
constitution, jailed politicians without due trial and shackled
the press! Our president and candidate is a democrat through
and through and does not come with any of such baggage. I
make this point for younger Nigerians who were not born
before 1983 and who are now being served today by the
opposition with a distorted history of the truncating of
Nigeria’s Second Republic.
What President Jonathan’s candidature offers Nigerians is
stability and the wonderful opportunity to consolidate our
democracy.
Again, President Jonathan’s candidature offers us as a people
an opportunity to push the on-going transformation in virtually
all sectors of our national life to the point of irreversibility. For
us at the Jonathan Presidential Campaign Organisation, we
share Mr. President’s position that his ambition is not worth
the blood of any of our countrymen, women and children. And
so for us, the election down the line is not a do-or-die thing
and so, the ‘dog and baboon need not soak in blood.’ But we
will never be intimidated nor will we succumb to the many
blackmails of a desperate opposition throwing everything in
view, including the kitchen sink. As we have done since 1999,
we will cover every inch in the length and breadth of this vast
country of ours meeting with the real owners of power, the
people, and asking them to vote for us again as they have
always done.
Mr. President, let me assure you on behalf of this team of very
distinguished Nigerians, of our readiness to work hard for your
deserved re-election on February 14. With God on our side
victory is just about five weeks away.
We are ready; the Nigerian people are waiting; let’s hit the
road; let’s do it again!
Thank you and God bless you all.