Reasons Why Jonathan should be re-elected – Ahmadu Ali

www.odogwublog.com brings you the full 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.