2015: Nigerians will decide on Jonathan’s fate – PDP
Dr Bamanga Tukur
Following the debate trailing 2015 election as to which region will produce the next president, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Walid Jibril, yesterday said only Nigerians will determine the fate of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking during an interactive session with reporters at the PDP national secretariat after the inauguration of a 50-man advisory committee by the party Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Jibril maintained that the President’s fate in 2015 will be based on his performance during his present tenure.
However, he described the on-going debate on the 2015 presidency as diversionary, adding that it is too early in the day for the debate on who emerges as president in 2015 as the incumbent office holders are barely one year in office.
The BoT secretary advised that Nigerians should wait until Jonathan has done three quarters of his tenure, when the outcome of all his programmes and policies would have matured, for them to objectively assess his tenure to enable them measure his performance.
According to him, “Let us measure him: is he doing the right things? If Nigerians are satisfied with Jonathan, I think he should go for it.”
Jibril, however, declared that the party is not considering sanction against those who are leading the debate on 2015 but advised them “to be careful and orderly when talking” as it is not the right time to talk about the issue.
He noted that there are three leaders in Nigeria that the people should give glory to God for because of how they emerged to take over high profile offices and emphasised that fighting them would be futile as their emergence was an act of God.
He said: “First is Jonathan. He was deputy governor before he became a governor and then vice president, acting president and then president. This is an act of God that nobody can fight.
“Another person is Governor Ibrahim Patrick Yakowa in Kaduna state, who was deputy governor twice before he became unexpectedly the governor when Namadi Sambo became the vice president and anyone fighting him is wasting his time.
“The third person is our governor, Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa state. He was a strong PDP man before he pulled out to CPC. I will say it is the metamorphosis from PDP that made him governor and I will say he is CPC-PDP man. His emergence is an act of God.”
On the status of the new Advisory Committee, Jibril clarified that there is no conflict between the advisory body and other constitutional organs of the party.
According to him, the committee, headed by the former vice president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, is not an organ of the party and will not be playing the same role with the BoT or any other organ of the party.
He said: “It is purely an advisory think tank for the national chairman. There is no conflict between this body and the BoT. The national chairman has right to pick people to do particular job for him, especially for reconciliation.”
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