Any lingering cobwebs as to whether President Goodluck Jonathan will seek to keep his job in 2015 were dispelled today when the National Women’s Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Kema Chikwe, asserted the President will return to office.
Chikwe, a former Minister, is a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, which has 12 members.
She was speaking in Abuja at the presentation of the “PDP Women-In-Power 2013 Calendar” in the presence of the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, who was seen nodding in agreement with Chikwe’s statement.
“We need to start moving fast to prepare women for future elections,” Chikwe said. “Until we elect 35 per cent or more of women in the legislature, the impact of our progress will not be complete.
She said that the next “dispensation,” will possibly attract PDP female governors and more deputy governors, but was far more eloquent on the nation’s top political position.
“We are even more confident that when President Goodluck Jonathan returns in 2015, women would be talking about 50 per cent and not 35 per cent,” she said. “As we give him unequivocal, undiluted, unresolved and unlimited support and as we march with him to 2015, PDP women will reach the promised land.”
In a speech dripping with sycophancy, she asked Mrs. Jonathan and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Anyim Pius Anyim, who represented the President at the occasion, “to convey our deep gratitude to the Father of the Day,” President Jonathan.
“Tell him that PDP women are chanting to Nigeria: ‘All we are saying, give us Goodluck.’”
“Tell him that PDP women are chanting to Nigeria: ‘All we are saying, give us Goodluck.’”
Mrs. Jonathan took the opportunity to appeal to the Senate to pass the controversial N4bn budget proposal of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Sen. Bala Mohammed, for the building of the controversial Africa First Ladies Mission building in Abuja. Protesting Nigerians have argued that the funds will be looted, rather than used for such a project, and that they would in any event prefer that such funds were deployed into education, health or infrastructure.
Mrs. Chikwe’s declaration concerning Jonathan’s 2015 political ambitions is in direct contradiction to what Mr. Jonathan himself said just 24 hours ago.
Speaking through a Special Senior Assistant, Mr. Doyin Okupe, the president said, “From time immemorial, for every major event or contest in the world, there is always a time and a season apportioned.
“We wish to state categorically that this is neither the time nor the season to begin electioneering campaign or related discourse for the 2015 presidential elections and so President Goodluck Jonathan will not jump the gun.”
He added that Mr. Jonathan would therefore “stoutly resist any disguised or open attempt to drag him into any debates, arguments or political discussions relating to a presidential election in 2015.”
A political observer who heard Chikwe’s statement today told SaharaReporters that the PDP reality is a case of the-more-you-look-the-less-you-see.
“Unless the PDP rigs the 2015 election, there is no way that Jonathan—on the basis of his performance so far–can win the presidential election,” he said.
“Unless the PDP rigs the 2015 election, there is no way that Jonathan—on the basis of his performance so far–can win the presidential election,” he said.
“So anyone singing ‘Give Us Goodluck,’ if indeed anyone has thought of such a song, is someone that is really campaigning for the opposition, who should be applauding Mrs. Chikwe and the PDP chaos at this point.”
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