State governors who left the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last year to form the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) before finally merging with the All Progressives Congress (APC) have vowed to abort the second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“We have noted President Jonathan’s claim made last Thursday at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the PDP in the federal capital, to the effect that PDP is not missing us, as well as his boast that some of us cannot win even our wards during elections,” the ex-PDP Governors said in a statement issued on their behalf in Port Harcourt on Sunday by former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct nPDP, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze.
The former PDP governors described Jonathan’s claims as “both shocking and ridiculous considering that he wouldn’t have been President today if not for our sacrifices which ensured that he won both the PDP Presidential Primaries and the 2011 presidential election.”
Eze cited Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rives State as an example. “It is on record that Rivers State under Amaechi’s watch made Jonathan’s presidency possible by delivering over two million votes in his favour during the 2011 presidential polls. For the same Dr. Jonathan to turn around, only three years down the line, to describe Governor Amaechi as a political lightweight who cannot win his ward speaks volumes about how ungrateful and uncharitable a man he is,” Chief Eze said.
The former nPDP spokesman berated the PDP for commending and congratulating Jonathan on his handling of the security challenges facing the country, including the Boko Haram insurgency. The statement said: “By commending President Jonathan at a time when he has proved to be completely overwhelmed by the security challenges confronting Nigeria, PDP has demonstrated without any reasonable doubt that it has lost its sense of value, which explains why it is celebrating a clueless and spineless President who watched helplessly as insurgents took away and has kept over 200 innocent schoolgirls, and who continues to watch as Nigerians are slaughtered like chicken on a daily basis. It is unfortunate that PDP should be commending a sleeping, confused and misguided Presidency without showing any sympathy for the wanton killing of innocent Nigerians by outlaws. PDP should hide its ugly face in shame. Nigerians should get ready to oust this ruthless party that has brought hardship and shame to our country, come 2015.”
As for President Jonathan, Eze told told him “to prepare for a grand political war come 2015 as the ex-PDP Governors, working in concert with other democratic forces in APC, are battle-ready to send him and his directionless PDP packing from the Presidential Villa in Abuja so as to rescue Nigeria from the doom towards which Jonathan and PDP are inevitably leading the country to.”
