YENOGOA – President Giodluck Jonathan on Friday travelled to Yenogoa, the Bayelsa State Capital where he is expected to participate in the ward congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Otueke, his home town.
This is coming a day after he picked the nomination and expression of interest forms to seek re-election in 2015.
He is expected to participate in the selection of delegates in his ward ahead of all primaries for the emergence of candidates vying for different elective offices at the state and national level on the party’s platform.
While picking the party’s form at the PDP’s secretariat in Abuja, Jonathan said “let me thank the leadership of our party and all members of our party for believing in me and for giving me the right of first refusal.”
He told the PDP officials that “I would have still picked the forms if you did not give me the automatic ticket. But giving me the right of first refusal has attracted more people than it ordinarily would have.
“Let me use this unique opportunity to thank the PDP Governors’ Forum for providing the N2 million for the procurement of the expression of interest form and the N20 million for the procurement of the nomination form.
“Let me also thank members of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) for providing N2 million for the expression of interest form and N20 million for the procurement of nomination form. And let me also thank so many Nigerians that I cannot enumerate because it is quite difficult.
“It has been formally announced that youth groups, women’s groups, civil society groups, even students from the North-west, North-east, North-central, South-west, South-east and South-south contributed to the procurement of the forms today.
“I remain most grateful for their gesture and I thank them for believing first in this country, secondly for believing in the PDP because they know that this form is for the PDP ticket, and lastly for believing in me.
“What I can do is to reassure you that I will work with all Nigerians and I will always maintain that no matter how strong a president is all over the world, the president is only one individual and cannot go it alone; you alone cannot change the society.
“For you to succeed, you must work with people. So if you are succeeding, that means we have a team that is working to transform this country. So I will work with all Nigerians to make sure that we move our country to the next level.
“I always say that the days we used to say that Nigeria is a potentially great country are over. Nigeria is a great country. And we just demonstrated that in the way we collectively handled the Ebola case. And the whole world is happy with us.
“For us, this is the time to do more in the years to come to really move the country to where we want Nigeria to be.
“Let me again thank all of you who are here for this brief ceremony and reassure you that we will not let you down” Jonathan averred.
At the Bayelsa State Government House in Yenagoa, the president’s arrival turned out to be a carnival as women in their hundreds sang and danced to welcome their son.
After a brief military parade, Jonathan conferred with some party stalwarts as well as Governor Seriake Dickson at the Presidential lodge in the Government House before heading to his private residence in Yenagoa town.
He is accompanied on the trip by his wife First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan and other aides.
