Barely a month after the presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, said defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) would definitely return with empty stomachs.
Jonathan spoke against the backdrop of the outcome of the just-concluded elections which results showed PDP lost, consequent upon which there was mass exodus from the party o the APC.
President Jonathan, who spoke while receiving the two volume reports of the Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation (PCO) led by its Director-General, Sen. Ahmadu Ali, reflected cautiously on some issues of the last general elections.
He said there are many dimensions or issues about the just-concluded general elections which would be unravelled and written about in years to come by many political scientists and authors from their respective perspectives just like the history of the Nigeria Civil War.
Nevertheless, the President said the key issue was not whether the PDP won the election or lost, but that there is peace now in the country and the nation is moving forward.
This was even as the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), Chief Ifeanyi Uba, broke down in tears. TAN was at the forefront of campaigns for the re-election of President Jonathan.
According to President Jonathan, “I still believe though we have lost presidential elections, some National Assembly elections, governorship elections, especially in the north, PDP is still the dominant party. Let us not judge PDP by the result of the elections for the presidential elections.
“Our duty is to go back and identify areas of challenges, so that the party will come up strong and play the role as a very strong party. PDP is still the most organized party; it is still the party that is not owned by anybody; it is still the party that whatever you are, you can get to any level with your competences and so on.
“So, I encourage members of our party to remain loyal to the party, not to be so disillusioned because we lost the presidential election and decide to go where they think they will fill their stomachs or something. It is not easy; I have been here for five years plus, you hardly satisfy even 15 percent of those who work for you.
“So, those people running and those already cross-carpeting, they will come back on an empty stomach because they will touch the primary members of their party, before they get to you, they know you are coming because you are hungry; before it will get to you, the food will be gone.
“So, let us be committed to the party. Yes, we will have challenges at the beginning, but surely we will get to where we want to be.
“This gathering is actually to thank you for what you have done even though the core thing is to present the report.
”Of course, the issues of the 2015 elections will be similar to the civil war because different people gave different accounts of the civil war.
“The first book on civil war that I read was ‘My Command’ by Olusegun Obasanjo, which is his perspectives on what he saw and observed. I recall Ojukwu’s own was ‘Because I’m Involved’, if you read, the dimensions are sometimes intangential to the first.
“So, I know that the issues of the 2015 general elections maybe after few years when political scientists will write, we will get different perspectives.
“If you ask the various observer groups, each will give you different perspectives. Even among ourselves, whenever we talk sometimes, I laugh when people draw some of their analyses. But by my privileged position, I knew a little more of the elections than others.
“But the key thing isn’t whether we lost or won, but that Nigeria as a nation must move forward. Political parties can only thrive when there is peace and stability in the country. If there is military intervention, all the parties will disappear.”
President Jonathan maintained that if the PDP remains united and works hard, it would definitely bounce back to power.
“And for PDP, whatever happened now is like a slip, you don’t need to go to America to know how power goes from the Democrat to the Republican. It has almost stabilised. It is like once you serve eight years, you are ready to hand over to either the republican or democrat. So, theirs is almost an established setting.
“But for Ghana, very close to us, the present party lost some eight years back and, of course, they came back and won the elections. So, the problem is not whether we lost the elections, that is history, but how do we consolidate our party and move forward. If we are committed and we work hard, definitely PDP will bounce back.
“PDP is still the dominant party. If you look at the result, the difference is just 2.5 million votes and if you look at the areas where it is perceived that PDP scored so low, PDP couldn’t have gotten those kinds of scores, but the elections are over, the country first.
“It is not as if Jonathan alone made the sacrifice; it’s all of us. I made the pronouncement, but some of us are paying the price. Some people pay more price than I do. I know how some of you are already being persecuted and the kind of situation facing you.
“The key thing is that we must continue to unite. As a party, we must continue to work hard so that as we go into subsequent elections in 2019, 2023 and so on and so forth, PDP will continue to come up strong. Even in the interest of the nation, we need PDP.
“So, I have to sincerely thank all you who worked tirelessly for the elections; you worked very hard, you did your best despite that we didn’t win the election. The key thing is that Nigeria is peaceful.
“The countries that brought ships, everything around us waiting to evacuate their citizens are happy because there was nobody to evacuate.
“The country was so tensed but everything has gone down and I think that is the most important thing, because the conviction is that you must have a country before you can run for an office.
“Yes, I did not consult anybody before I made that phone call, but I made that phone call on behalf of all you and on behalf of the PDP.
“Let me thank you all for joining us to carry the cross, thank you for the various roles you played and I charge you to be even more committed to the development of the party. Definitely, PDP will become more stronger and united.”
The Director-General of the campaign organisation, Ahmadu Ali, commended the President for showing great, exemplary leadership and making the PDP proud despite losing to its rival, All Progressives Congress (APC).
“You made the world proud by conceding defeat even when you had several options. You proved to the world that you are committed to your credo that no one’s blood is worth your political ambition.
“By that singular act, you pulled Nigeria back from a seeming pre-determined precipice and you made us proud. While you assuredly lost in the ballots, you won the biggest victory in defeat by that historic phone call,” Ali said.
