President Goodluck Jonathan was on Thursday morning formally ratified as the presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2015 general elections by the party national convention.
In his acceptance speech at the Eagle Square venue of the convention, he told the delegates and party officials that he had picked his “tested and loyal” Vice President, Namadi Sambo, as his running mate for the presidential election in February 2015.
The party faithful at the Eagles Square went wild with joy when the President made the pronouncement and added that he would confront corruption headlong if he was re-elected.
There had been speculations that the President could drop his deputy, who some had described as lacking electoral value in the North.
Though he was the sole aspirant, the party nonetheless ratified Jonathan’s candidacy by voting in accordance with the Electoral Act. At the end of the exercise, President Jonathan captured all the 2, 812 votes cast at the convention.
Those who showed interest in the race were either persuaded to drop their ambition or that the party refused to sell presidential nomination form to them.
For example, Dr. Abdul-Jhalil Tafawa-Balewa, who picked the form and was screened alongside President Jonathan for the primary, said he had stepped down for Jonathan.
But another presidential aspirant, Prof. Akasoba Duke Abiola, alleged that President Jonathan was using her presidential form to contest the 2015 election.
The party refused to sell presidential nomination form to her even though she paid the required nomination fees.
She insisted that she would not abide by the decision of the party to endorse President Jonathan as its sole candidate.
Although she has gone to court to challenge the decision of the party, Abiola while addressing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, explained that even after paying her N2m nomination form, the party denied her the form.
Earlier, the convention had started with the duo of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief Martin Elechi, conspicuously absent at the national convention in Abuja on Wednesday.
Obasanjo, a former chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party, just released a book, in which he alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan was not competent to lead the nation.
Our correspondent gathered that the absence of the former President was also because of his belief that President Jonathan did not deserve a second term.
In his just-released book titled, My Watch, Obasanjo said that President Jonathan “is lacking in broad vision, knowledge, confidence, understanding, concentration, capacity, sense of security, courage, moral and ethical principles, character and passion to move the nation forward on a fast trajectory.”
Elechi on the other hand, was said to be angry with the national leadership of the party for allegedly colluding with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, and a former Governor of the state, Dr. Sam Egwu, to deny him the opportunity of chosen his successor.
Anyim, Egwu with the connivance of Mu’azu, had succeeded in making Dave Umahi, the deputy governor, the PDP governorship candidate in 2015.
Elechi, however, wanted a former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, as his successor.
It was learnt that Anyim and other political enemies of the governor informed the President of their plot before they executed it.
Unconfirmed reports said that the governor was already discussing with the national leadership of the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress on terms for his possible defection.
However, beside ratifying Jonathan as the PDP flag bearer, the convention also ratified the position of three national officers of the party via an election.
The three national officers are Adamu Mu’azu as the national chairman, Prof. Wale Oladipo, national secretary and Adewale Adeyenju as national treasurer.
The Deputy Chairman, Convention Planning Committee, Ken Nnamani, had earlier told the delegates that section 133 of the 1999 Constitution prescribed the procedure of casting ballot even when only one aspirant is standing for a party primary.
After the election, Mu’azu got 2,672 votes. Nnamani announced the overall result after a member of the Election Sub-Committee, Chief Tom Ikimi, had read the votes from each state.
With this ratification, the three national officers have been fully integrated into the membership of the National Working Committee of the PDP.
All the delegates, including President Jonathan voted at the ballot box for their states.
The party said there were 3,037 delegates accredited for the exercise from the 36 states of the country, including Abuja.
President Jonathan, who is one of the delegates to the convention, arrived Eagle Square at about 3.45 p.m.
Among those at the event were Sambo; President of the Senate, David Mark; Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; and the Chairman PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih.
The Chairman of the National Convention Planning Committee, Dr. Bello Mohammed, in his welcome address had intimated delegates about the purpose of the convention.
Mohammed, a former Minister of Defence, enjoined the delegates to be orderly, disclosing that the nomination of the presidential candidate would begin immediately the ratification of the vacancies in the NWC.
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