The governor of Akwa Ibom state,
Chief Godswill Akpabio has described
the decision of the national executive
committee of the Peoples Democratic
Party to adopt President Goodluck
Jonathan as its sole presidential
candidate for the 2015 presidential
election as a “well calculated
exercise in democracy”.

Akpabio made this declaration on
Wednesday in Akwa Ibom during the
PDP performance publicity tour led by
the national publicity secretary of the
party, Olisa Metuh.

He said: “The opposition is rattled
because of the ability of the governors
and leaders of the PDP to sacrifice
their individual ambitions and rally
behind the President who has
performed exceedingly well.

“The adoption by NEC is democracy in
action. In America that we are
copying,the incumbent president does
not go through primaries. We are not
saying that the President will not face
the general elections. So the idea of
him spending presidential time instead
of facing insurgency, food insufficiency
and other things that may affect the
country and begin to campaign for the
party ticket when he is already the
incumbent president is what we want
to avoid .

I think this is a very
fantastic model of internal democracy.
“What we only said and did is, let’s
sacrifice our individual ambition so
that Mr President will have a second
term. We are not saying that other
people should not contest election,
but saying that as PDP governors,
that we want to join hands and
support him to win the second term.

It does not mean that any person who
wants to contest should not contest.
We are indeed deepening democracy
by sacrificing our own ambition.”
The governor added that the PDP
governors by their decision also
resolved to stabilise the party and
avoid the unfortunate situation that
leaves the party fractured after
primary elections.

“Instead of fracturing the party at the
end of the convention, we want to
move as one family to elect the
presidential candidate at the
convention. And that is democracy in
action. So I don’t think anybody
should criticize it, rather we should be
commended for not behaving like past
governors who by now , nine or fifteen
of them would have declared for
presidency and then confusion will
start in the party. So the people who
sacrificed their ambition to support
the president; should they be
castigated or commended? I must
therefore thank the PDP NEC
for adopting the position of the PDP
governors.

It is left for the National
Convention to ratify. This is evidence
that Nigeria is changing,” he said.
“I think the opposition is rattled.
Anytime that the PDP makes a move
and the opposition is criticizing it,
then you know that that thing is
biting them and if they praise you, you
should be worried.”
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