Joe Ogbodu,
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and former Presidential Adviser on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof Sylvester Monye on Tuesday implore professional bodies, as well as civil society organisation to vote President Goodluck Jonathan come March 28 election.
The duo spoke at a Town Hall meeting with the topic; “Governing Under Siege: Assessment of the President Jonathan Administration 2011-2015” held at the Governor’s House in Warri, Delta state.
The meeting was converge in a bid to convince the groups in Delta South and Central Senatorial districts of the State, on the need to vote Jonathan in the forthcoming presidential election. A similar meeting was held for stakeholders in Delta North in Asaba, the state capital on Monday.
Addressing the meeting, Uduaghan said that Jonathan is the best option to others in the presidential race saying the performance of Jonathan were evidence in all sector of the nation’s economy.
”I am here to convince you to vote massively for Jonathan and other PDP candidates and I hope I succeed in convincing you, Uduaghan told the gathering.
He said that President Goodluck Jonathan deserves re-election because of the achievements he has recorded for Nigerians within the past four years.
Uduaghan said however that Nigeria was in a critical period hence the dwindling state of the naira, expressing optimism however that things would normalize after the election.
According to him, President Jonathan has done a lot for Nigerians and would do more for Nigerians and the country in the interest of the peace and unity of the nation, adding: “The naira will get a boost after the elections”.
He however lamented the negative attitude of Nigerians towards the forthcoming general elections saying the political bickering, campaign of calumny going on now was too much for the country.
Uduaghan urged politicians to make their campaign issues-based instead of resorting to calumny and violence adding that the rate of campaign of calumny in the country was sending wrong signal to the international community.
According to him, it is so bad that ethnic groups are being incited, people are being incited against the government of the day, a development which he said is impacting negatively on the economy as according to him investors are holding back their funds as a result of the tense atmosphere and threatens by political figures.
He said that the effect of inciting the people could be disastrous and liked the consequence of hatred and incitement to the Rwanda genocidal.
Specifically, Uduaghan said that value of the dollar had rose far above the naira because Nigerians were giving out the impression that there will be violence after the general elections which had sent the wrong signals to the international community particularly to investors.
“There is this erroneous impression that we are giving to the international investors that there will be violence after the elections and it has affected the inflow of money from businessmen,” he said.
“We must work very hard to ensure that our elections are violent-free, whoever loses should wait for another election. Whichever way the election goes, we must maintain the peace and ensure that the naira appreciates.”
In his lecture, Prof. Monye said that all the hate campaigns and campaigns of calumny by the opposition party was targeted to discredit Jonathan’s administration and his reelection ambitious before Nigerians.
He said that instead of embarking on issues-based campaign, the opposition party, APC always make Jonathan their campaign issue instead of telling Nigerians what they would do if elected.
According to him, the President has worked more than his predecessors by delivering on his electoral promises rather than engaging in propaganda.
“I don’t know any past President that have perform as Jonathan in the history of Nigeria adding that the purpose of the meeting was to provide evidence-based assessment of Jonathan performance so far”.
Monye who rail out the performance of Jonathan’s administration to included revamping the railway system, the agricultural sector, transportation sector, the economy, said that Jonathan have fought corruption more than his predecessors in office against impression that the president was doing nothing about corruption.
He said that the nation’s economy have thrive under Jonathan more than never before saying that it was the reason Nigerians are yearning for the continuity of the transformation strive of Jonathan instead of the backward change which the APC is clamouring for.
“We don’t want backward change, what we want is continuity of governance, continuity of transformation, and forward ever”, he said.
Monye said that Jonathan have fought corruption not by dramatizing the fight by throwing people into jail arbitrarily without recourse to rule of law like the opposition party, APC want him to do but by reforming and reengineering the institutions like the EFCC which he had done and have achieve over 400 conviction since then.
He expressed confidence that based on the facts presented which shows a progressive country, the professionals and members of the civil society groups would vote for President Jonathan based on his performance and not where he hails from.”
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