Chief Ebenezer Babatope
A
former Minister of Transportation, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has backed
Jonathan’s 2015 bid, asking the North to wait until 2019 for their turn.
Also, a former governor of the old
Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has said President Jonathan is a
tool in the hands of God to implement God’s designs for Nigeria.
He said Jonathan’s tolerance,
cool-headedness, fear of God and respect for people and their
constitution had neutralised Boko Haram violence in Nigeria.
The duo spoke during the state’s 17th anniversary public lecture organised by the Bayelsa State Government in Yenagoa on Monday.
Other dignitaries at the lecture which
took place at the state’s Banquet Hall on Monday evening were a former
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na’Abba; Governor
Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State; his deputy, Rear- Admiral John Jonah
(retd.); elder statesman, Chief Diete Spiff; Speaker, Bayelsa State
House of Assembly, Konbowei Friday; and the Chief Judge of the state,
Justice Kate Abiri.
Babatope in his lecture, had described
Jonathan as a detribalised Nigerian, whose right to contest the 2015
presidential election was non-negotiable.
“If Jonathan declares to contest the
2015 election, I will be among the people that will campaign for him. I
submit it is right and proper that the Ijaw man, President Goodluck
Jonathan, completes his term in 2019. After that, if I am still alive, I
will be one of those that will fight to ensure the North have its turn
in 2019,” Babatope said.
Ezeife said through Jonathan’s style of
leadership, which could not be compared with any President before him,
had been able to contain the Boko Haram’s insurgency.
The former governor said, “Jonathan is a
tool in the hands of God to implement God’s design for Nigeria. His
tolerance, cool-headedness, fear of God and respect for people and their
constitution has neutralised the Boko Haram sect. We must sympathise
with the aggrieved people, even as we must not allow injustice to take
root. And we must not be provoked as to endanger, Nigeria, which our God
Almighty has given us. Everybody knows who would lose most, should the
unthinkable happen.
“Which President had faced determined
efforts to making the country ungovernable, under him? If we help put a
bag of salt on somebody’s head and make rains to beat the person, do we
have a right, at the end of the rain, to ask how much salt is left in
the bag?”
Ezeife also said for Nigeria to survive
as one united country, there was the urgent need to restructure the
country for efficiency and effectiveness.
Dickson, in his remarks, said a new
Nigeria was born with the election of Jonathan, a man from the minority
tribe, as the President of the country.
He sued for peace in the country,
stressing that Nigeria was not only a country of contradictions, but had
endless potential, which if well harnessed, would drive the nation’s
socio-economic and political development.
“May I call on the present generation to
learn to see national issues as they are. Because it is when you have a
nation, you can have a G7 governors. Disagreement is healthy – whether
we agree or not, it is legitimate. All politicians are ambitious and
ambition is legitimate but the way you go about it matters,” Dickson
said.
Na’Abba, speaking on the theme, ‘Good
governance as a panacea for promoting a stable and sustainable
democracy,’ said good governance should be the hallmark of democracy.
He said in view of the myriad of problems confronting the na
0 comments:
Post a Comment