A MEMBER of the National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), from Edo state, Mr. Henry Idahagbon has advised President Goodluck Jonathan not to yield to the pressure being mounted on him by most Nigerians to contest the 2011 presidential election.
Besides, he called on him to consult with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the party under which he became the Vice-President and now President in the choice of who becomes his Vice-President.
Speaking in an interview with Vanguard in Benin Saturday, Mr. Idahagbon said, “a lot of people are asking him to contest, but from the inner recesses of my mind, I believe he should take the General Abdulsalami Abubakar example. There is limit to his good luck. He has beanery lucky but he cannot continue to be lucky because he cannot continue to be lucky ad infinitum”
“He cannot. God has gone out of His Almighty way to endear him and to bless him from a very humble beginning, from deputy governor to governor, to Vice-President and now to President of the most populous black nation on earth”
“He should deliver on power; he should deliver on electoral reform and conduct a free and fair credible election and handle over to whoever wins even if that person is from APGA and go back to Otueke (his home town). He will remain a local statesman in Otueke, he will remain a statesman in Bayelsa, he will remain a national statesman for Nigeria, and he will remain a continental statesman for Africa and international statesman.”
Mr. Idahagbon noted that should he yield to the pressure to contest the 2011 presidential election, he would not be able to contest a free, fair and credible election and advised him to toe the examples of Ghanaian former president Kuffor and British former Minister Gordon Brown who handed over the reins of government to the opposition parties.
“I am of the opinion that the day democracy will take root in this country is the day a sitting President will conduct an election and loses and he will hand over power to the opposition like Kuffor and Gordon Brown did in Ghana and Britain respectively”, he said.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/05/15/dont-contest-2011-presidential-polls-pdp-nec-member-tells-jonathan/
