Akpabio: GEJ’s choice is ‘calculated democracy’

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.”