BY OMOS OYINBODE, ASABA
The Director of Mobilisation for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential and Governorship elections in Delta State, Chief (Mrs.) Nkem Okwuofu, yesterday, said Nigerians owed President Goodluck Jonathan a duty to vote him for a second term as that gesture would enable him to complete all his ongoing transformation programmes and leave a legacy for Nigerians after the next four years.
Speaking in an interview in Asaba, Delta State capital, Okwuofu said President Jonathan was silently revolutionizing the economy of the nation but for the fact that his achievements are not being publicized enough, most Nigerians were not aware of the ongoing transformation of the President.
According to her, “it’s in our interest that we elect him for second time. He’s doing very well. Jonathan has been working but it’s like they are not publicizing him enough, maybe they are not talking about his achievement enough. That could be why many people do not know that Jonathan has done much for Nigeria.
“If you look at Delta State and other states, he is doing a lot of work silently. But in recent times, they’ve begun to talk about what he is doing and people are marveled and surprised that he has done all these much. Looking at all this, Nigerians owe him a duty to vote him for a second term. It is a way of giving him time and room to finish what he has started since he became President”.
Against the insinuation that the party was not prepared for the election, hence the call for the postponement, Okwuofu said the party was fully prepared for the election, saying “we are prepared for the election because we’ve done a lot of work across the state. We’ve campaigned in all the council areas in the state and the national team has campaigned across all states.
“That is the strategy we have always applied that has made us to win and continue to win. The opposition is waiting for us to win and then go to court. At least, every other night, some of us meet to appraise our strategies for the election, we look at our strength, our weaknesses and then work on them”.
On the possibility of achieving a violent free election, Okwuofu said a violent free election was achievable in Nigeria if Nigerian politicians understand that they are going for elective positions to do service to the people.
Okwuofu noted that “you don’t kill those you want to serve, if you kill them who are you going to serve? Unless you are going to the office as a master and your relationship with them is going to be like that of Headmaster-pupil relationship, then you can start killing some now before it gets to that time”, noting that there was no gain in killing people in the name of election.
She said “what does it take for you to accredit yourself, vote and go away quietly? We can achieve it and in achieving it, we’ve got to look at ourselves, examine ourselves and ask questions ‘am I the one prone to violence?’ Everybody is prone to violence but we don’t want to awaken that because there is no need for it. The democracy we talk about is for everybody. So, allow the people to democratize the election”.
