The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has thanked governors elected on the platform of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and other groups and individuals that paid for the Expression of Interest and Nominations Forms for his 2015 presidential ambition.
Jonathan spoke on Thursday in Abuja at the headquarters of the PDP when he paid for and picked up the forms.
Jonathan also thanked the members of the PDP, especially the National Executive Committee for giving him the right of first refusal in the countdown to the 2015 presidential election.
By the right of first refusal, the party foreclosed the ambition of any other candidate once Jonathan agrees to run.
He equally thanked members of the Transformation Agenda of Nigeria for providing N22 million for the purchase of the forms.
The President said on Thursday when he was presented with the forms: “First, let me thank God for today and thank Nigerians that are here today for this brief ceremony.
“Let me thank the leadership of our great party and all members of our party for believing in me.
“I thank the leadership of our party and all members of our party for giving me the right of first refusal.
“Giving me the right of first refusal has attracted more people than ordinarily it would have.
“I extend my appreciation to other members of our great party, members of NEC that unanimously endorsed that decision
“Secondly, let me use this unique opportunity to thank PDP Governors’ Forum for providing the N2 million for the procurement of the expression of interest form and N20 million for the procurement of the nomination form.
“Let me also thank members of TAN for providing N2 million for the procurement of the expression of interest form and N20 million for the procurement of the nomination form.
“And let me also thank so many Nigerians that I cannot enumerate here but have been formally announced – youth groups, women groups and even students from the North West, North East, North Central, South West, South East and South South. I remain most grateful for their gestures.
“I thank them for believing first in this country.
“Secondly for believing in the PDP because they know this is for PDP form and for believing in me.
I want to reassure them that I will work with all Nigerians.”
Jonathan said he was prepared to work with Nigerians in the years ahead.
He said a president anywhere in the world remains just only one person and has such needs to work with the people around him for success.
He added: “And I always maintain, no matter how strong a president is anywhere in the world, you can’t do anything because the president is one individual.
“For you to succeed, you work with people and if we are succeeding, that means we have a team that is working to transform this country.
“I will work with all Nigerians to make sure we move our country to the next level.
“I always say that the days of saying Nigeria is a potentially great country is over.
“Nigeria is a great country.
“And we just demonstrated that with the way we handled the Ebola case and the whole world is happy with us.
“Let me once again thank all of you that are here for this brief ceremony and to reassure you that we will not let you down.”
The ceremony was attended by governors elected on the platform of the PDP, the leadership of the party, ministers and key chieftains of the party.