The President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday assured Nigerians that he will work with everyone for the development of the country.
Dr. Jonathan gave the assurance shortly after picking up the Nomination and Expression of Interest forms to contest next year’s presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abuja.
The President categorically pledged that he will not let Nigerians down.
Among those who accompanied Jonathan to pick the forms was the Vice President, Architect Namadi Mohammed Sambo.
The President collected the nomination and EOI forms at about 2.20pm from the National Organising Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha.
Mustapha stated that the President paid the prescribed fees of N22 million to collect the forms.
Also on the President’s entourage were eight state governors.
After picking the form, the President said: “What I can say is to reassure them that I will work will all Nigerians.
“I will always maintain that no matter how strong a president is all over the world, the president is only one individual and you alone can’t do anything.
“You alone cannot change the society.
“For you to succeed, you work with people.
“So, if we are succeeding, that means we have a team that is working to transform this country.
“So, I will work with all Nigerians to make sure that we move our country to the next level.
“I always say that the days we continue to say Nigeria is a potentially great country are over.
“Nigeria is a great country.
“We just demonstrated that in the way we collectively handled the Ebola case.
“And the whole world is happy with us.
“For us this is the time to do more in the years to come to really move the country where we want Nigeria to be”.
The President is the sole presidential candidate of the party.
Jonathan thanked the PDP leadership for giving him the right of first refusal as the consensus candidate.
According to him: “I could have still picked the form if they did not give me.
“But giving me the right of first refusal has attracted more people that ordinarily it would have had.”
The President revealed that the PDP Governors’ Forum and the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria contributed N22 million each for the purchase of his nomination forms.
He expressed gratitude to them and other groups who contributed money for believing in him.
The PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, while speaking earlier, explained that the party has decided to give governors and president who are seeking second term and who have performed creditably well, the right of first refusal.
He added: “And all of us know that Mr. President has done so many things.
“I am happy today that he has made history, that he has come to pick his form himself.
“I sometimes wonder why people want to dabble into family affairs that is surely not theirs.
“PDP is PDP and PDP is a family.
“This is not the forum for us to enumerate.
“We look forward to the campaign where we will unfold our programmes to Nigerians.”
The eight governors who accompanied Jonathan to the PDP headquarters to pick his forms were Barrister Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Dr. Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Barrister Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Hon. Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti), Senator Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) and Barrister Ibrahim Shema (Katsina).