President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday calmed the tensed political atmosphere in Delta State with his promise to create thousands of jobs for the teeming youths in the state with the proposed $16 billion Gas City Project in Ogidigben.
Supoorters of the party who trooped to the Cenotaph, venue of the presidential rally of the PDP, as early as 7am, left nothing to chance in order to catch a glimpse of Jonathan.
The top ranking executives of the Peoples Democratic Party, including the President; his deputy, Architect Namadi Sambo; the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu; its Chairman of Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih; and Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State among others, all vowed to use their seasoned experience in politics to bring the ruling party back to power comeFebruary 14 and 28 this month when the general election will take place.
The President, who arrived at the venue at about 4pm, did not only showcase his achievements in the past four years, but debunked the sore points of corruption and insecurity, which the rival All Progressives Congress had latched upon to pull him down.
He said: “We are going to the election.
“We must win the election if Nigeria must move forward.
“Nigeria must move forward.
“I make bold to say without fear or favour that there is no government in Nigeria that has put in place structures to tackle corruption and insecurity as we did in the past four years.”
While he averred that it is better to stop them from looting our common destiny than arresting and parading them after the deed had been done, Jonathan warned Nigerians against succumbing to cabals, who are desperately plotting to hold the country hostage.
He insisted that Nigeria is not for sale, adding: “Besides the 25,000 kilometre of motorable federal roads that we have today, compared to 4,500 before 2011, including the Benin-Ore-Sagamu Highway, the Enugu-Aba Road, the Otukpo-Oweto, the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja dualization and the Kano-Maiduguri dualization, for the first time in 30 years, our rails are now operational again.
“As I’m speaking to you now, 22 airport terminals are being refurbished, even as five new ones are under construction.
“On yearly basis, 14 million jobs are being created, with agriculture accounting for most of it.
“You have Maritime University and your $16b Gas City Project is underway.
“Still they say we are not working.”
Corroborating Jonathan, Mu’azu, who harped on fitness on the part of the President, said: “You have all spoken with you body language.
“Our President is young, our president is educated, our president is gender friendly, democratic, committed to the rule of law, unity and progress of the country.
“So, he should carry go.”
On his part, Sambo asked Deltans to vote out any candidate that cannot stand for two minutes to address Nigerians.
He asked: “Will you want to have a president that cannot stand for two minutes to rule you”
Earlier, Uduaghan, who said Delta State is wholly a PDP state, assured the President’s campaign train of total victory for the party in the general election, maintaing: “It is PDP all the way in the state.”
The high point of the rally was the public declaration for the PDP of the governorship aspirant of the APC in the state, Chief Fidelis Tilije, who was a three-time running mate to Chief Great Ogboru of the former Democratic Peoples Party, now of the Labour Party.