President Goodluck Jonathan has hailed the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and described it as a major stabilising factor to the success of Nigeria’s democratic governance.
Jonathan said this at the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that the PDP had made tremendous contribution to the development of the nation’s political party system by pushing the opposition political parties to unite as one.
He noted that the political environment would experience more stability when the other political parties merge into one political party, thereby transforming Nigeria into a two party system.
“One good thing that Nigerians should commend PDP is that if you look at the evolution of political parties, it is now stable.
“PDP has come on very strong, no matter the criticism they are criticising us.
“They know that we are very strong and they realise that what they need to do is not forming new parties but parties coming together. So, we are helping to stabilise the polity.
“We will encourage them to come together more. We want a situation where it is PDP versus one party. In that case, the polity will be more stable.
“Even our members will be more loyal to the party because you will have nowhere to go.
“If PDP were weak, people wouldn’t have gathered together. There wouldn’t have been any reason for parties to come together to fight PDP.
“When you have so many parties on their own, they know they cannot face us until they come together then you know that we are formidable,’’ Jonathan said.
Jonathan also noted that the formation of the PDP Governors’ Forum was important as it provided a platform for the governors to deliberate on national issues.
The president called governors to take urgent take steps to curb the increasing incidence of communal crises which had caused destruction to lives and property in many communities.
He said the issue of security should be one of the major topics of discussion when governors hold their meetings, reminding them that no economy could develop in the state of insecurity.
According to him, no responsible government can afford to watch while ethnic conflicts continue to rage across various sections of the country.
“It is one area the governors will also be discussing in their meeting. This ethnic rivalry is becoming embarrassing.
“Government cannot continue to sit down and allow ethnic rivalry between communities, between different ethnic groups, leading to deaths.
The leaders of this country, governors and all of us, we should try and continue to talk to our brothers and sisters that killing is not the best way to resolve conflicts.
“As long as we live, there must be conflicts but we should use dialogue to resolve our conflicts”.
Jonathan while restating the commitment of his administration to move the country forward, added that PDP would continue to spearhead the nation’s progress and stability.
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