Text of Press Release By The National Chairman Of The People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. February 12, 2015 — Gentlemen of the press, welcome to this press briefing. The National Working Committee of our great party met and deliberated on our nationwide campaign as well as a number of issues in the polity especially regarding preparations for the 2015 general elections.
You will recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) scheduled the general elections to hold on February 14 and 28, 2015 and based on that our great party and all our candidates drew a timetable for our campaigns that have taken us to 35 of the 36 states of the federation.
During these nationwide campaigns, our party successfully presented our candidates to the people and used the opportunity also to showcase our numerous and verifiable achievements especially the outstanding performance of our beloved presidential flagbearer, President Goodluck Jonathan.
In the course of our campaign, we discovered that the popularity of our party is soaring, going by the rousing reception we received from Nigerians.
While we were cruising in the euphoria of the success of our campaign that was leading us to victory, INEC on February 7, 2015, relying on section 26 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended) announced the postponement of the elections by six weeks, citing what it called security challenges.
Although we tend to agree with INEC on the security reasons given for the postponement, we are nevertheless not unmindful of the fact that the commission on its own part was not fully prepared for the February 14 election date.
Taking the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega on his own words, for the 68.8 million registered voters, the commission had only printed and delivered 66.3 million Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) with 1.3 million yet to be delivered and 1.1 million stolen cards yet to be replaced.
Also according to Jega, 45.09 million voters cards were collected by prospective voters representing 65.8 percent of the registered voters and 23.71 million PVCs, representing 34.2 percent were yet to be collected as at February 7th, which is exactly one week to the February 14th earlier scheduled date. Compare this anomaly with the 2011 elections where not a single eligible voter was disenfranchised
By this account, INEC could not sincerely claim to have been fully prepared for a desirable credible, free and fair election at the time when more than 23 million registered voters were going to be disenfranchised.
Nigerians embraced the idea of PVC as a model to facilitate credible elections and not as instrument of disenfranchisement.
Indeed, we have noted the reactions that trailed this postponement, particularly the very subjective statements from opposition leaders alleging that our great party and the government masterminded the postponement to favour the PDP.
Rather than join issues with the opposition in some of these needless and unsubstantiated utterances, we want to use this press conference to urge for a neat and positive campaign devoid of lies, propaganda and incendiary statements.
The truth is that the postponement has in no way whatsoever conferred any particular advantage to our party and our candidates. Instead, it came with an attendant loss of time and resources and delayed our celebrations of electoral victory, which with the support of Nigerians, we would have started savoring by Saturday.
However, this temporary setback rather than dampen our spirit, will be a catalyst to propel our members to consolidate on the milestones already gained by our campaigns and goodwill among Nigerians.
In the next six weeks, the PDP will continue to patriotically engage in issue-based discussions with Nigerians on our values, manifesto and roadmap for a more prosperous future ahead of the March 28 and April 11, 2015 rescheduled dates.
Our confidence for victory is derived from the fact that we have an array of very credible candidates, which Nigerians are eager to vote for. Also, our standard bearer, President Goodluck Jonathan, with his humility, performance and verifiable record of achievements has stood himself out as the leader best suited for our country at this point in our national life.
We therefore want to use this forum to urge INEC to use the period of the shift to ensure that it put its house in order and bequeath to Nigerians the desired free, fair and credible elections.
For the opposition, we urge them to embrace positive politics by ensuring that its campaign and utterances are such that will help in deepening our democracy. This country belongs to all of us and its unity, stability and prosperity remain our paramount agenda.
Finally, we call on Nigerians who have graciously reposed their confidence on the PDP for the past 16 years of this democracy not to relent but join in this process of moving our nation to its next phase of transformation and prosperity.
Thank you.
Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu is the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party
