The Chairman of the Presidential Declaration Committee, Dr. Haliru Bello, on Friday announced that President Goodluck Jonathan will declare on November 11th, to run for the 2015 presidential elections.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the committee’s inaugural meeting at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa yesterday, Bello said Jonathan will on that day tell Nigerians his plans for the next four years.
“The President gave us the task to organise the modality of creating a platform for him to meet Nigerians and announce his response to the various calls for him to come out and declare his interest in the presidential election.
“The President has not said anything yet but it is like all Nigerians have called on him. It is our honest hope that he will come out and say yes to the demand of multitude of Nigerians.
“We expect he will say yes but we cannot say yes for him. We will wait for him to speak.
“The date that is fixed is Tuesday, November 11. On that day, there will be a forum for the President to meet Nigerians to announce his decision.
“The venue is yet to be decided. That will be decided at our next meeting.
“When we come out on November 11, the President will face the people of Nigeria and say yes to their demand.
“If he says yes, it will be yes. If he says no, then it is negative. But you are aware that our party, the PDP in all its organs, from the caucus to the Board of Trustees, National Working Committee (NWC) had decided that President Jonathan should be given the first option of refusal with the PDP ticket.
“If he is going to contest, the PDP will give him preference. As the President, he has performed and we are satisfied with what he has done.
“It is only when he declines that we can look at any other contestant,” he said.
Also speaking Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State said that members were grouped into subcommittees during the inaugural meeting.
Some of the groups according to him, include secretariat, venue and decoration, media and publicity, security, protocol and mobilisation among others.
He expressed the hope that the committee would come up with enough preparations that would ensure a hitch-free declaration.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina, expressed confidence that Nigerian women would troop out in large number to support the President’s re-election bid.
Maina said Jonathan had done more than enough for women by way of giving them more appointments.
She promised that more than the support the women gave the President in 2011, they would give in 2015.
The Governors present at the inaugural meeting representing zones were, Liyel Imoke, Cross River (South South), Theodore Orji, Abia (South East), Olusegun Mimiko, Ondo (South West), Ibrahim Shema, Katsina (North West) and Ibrahim Dankwambo, Gombe (North East).
It could be recalled that the Declaration committee was set up on Thursday with a mandate for them to choose an appropriate date between November 7th and 15th for President Jonathan to declare his intentions to run.
