Presidential poll: Jonathan’s act historic, heroic – Uduaghan

Delta State Gover­nor, Dr. Emman­uel Uduaghan, has commended President Goodluck Jona­than for demonstrating that he is truly a states­man and a patriotic Nige­rian.

Speaking yesterday at a meeting of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders in Asaba, the governor said by the coura­geous act of conceding de­feat and personally calling on General Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him, the President exhibited an uncanny patriotism and statesmanship.

“For me, the hero of this election is Mr. President. If he did not do what he did, if he did not call General Bu­hari, the story would have been different. We congrat­ulate the President for be­ing a statesman, for being a worthy example, for being patriotic and showing that personal interests should not override national inter­est.”

Uduaghan noted that President Jonathan’s con­gratulatory message to Buhari saved the country from post-elections chaos, stressing: “The President showed an exemplary char­acter, he waited patiently to be accredited and asked Nigerians to be patient de­spite the challenges of the elections and personal em­barrassment to his person and office.”

It stated that the emer­gence of General Buhari as President-elect signified the enthronement of true democratic culture in Nige­ria by the President, saying: “For us in Delta State, we congratulate President Jon­athan for giving us a demo­cratic process that allows for free and fair elections.”

The governor, who used the occasion to congratu­late General Buhari on his election, stated that the meeting was called by him to thank members of the PDP for their impressive showing during the Presi­dential and National As­sembly elections.

“I called this meeting to thank you sincerely and to congratulate you on our very strong showing as a party during the last elec­tions. I believe we had the strongest showing in the country. It happened because we are united, we worked hard and we worked together. I want to thank you sincerely and I want to commend the PDP for putting up a demo­cratic process that gives power to the people.

“My appeal is that as we did it on March 28 and March 29, we should also do the same on April 11, for all our candidates so that we can come tops at the end of the day,” he said.

The PDP governorship candidate in the state, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa said Governor Uduaghan’s leadership qualities made it possible for the PDP to win the three Senato­rial seats, nine seats of the House of Representatives and victory in all the local government areas during the presidential election.

While expressing con­fidence that the PDP will also emerge victorious in the governorship and House of Assembly elec­tions, Senator Okowa thanked leaders of the PDP for their commit­ments towards delivering votes for the PDP.