A chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, in the North, Alhaji Suleiman Yerima, has debunked insinuations that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was going to withdraw from contesting next year’s presidential election, saying that nobody can intimidate the president out of the race.
Yerima, the founder and national president of the Northern Friends of the South South (NFSS), who spoke Friday on telephone, said there were no reasons for anybody to think the president was not “serious with his dream for a greater country in his desire to take Nigeria to the promised land as elected president in 2011″.
He spoke on the heels of a publication credited to Ambassador Yahaya Kwande who was quoted as saying that he believed Jonathan would see reason and withdraw from the presidential race.
Yerima said: “For anybody to think that Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will withdraw from the Presidential race even at this stage, such a person is a joker. When we started urging President Jonathan to run when he was still an acting president, only few of the elites took us serious. But when he became President some began to see what we saw.
“President Jonathan is a saleable candidate unlike some of those who are antagonising his presidential bid and trying to intimidate him out of the race. Nobody no matter his political clout can intimidate Mr. President.
He is a man who knows what he is doing and knows where he is going. He has agenda for a prosperous Nigeria and he is serious with his dream for a greater country in his desire to take Nigeria to the promised land as elected President in 2011â€.
