GRAND RAINBOW TO GENERATE 20M SIGNATORIES FOR HIM TO RUN

Nigerians drawn from various political parties, met recently in Abuja to form a political alliance for President Goodluck Jonathan should he decide to contest the 2011 presidential election.

Even though the group had its foundation on the University of Port-Harcourt Alumni Association, it swiftly culminated into a group cutting across people from various political affiliations, including the academia, professionals and those who claimed to be apolitical. According to the group, their coming together was all for President Goodluck Jonathan.

Briefing journalists after its closed door meeting in Abuja, the Coordinator of the group, Mr. Adokiye Young-Harry, said. 'We formed the group called Grand Rainbow Initiative and it is all about Goodluck Jonathan and what we are trying to do is to see if we can help him if he decides to run for the 2011 presidential election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and our focus right now is to see if we can get 20 million Nigerians' signatories for the president's ambition if at the end of the day, he decides to run.

Essentially, our focal point is to mobilize the intelligentsia, particularly the student union groups, academic staff unions, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, and other graduates from other institutions to practically sensitize them to make sure they all go out and register and after that, we will ensure that they vote and also protect their votes,' Young-Harry said.

Differentiating the group from other interest groups, clamouring for support for the president's ambition, Young-Harry further said: 'The difference is that, in this group, we have professors, doctors, engineers, consultants et cetera, who feel it is absolutely necessary for professionals to come together and support a professional too. At the end of the day, most of these groups will collapse into one. None of them will carry the PDP banner but we must harmonize so many groups to generate 20 million signatories for Jonathan, to urge him to run because of what he has done as a professional.'

Young-Harry, however, said the group would single handedly provide funds to execute the project. According to Young-Harry, 'that is why we are professionals.'