PDP LEADERS WARNED TO TREAD CAUTIOUSLY OVER JONATHAN'S AMBITION

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been warned against sacrificing the ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan in the ongoing power play over who flies the party's presidential flag in 2011 as doing so might spell doom for the unity of the party.

Rising from its strategy meeting in Abuja, a pro-Jonathan political group, Goodluck/ Sambo Presidential Movement said the issue of whether President Jonathan should continue with the joint ticket given him and the late President Umaru Yar'Adua was a delicate one that should not be allowed to tear the party apart.

National Coordinator of the movement, Deacon Arede Edeinmene who briefed newsmen at the end of the meeting said the only decision that could guarantee peace within the party was to allow President Jonathan continue beyond 2011 because his presidency was not as a result of ambition but by providence.

According to him, the PDP leaders have to tread cautiously over the issue of who flies the party's presidential flag for the 2011 presidential election warning that any move to work against the interest of the president would not augur well for the well-being of PDP at all levels.

The movement said the PDP leadership ought to have read the handwriting on the wall that 'there is something divine about his political career when you see how he has been emerging, so the PDP leaders have to be very careful in blocking him.'

In the same vein, the movement warned leaders of the South-south not to abandon President Jonathan at this moment because he was just a tool in the hands of God for the South-south geo-political zone, to rule the country without any struggle.

'Any attempt to dump him or mortgage the opportunity, the zone's opportunity, at the altar of naira and kobo at this point in time will boomerang in the near future as the zone may not be able to reach out for the presidency again.

'The issue of President Jonathan's 2011 candidature as an incumbent president is a delicate one, which needs to be handled with utmost care. The Presidency has a lot of sympathizers; we are not saying other candidates should be disqualified for him, but as of now, he is the most sellable material for the party.

'This is why we are warning our brethren in the South-south to beware. If this opportunity should slip out of their hands then they should never dream of presidency in a century years to come. God has done it now that a minority is in power. Even by special negotiation, nobody would have thought that a South-south man would ever be in the saddle, but here we are,' said Deacon Arede while explaining why the group was rooting for President Jonathan.

He argued that of all the lot, only President Jonathan matched the search for a president in 2011, pointing out that from the brief period the president has been in power he has shown sufficiently that he is a man with a large heart and others have nothing to fear over his presidency in 2011.

The movement's leader stated that all the calls on the president to be a statesman and hand over in 2011 was a ruse and misplaced because 'none of them can find himself in the position of Dr. Jonathan and would relinquish power just like that. Haven't we seen those who did it for over eight years as dictators and yet they didn't want to go? We have seen the one who was a vice for eight years and his ambition pitched him against his boss, because he wanted to be president at all cost.'

Deacon Arede then called on the PDP leadership and all stakeholders to amicably resolve the issue and allow best reasons to prevail in the interest of the party and the success of the party in 2011.