Ahead of the much anticipated presidential election on Saturday, March 28, the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Adamu Mu’azu, has pleaded with the former head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the chairman of Dangote group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the former chief of the general staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, and the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, to come to his party’s aid.
Mu’azu called on the political leaders to warn the opposition party, the APC, and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, to stop the insults against the president and the PDP presidential candidate, Goodluck Jonathan.
He was speaking at the PDP National Secretariat, Abuja, when members of the Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee on Elections visited him. Muazu told the committee members that the presidential candidate of the APC, General Buhari, and other key stakeholders of the party must stop portraying President Jonathan as a bad product.
Speaking further, Muazu told his visitors that rather than insult and attempt to ridicule President Jonathan, the APC should tell Nigerians what they would do better with their candidate. He claimed that though it was not the policy of the PDP, some younger members of the party had no choice than to react in equal manner to attacks from the opposition as they were pushed to the wall.
Muazu noted that as the national chairman of the ruling party, all he could do was to be a good salesman for President Jonathan to make the electorate cherish him. He said, “This is the kind of committee we need to be our watchdog, to be our prompters so that we do what is absolutely required to have very credible, peaceful and transparent elections and for such a result that would come out of the elections for us to be happy with.
“Mr. Chairman, I want to assure you that the Peoples Democratic Party will be running a very fair campaign led by me. If you watch my utterances personally, you will find that there is nothing I do than to be a good salesman of what I should be, for my party and for my President.
“I have enough to say about my President that are positive to make people adore him and love him, to vote for him. I have very little to say about the opposition.
“Unfortunately, when the opposition goes haywire, some of our small boys in our own party also shout back. And that is why you have some of the unfortunate things.
“Believe me, I always give them a very strong signal that we don’t expect that. That is why it is not more than it has been. It would have gone even much worse. It is absolutely unnecessary to call somebody’s product bad product. It is better for you to sell your product and show how good or better your product is than the others.
“For us, we do not have any doubt that our product, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has all we need to sell in a president and therefore we do not need to speak ill about others.
“But I only want to assure you Mr. Chairman, that by the grace of the Almighty God, we have heard your advice and your words as elders are words of wisdom. We will continue to improve and increase in our caution and the use of our words and whatsoever use of negative campaigns for the next few days until the Election Day”.
Mu’azu earlier announced that President Jonathan will be re-appointed on May 29, but believes his party will not get a landslide victory in the forthcoming general elections.
