PDP primaries: Jonathan in dilemma over preferred candidate

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his dilemma over whom to support among the top aspirants seeking to fly the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election.

The former president who disclosed this while speaking at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt, during the presidential primary of the party, said many of the aspirants were eminently qualified to lead the country.

Appealing to the delegates, Jonathan said they must select among the 12 candidates the candidate that can bring Nigeria together. “I’m confused as to the one to pick among the aspirants. I know them very well and I can say they are all eminently qualified,” he said.

“Yes, we are in opposition but today we have the senate president and speaker. The number of governors have also increased. This shows we are the party to take over power.”

Uche Secondus, national chairman of the party, who declared the convention open, expressed pleasure in welcoming party members from all over Nigeria to Port Harcourt.

He boasted that “today PDP is now in control of the leadership of the national assembly, adding that “the convention is a crucial stage in PDP’s “unstoppable march to regain power’’.

He said the selection of aspirants for the convention was done through indirect primaries, adding that the convention would be orderly, fair and transparent.

He said the party was determined to organise a convention that would remain a reference point for other parties

Secondus said the party started the contributory pension scheme and reformed the electoral process.

He said the party members had “Indeed learnt our lessons’’, adding that the PDP had “graduated from an opposition party in 2015 to a ruling party in waiting’’ in 2018.