2011: Declare Presidential Intention, Youths Tell Jonathan

A pro democracy group, Youths Ask for Goodluck (YAG) has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to declare his intention to contest the 2011 Presidential election.

Mr Hassan Ohimozi, secretary of the group on Thursday in Abuja made the call while briefing newsmen.

“We youths of this country have no other time but now to canvass and mobilise support for one of our own come 2011.

“For the first time in 43 years, a rare opportunity of having a credible and flawless personality as an arrow head in leadership has presented itself.

“It is in the light of these submissions that we want to assure Mr President that we have set a train of activities in motion with respect to strategies for our campaigns and have seen what the responses are.

“We want to categorically implore his Excellency to declare his intention to contest the 2011 Presidential election in the shortest convenience,’’ he said.

Ohimozi noted that the President had made remarkable achievements in the shortest time in the office.

He added that salary increment, payment of pension arrears, power generation to 4000 megawatts, and the sustenance of amnesty in the Niger Delta region were glaring achievements.

Also speaking, Mr Onyebuchi Chijiena, the coordinator of YAG said zoning was not an issue in the current democratic era, stressing that Nigerians were one and needed not to discuss zoning as a basis for the emergence of a credible leader.

Chijiena added that credibility and good governance were major qualities of entrenching leadership.

He said that it was disheartening to know that the same people who opposed the Federal Character policy were the same people canvassing for zoning.

He said that YAG is a youth organisation that is determined to mobilise support for the success of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

“It is a rallying point for all Nigerian youths to foster the actualization of call for man of the people to contest the 2011 Presidential election,” he said.

Meanwhile, the reports that the President has resisted calls by various groups to declare his interest for the 2011 elections.

At the maiden edition of the Presidential Chat, a programme on the network of the NTA last month, Jonathan said that a declaration of intention for the Presidency will heat up the polity and disrupt good governance at all levels of government.