Elder statesman and a former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has thrown his weight behind President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 second term bid, urging the North to wait until 2019.
According to him, Jonathan’s tolerance, cool-headedness, fear of God and respect for people and their constitution had conquered Boko Haram violence in Nigeria.
Similarly, a former governor of the old Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has also described Jonathan as a tool in the hands of God to implement God’s designs for Nigeria.
The duo spoke during the state’s 17th anniversary public lecture organised by the Bayelsa State Government in Yenagoa on Monday.
Babatope in his lecture, had said Jonathan was a detribalised Nigerian, who has every right to contest the 2015 presidential election.
His words, “If Jonathan declares to contest the 2015 election, I will be among the people that will campaign for him. I submit that it is right and proper that the Ijaw man, President Goodluck Jonathan, completes his term in 2019. After that, if I am still alive, I will be one of those that will fight to ensure the North have its turn in 2019.”
On his part, Ezeife said Jonathan’s style of leadership has no comparison, noting that he had been able to contain the Boko Haram insurgency.
The former governor said, “Jonathan is a tool in the hands of God to implement God’s design for Nigeria. His tolerance, cool-headedness, fear of God and respect for people and their constitution has neutralised the Boko Haram sect. We must sympathise with the aggrieved people, even as we must not allow injustice to take root. And we must not be provoked as to endanger, Nigeria, which our God Almighty has given us. Everybody knows who would lose most, should the unthinkable happen.
“Which President had faced determined efforts to making the country ungovernable, under him? If we help put a bag of salt on somebody’s head and make rains to beat the person, do we have a right, at the end of the rain, to ask how much salt is left in the bag?”
Ezeife also said for Nigeria to survive as one united country, there was the urgent need to restructure the country for efficiency and effectiveness.
Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, in his remarks, said a new Nigeria was born with the election of Jonathan, a man from the minority tribe, as the President of the country.
“May I call on the present generation to learn to see national issues as they are. Because it is when you have a nation, you can have a G7 governors. Disagreement is healthy – whether we agree or not, it is legitimate. All politicians are ambitious and ambition is legitimate, but the way you go about it matters,” Dickson said.
Other dignitaries at the lecture which took place at the state’s Banquet Hall on Monday evening were a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na’Abba; Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State; his Deputy, Rear- Admiral John Jonah (retd.); elder statesman, Chief Diete Spiff; Speaker, Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Konbowei Friday; and the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Kate Abiri.
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