Leadership of the acclaimed largest party in Africa, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has affirmed that President Goodluck Jonathan is not a dictator or desperate politician as many would believe.
A member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Mr. Gordon Bozimo, who made this known over the weekend in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital described Jonathan as a listening President, who is ready to consider popular opinions before taking decisions on national issues.
The party chieftain was reacting to allegations by the Action Congress of Nigeria that President Jonathan’s administration was drifting into despotism with the alleged use of government agencies against the press and perceived enemies.
It would be recalled that National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said though the current administration had a transformation agenda, the agenda that could be seen was that of an elected President becoming a despot.
“The Jonathan administration is anchored on a transformation agenda. But the only transformation that we can see is the one from a democratically-elected President to an Emperor, a despot,” Mohammed had said.
But Bozimo, who dismissed such claims, urged the opposition to stop distracting Jonathan.
“The President is not a dictator. He (Jonathan) is not a despot. He is a listening President and he has shown this in his actions on the call for amnesty for Boko Haram.
“President Jonathan should be allowed to concentrate and govern the country well so that at the end, the people would be able to judge him by his performance,” Bozimo added.
On the issue of Boko Haram sect, Bozimo said the President was yet to grant amnesty to the dreaded group, adding that what Jonathan did was to set up a committee that would look at the possibility of granting the sect amnesty.
The PBP BoT member disagreed with senators from the northern region, who had kicked against the provision of derivation funds to oil-producing communities alone.
He described as unfair the demand by northern Senators that communities where oil facilities like pipelines were located should not benefit from derivation funds.
Bozimo said, “Only the man in Oloibiri and the man in Akasa should have the derivation fund because they suffer the devastation of the polluted environment.
“What they (northern senators) should be concerned about is how the oil-bearing communities would manage the funds without any form of bickering.
“It is totally unfair for anybody to say that these communities should not get the derivation fund or share it with non-oil producing communities.”
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