By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan admitted yesterday that this was a trying period for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, but said as members of the party, they have the capacity to resolve any differences.

According to Jonathan, as party members and even as aspirants, they must all be mindful of how they conduct themselves especially before and during the party’s primaries.

Speaking yesterday at the 54th meeting of the National Executive Committee, NEC of the PDP at the Party’s National Secretariat, the President who noted that “this period is very critical not for PDP alone but for the whole country”, however warned the PDP members on the need to embrace dialogue, adding, “even though we don’t know when they conduct their own primaries but they want to be involved and witness our primaries.

“Let me use the opportunity to plead with those of us who are aspirants at one level or the other to play the politics in away that they will remember that we are a member of one political family.

“At the end of our primary election, we must come together to protect the interest of PDP and no matter the challenges we have, we must realize that because other parties will want to weaken us.

“Everyday we read in the newspapers that some members of the party want to defect or defecting to other parties. Some of these stories may be true but some is just to weaken us and make [people say that everybody is leaving PDP.

“No matter what anybody says we are the ruling party.  That is why the challenges is more on us and any ripples in the PDP will appear like a wind. A wind in other places will not even appear like ripples. The challenge of leadership is more on us. Maintaining the position is more on us than others.

“So we should not take some of the stories seriously but at the same time we must be mindful of how we conduct ourselves in the process of our primary elections.”

“Anything that the PDP Governors decide that is what the Governors’ Forum decides because politics is about game of numbers. By God grace we control the Executives because the President, Vice president and most of the ministers are members of PDP.  All these sectors must work together we must see ourselves as one”.

The President who accused opponents of showing more than normal interest in the activities of the party, expressed great worry on the situation on hand, adding, “the issue of one group isolating themselves or others isolating themselves as If we must be boxing ourselves is not in the interest of the party.

“I plead with us that we must realize that for any political differences, dialogue resolves issues. I believe that court don’t even resolve political differences  because court can give you judgment but they are not moral judgment but if people sit down and reason together it is always better than other options especially when internal crisis are involved.

“I encourage all of us to see how we can come together to resolve our differences if any and let us play the politics as we belong to the same family.

‘’It is a period that the atmosphere is charged and everybody is stressed about one thing or the other. This period is very critical not for PDP alone but for the whole country. But PDP is on top because anything about PDP we set the agenda and everybody knows that and that is why they concede to us and that is why other parties want to participate in our primaries. Even though we don’t know when they conduct their own primaries but they want to be involve and witness our primaries.

‘’No matter what anybody says we are the ruling party.  That is why the challenges are more on us and any ripples in the PDP will appear like a wind. A wind in other places will not even appear like ripples. The challenge of leadership is more on us. Maintaining the position is more on us than others. Let me use the opportunity to plead with those of us who are aspirants at one level or the other to play the politics in away that they will remember that we are a member of one political family.

‘’At the end of our primary election, we must come together to protect the interest of PDP and no matter  the challenges we have, we must realize that because other parties will want to weaken us . Everyday we read in the newspapers that some members of the party want to deflect or deflecting to other parties. Some of these stories may be true but some is just to weaken us and make people say that everybody is leaving PDP.

‘’So we should not take some of the stories seriously but at the same time we must be mindful of how e conduct ourselves in the process of our primary elections. One must state clearly that this is a ruling party and we will expect all sectors, all major divisions of the party to know that we belong to the same body.

By God grace and by hard work we control majority in the national Assembly and many state assemblies and by God grace also, we have majority in the Governors forum.’’