NORTHERN ELDERS ENDORSE JONATHAN FOR SECOND TERM

The Northern Elders Council (NEC) yesterday declared that they have endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan and his running mate, Vice President Namadi Sambo for a second term in office.
The elders led by their Chairman and elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai made their intention known when they paid him a courtesy visit at the presidential villa, Abuja.
Yakasai said NEC opted for the Jonathan/ Sambo because they offer the best prospects for continuous and sustained development, peace, unity and stability of the country.
According to him, despite the numerous social and security challenges, President Jonathan through his resilience, steadfastness, and patriotism competed with his focused leadership has held the country together.
He noted that the president matched the country to greater heights through the faithful implementation of the administration’s Transformation Agenda.
He added that the Council acknowledges the administration’s remarkable development of the Northern part of the country, particularly in the construction of over 120 Almajiri Schools, Girl Child Schools in 13 states, nine new universities, massive dam and irrigation projects, expansion of railways and numerous projects.
He also disclosed that the NEC was particularly delighted with the synergy between the President and Vice President Sambo, whom they described as “our distinguished son and leader.”
Responding, Vice President Sambo told the elders that they took a wise decision by endorsing the re-election bid of President Jonathan for a second term in the March 28 presidential election.
The Vice President expressed delight with the show of love and support by the Northern Elders Council, under the Chairmanship of Elder Statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai,
He said “I want to thank you very much for this endorsement and coming this election, we pray that we have a successful and peaceful election. Mr. President is succeeding in curbing the spate of insurgency in the North-east, let us support him. I thank you for this endorsement and God bless all of you.”
Sambo informed the elders that with the way the PDP and President Jonathan had been transforming Nigeria, there was nothing like change that exist anymore.
He said with the wealth of experience of President Jonathan and himself, they have delivered on their campaign promise in 2011, which was to transform the country positively, through their Transformation Agenda, which spanned over power supply, transportation, agriculture, education, security, tackling corruption and corrupt practices among others.
Noting that the APC manifesto was faulty, Sambo said, “If you look at the APC manifesto, one area that you will know that there is something wrong is that they said they will create one million jobs annually, but we have 1.4 million jobs annually that comes up, so if you produce only 1 million jobs, what about the 400,000 thousand, who will give them the job?
“Let us all go back to our states and inform the people correctly, let them know that the right direction to go is to give Mr. President and myself the chance to continue to move this country forward.”
Present at the meeting were the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Aminu Wali; Special Duties, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki and Transport, Senator Idris Umar.
Others include the former national chairman of the PDP, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed and Dr. Hassan Adamu (Wakilin Adamawa). Also present were members of the Executive Council and Board of Trustees of the Northern Elders CouncilSource: Leadership