Wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Dame Patience Jonathan, has said the Peoples Democratic Party women’s campaign rally was in Ogun State on Tuesday to celebrate the party’s victory and not to hold a campaign rally.
She said this in Abeokuta on Monday at the PDP secretariat, when she met the women’s wing of the party in the state.
Dame Jonathan, who was represented by the wife of the vice-president, Mrs Aminat Namadi Sambo, said it was time for the PDP to take over the state from the ruling All Progressives Congress, while his husband and the vice-president, should be re-elected to continue their transformation agenda.
She said, “What we are seeing today, to me, is only a celebration. We are not here to campaign; the party has started. We are just here to thank our women.
“The rousing welcome and the reception you have accorded us are indications that PDP is coming back to Ogun State. If there is a place that we need change, it is Ogun State, but we need transformation in Abuja. So, my dear women, I urge you to come out en masse on March 28 and vote for Mr. President.
“We are all aware of the good works they have started and I think it is advisable that we allow them to continue what they have started.”
The wife of the president, who noted that her husband’s administration had been a gender-friendly one, expressed the hope that the president would continue to support Nigerian women to attain not only the 35 per cent affirmative action but also to take it up to 50 per cent.
For PDP to return to power in Ogun State, she said it would not happen through a magic wand, appealing to collect their Permanent Voter Cards, and turn out en masse on March 28 and April 11 and vote for the party.
She said, “PDP will come back to Ogun State. But we need to do more. We need to go and get our PVC. Anybody that hasn’t collected his or her card should please do so.
“That is your power, that is your right and bring back the mandate that we have been expecting from you as women.”
She said President Jonathan had brought transformation to various sectors – roads, power, airports, railway and education among others.
She said, “I am quite sure you have tasted and you have been a witness to the good works that he has done in this great state of yours.
“I’m quite sure you are aware of the new power plant that has been constructed. I am quite sure you are aware of the transformation that has been going on in our transport system, the roads are now motorable. Work is ongoing in Lagos-Benin Road. So, we want you to continue to enjoy the goodies.
“Our railways are now working, our schools have been impacted with great infrastructure and our universities have been having a new uplift. I want to assure you that they will continue to support education, they will continue to transform the health sector, they will continue to transform the educational sector.
“Our airports are now having facelift everywhere you go. I’m quite sure, with your mandate, they will continue to do more.”
The PDP governorship candidate for the state, Gboyega Isiaka, and the former governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, also canvassed votes for the President’s re-election.
Daniel noted that while Jonathan “is energetic and youthful, Buhari (Mohammadu Buhari) is old and weak.”
