President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday sued for unity among members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to enable the party achieve successes in future elections.
Jonathan made the call when the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation submitted its report on the 2015 general elections at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Jonathan said the party was needed to move the nation to greater heights.
“The key thing is that we must continue to unite as a party; we must continue to work hard so that as we go into the subsequent elections in 2019, 2023 and so on and so forth, PDP will be able to come up strong.
“Even for the interest of the nation, we need PDP, I still believe that even though we have lost Presidential elections and we have lost National Assembly elections and even governorship election massively, especially in the Northern parts, PDP still is a dominant party in the country.
“Let us not judge PDP by the results of the Presidential elections, because some of the states where we saw PDP scoring so low it’s probably problem within the PDP.
“So, you see PDP voting against PDP and that is why we get these kinds of results.
“Because of the crisis in the party, it made some party members not to be loyal to the party at that point and that led to some of the situation we found ourselves.
“And we lost quite a number of National Assembly seats even if we forget about the presidential elections, we could have got some National Assembly seats in a number of states.
“There is no reason for example for us to lose three senators from Kogi State, the results in Benue State, no reason.
“These are PDP-controlled states; something went wrong, our duty is to make sure that we go back and rectify those areas so that the party will come strong and play the role of a very strong party.’’
Jonathan said that PDP was still the most organised party and one that nobody owned.
“PDP is still the party that whatever you are, you can get to any level based on your competencies.
“So I will encourage members of our party to remain faithful, not to be so disillusioned because we lost presidential election and you decide to go to where you feel they will fill their stomach.’’
He advised those members already planning to quit the party for others not to do so in their own interest.
According to Jonathan, these people are running and some of them already cross carpeting, they will come back with empty stomach.
He urged members to be committed to the party, adding that although, there would be challenges at the beginning, the party would come out stronger and successful.
The president said that the key thing was for the nation to move forward, rather than the loss of election.
He said this was not the first time an incumbent would lose election in the world.
Jonathan stated that the party was still the dominant party, adding that now that the elections were over, Nigerians should put the nation first.
The president said he conceded defeat to save the country from chaos, adding that people would narrate different perspectives of the 2015 elections as the accounts given of the Nigerian/Biafran civil war.
He said political parties could only thrive if there was a country.
Jonathan said that he was not the only person that made sacrifice, although he made the pronouncement of conceding defeat.
Ealier, the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, the Chairman of the Campaign organisation, Ahmadu Ali, and Vice President Namadi Sambo, respectively said that the party lost the elections but won peace for the country.
They hailed Jonathan for the decision he took after the polls, adding that the world would continue to respect him for conceding defeat. (NAN)
