2015: Kaduna is a test ground for PDP - Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has disclosed that Kaduna state is a test ground for the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 presidential elections.
While meeting with the PDP leaders in Kaduna on Tuesday, President Jonathan said the party must win the 2015 general elections in state, stressing that the PDP must produce the governor of Kaduna State during the next election...
The president, who was in Kaduna to commission the N9.6 billion new government house complex said, “For the Presidential election, Kaduna State is also one of the test grounds and definitely we must win Kaduna State”.
He said in 2015, the PDP could not afford to lose Kaduna because of its strategic position as the political headquarters of the northern region. While observing that it would be worse for the entire PDP if the party loses in Kaduna State in 2015.
“As the 2015 elections are coming, PDP must win Kaduna State governorship election, we cannot afford to lose Kaduna State and it takes people working extra hard. In most cases when things are to be distributed, sometimes, people expect a little more but get a little less, so there are some issues.
“But in spite of these issues, if we don’t win this state, it will be worse for all of us and God willing, if we win, maybe some people who didn’t benefit in a couple of years may be able to get something, positions will rotate among people, opportunities will rotate among people.
“No matter what has happened, I charge you to be committed and make sure that you work extra hard to make sure that we secure the state, we must produce the governor of Kaduna State,” the president charged the PDP leaders in the state.
Jonathan also stressed that the country could not afford a recurrence of the violence that marred the 2011 general elections in Kaduna State.
“Nobody, in the name of politics, should deceive us into destroying ourselves while he and his family remain untouched”, Jonathan warned.
Governor Murktar Yero and the party leaders in the state pledged support for Jonathan’s administration, adding that the state would vote massively for PDP in the general 2015 elections.
The president later met with the state council of traditional rulers whom he asked to continue to talk to their subjects on the need for peaceful co-existence in the state.
Alhaji Shehu Idris, Emir of Zazzau, who responded on behalf of his colleagues, assured that the traditional institution would cooperate with security forces in the fight against terrorism.
The monarch pleaded for inclusion of the role for traditional rulers in the constitution.
Earlier, Yero noted that the new government house project was initiated and awarded in 2008 when Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo was the governor of the state.