Port Harcourt —The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, yesterday, said she was not in Rivers to fight Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
Jonathan said this in Port Harcourt when 135 chiefs from Kalabari Kingdom called on her.
She said: “I am not here to fight the Governor of Rivers State because he is my brother. We should come together to develop the state.
“We shouldn’t play politics with our home. Our home remains our home. We shouldn’t play politics with our elders.”
The President’s wife said the presidency was an opportunity for the people of the South-South to rule the country not to be at war against one another.
She said: “The presidency is an opportunity that fell unto us on a platter of gold. We shouldn’t throw it away. We have had people that contested from this region but didn’t win.
“We didn’t fight, we didn’t pay. God willed it to us so we shouldn’t use politics to fight one another or destroy our kingdom. Kalabari has been peaceful and its people are peace-loving.”
Why 135 chiefs visited
Earlier, the chiefs said they were at Jonathan’s residence to state clearly that President Goodluck Jonathan must run for presidency in 2015.
Their spokesman, Chief Dumo Oruobu, Anyawo XI of Bakana, said their mission was “not a phantom solidarity visit.”
He said: “We can no longer remain silent under the present political atmosphere as our silence can be interpreted to mean consent or sitting on the fence.
“We, hereby, state that the question of choice does not arise. Our son should run for office in 2015.
“We assure him that we will do everything within our collective abilities to help him achieve that objective. The Kalabari and Ijaw clans are one people and no revenue allocation or problem can tear us apart.”
Oruobu, who said the chiefs were used to pre-meditated attacks on the president in the past, said: “Our people refused to take sides against our son.”
Source: Vanguard
