PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday said he would be ready to take on any presidential candidate in a public debate after emerging as the the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Jonathan, who made the pledge in Port Harcourt while addressing delegates from five PDP states in the South-South, explained that it would not be wise for him to engage fellow presidential aspirants in the PDP in such a debate.

He said he was mindful of how presidential debates were done all over the world, even as he expressed surprise that he was already being invited to one.

“I am ready for a debate, but that will be when a candidate emerges from the party. I know how a presidential debate is done all over the world, but here, somebody is challenging me to a debate at this time,” he noted.

Fellow PDP presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had challenged Jonathan to a debate on various issues in the country.

Promising not to disappoint the people of the zone, Jonathan argued that if he performed well as a president, it would brighten the chances of any other person from the South-South in future. The President stated that his government would pay more attention to education from primary to secondary school level.

According to him, without education, the country’s hope of becoming one of the biggest economies of the world within the next 10 years will be a mirage. On the killings in Jos and some other parts of the country, Jonathan said the Federal Government had resolved to establish a special unit to forestall acts of terrorism.

He expressed concern over the wave of terrorism globally, maintaining that measures would soon be put in place to put an end to such in the country. Jonathan assured that he and Vice-President Namadi Sambo would work with governors in the South-South to meet the aspirations of their people.

He expressed gratitude to the governors, members of the National Assembly and elders of the zone for their support for his presidential aspiration. The President, however, called on the people of the zone to close ranks to enable them to solve their common problems.



Also speaking, a former Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, noted that though people from other zones were running for president, the South-South had majority support. Anenih urged the people of the South-South to continue to reach out to other Nigerians and appeal to them to support a Jonathan/Sambo presidency in 2011.

In his remarks, the Director-General of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organization, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida, thanked the people of the zone for their support. He urged Jonathan not to renege on his promise to address the problems affecting the people of the zone. The PDP delegates from Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Delta states used the opportunity to endorse Jonathan as their sole candidate for the January 13, 2011 presidential primaries.