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President Goodluck
Jonathan yesterday emerged from the People’s Democratic Party
presidential screening session after about one hour with the panelists,
to describe the exercise as “rigorous.” Mr Jonathan arrived at the PDP
national secretariat in Abuja at about 12.40pm accompanied by his
deputy, Namadi Sambo, state governors, ministers and officials of the
Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation and went straight to the office of
the national organising secretary where the screening was conducted. He
emerged from the exercise at exactly 1.32pm.

“The exercise was
rigorous,” the president told journalists who wanted to know how he
fared during the screening. On crisis trailing the party’s primaries
across the country, Mr Jonathan said: “Whenever you have a general
election in a party as big as PDP, across the states, be it House of
Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate, gubernatorial or
presidential primaries, there is bound to be disagreement. We have some
flashpoints that the party is looking into but, on the average, I think
it went down very well.”

Governors who came
with the president were Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, Timipre
Sylva of Bayelsa State, Ibrahim Idris of Kogi State and Liyel Imoke of
Cross River State. Information and communication minister, Labaran Maku
and his petroleum resources and finance counterparts, Diezani
Allison-Madueke and Olusegun Aganga, were also among the president’s
entourage. The director-general of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign
Organisation and former works minister, Tony Anenih, also came with Mr
Jonathan.

Atiku, Jibril are satisfied

Atiku Abubakar,
former Nigerian vice president and another presidential hopeful, told
journalists after his screening that the exercise went well, just as he
dismissed speculations that he would be disqualified. Mr Abubakar
arrived at the PDP secretariat in a black Lexus jeep at 1.54pm and left
at about 3.50pm. His entourage included a former Senate president, Ken
Nnamani; former minister of state for foreign affairs, Dubem Onyia;
former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Chukwuma Soludo; and former
special adviser on women’s affairs to ex-president, Olusegun Obasanjo,
Titi Ajanaku.

“I was asked about
my return to the party,” Mr Atiku said. “It went well. I was asked many
questions. I was asked how would I unite the party. I was asked about
the critical comments I made about the PDP in the past and so on and so
forth.”

Asked about his impression of the Aminu Wali-led panel, Mr Abubakar said: “I think the screening panel is a good panel.”

On what he would do
if disqualified, the aspirant responded: “No, they cannot disqualify me
because they don’t have the power to do that. They asked me questions
about my person, but they are not a court, they are not a tribunal,
they are not a panel of inquiry and they are not competent to do that.”

The PDP’s only
female contestant, Sarah Jibril, told journalists after her screening
that the “the exercise was detailed and thorough.” She said that the
panel asked her why she wanted to be president and questioned her on
the sincerity of her ambition, adding that there were other technical
and political questions.

Dissatisfied Dutsinma

Another contestant,
Sani Aminu Dutsinma, however shunned the screening. Mr Dutsinma, who
showed up at the PDP Headquarters at about 4.30pm but declined to
appear before the panel, said he had gone to court to seek an
interpretation of Section 7.2c of the party’s constitution. In a letter
to the PDP national chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, which Mr Dutsinma also
gave to journalists, the contestant described the screening as a breach
of the party’s constitution and other laws. He accused party officers
of not adhering to what he called the party’s “policy of zoning and
rotation of party and public elective offices.”

“However, should you decide to drop Dr Goodluck Jonathan from the exercise, I will be most willing to participate,” he said.