JERRY Gana, former Minister of Information, has declared his intention to run for president in 2019.
Gana, a former chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), but now a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), made the declaration on Thursday.
He said Nigeria is facing an existential threat, never witnessed in the country, adding that the present administration has left the people in untold hardship.
“Being a patriotic and committed democrat, who has carried a burden for the rapid development of our nation for decades, I am deeply concerned at the very real prospect of Nigeria imploding unless our great party comes to the rescue with a God fearing, dynamic, untainted and credible leadership,” Gana said.
“Nigeria is facing an existential threat, the seriousness and proportion of which have never been witnessed since the end of the war.
“There is crippling uncertainty everywhere. People are suffering unprecedented and untold hardships as a result of arrested development.
“Insecurity has rendered human life brutish, short and nasty is rampart across the zones, states, communities and villages.
“Asymmetrical war on corruption is fueling further ethnic decadence, while anxiety, unpatriotism and poverty have coalesced into a creepy epidemic of self-doubt.
“In all of this, the current leadership of the nation, at the highest level of government seems unconcerned, incompetent or incapable of turning around the drift.”
Gana said that his political career which began almost 40 years ago, has been characterised by “a track record of performances”.
“Having consulted and affirmed by my family, local community, friends and a cross-section of eminent citizens and stakeholders across the core national divides of ethnicity, religion and regions, I am convinced that this is the fit time for me to offer myself for this national assignment on the platform of our great party.
“By my track record, my desire to contest the election into the highest political office is not motivated by a quest for self-glorification nor aggrandizement, rather it is borne out of my patriotic zeal and conviction that with my pedigree, experience, skills and academic endowment, I can provide the requisite leadership to transform the fortunes of our people and change the trajectory of our country towards the attainment of our fullest potentials.”
Gana, from Niger State, served as senator representing Bida Senatorial district on the platform of the Nigerian People’s Party, (NPP), in 1983. He later moved to the SDP. Gana was one of the founding members of the PDP, becoming the party’s first National Secretary, and later, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
He served as Minister of Co-operation and Integration in Africa, and later, Minister of Information, both during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo.