President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday said that it is too early to disclose whether he will or will not contest for the 2015 presidential election.
The president who said this while answering questions from selected journalists during a presidential media chat in the state House, Abuja urged politicians to allow him concentrate on his job of governing Nigeria.
“It is too early to start talking about 2015,” he said.
He however did not directly answer the question whether he will contest the next presidential election or not but said that “when INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) open the race, we will see who will contest”.
President Jonathan said his present priority is to deliver the promises he made while campaigning to be elected as president.
“I promised Nigerians that I will not disappoint them; I stand by my promise,” he declared.
President Jonathan further said while he was assuming office as the President of Nigeria, he expected lots of criticism.
“Criticizing Jonathan and Jonathan administration is big business,” he said.
“When I took over as president, I told my close friends that they will hear people abusing me in 2012 until 2013 when they will start to see results and the insults will reduce,” he said.
The president’s ambition to pursue a second term in office has been a subject of rumour and debate in many quarters.
Last April, South-South and Ijaw leader, Edwin Clark challenged the political class in the Northern Nigeria to give reasons why President Jonathan cannot run for Presidency in 2015, saying the decision to accept or reject the president lies with the Nigerian people.
The First Republic Information Minister, who was speaking in Lagos at the investiture of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku, as Maritime Man of the Year for 2011, equally alleged that “the attitude of a section of the North shows that the region is born to rule over others in the country.
“Even though I do not want to talk about 2015 now because the time is still far, the North should know that only Nigerians have the power to stop anyone from becoming president; even if Jonathan wants to run today, the North cannot stop him because apart from the fact that he has the right to run, the North should equally know that they are not born to rule over others in the country,” he said