"You cannot rule Nigeria because you cannot give out what you don’t have” - Jonathan To APC

President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that his government would not give room to the opposition to assume leadership of the country.

The president made the assertion while launching the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

Wards’ Volunteer Scheme at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The PDPWVS is a campaign strategy aimed at getting grass-roots supports using about one million volunteers.

President Jonathan at the launch accused some unnamed people of bitterly criticising his government because of their “frustration, anger and guilt”.

He said: “And I always say that when you see people talking and you see the bitterness in their hearts, you see the frustration, the anger, and you see them as people who are already feeling guilty. If you don’t have a forgiving heart, if you don’t have a clean heart, you cannot rule Nigeria because you cannot give out what you don’t have”.

Jonathan said the PDP had set standards in governance, which the opposition could not match because they never had governance experience at the federal level.

“At the state level and at the national level; well, at the national level, we cannot compare our standards with theirs because they have not had the experience, and we will not give them the opportunity. But I know they will not do well”, he said.

He also pointed out that PDP was the only party with members at every voting unit, but lamented that leaders and members of the party had not been showcasing its achievements.

“If you go to agricultural sector, transportation sector, education sector, petroleum sector, we’ve opened up the sector such that it has created a lot of room for the big boys in the Nigerian oil sector.

“There is no other party whether two, three, four, five parties coming together. They cannot reach that level. PDP has members in every voting unit in this country”, he said.

The president also stated that it was only in PDP-controlled states that things are working.

He said: “PDP has done very well, but we have not been marketing the achievements of our party. Sometimes, you see people that have done nothing coming to intimidate us.

“We’re doing better than others. It is only in PDP states that things are working. If I compare the quality of Government Houses and Presidential Lodges, the ones in PDP states are better in quality, even state universities opened by PDP states are better.

“The PDP states are committed to education. But sometimes, people come and say we have done nothing. “The intimidation is more, to the extent that even in the states where we are more, where we even have PDP governors, they come to intimidate us. And we have to resolve that we cannot allow people who are not up to us to intimidate us”.