I had earlier in a note entitled 'Farewell to Do or Die Elections' to you my friends and to the larger Nigerian society pledged my willingness to play politics without pain. In furtherance of that, you may want to note that the Jonathan/Sambo campaign team has been touring the country and having dialogues in every zone of the nation. Since we believe in persuasion over coercion, our team has also visited opposition party strongholds and chieftains. Now we have not stopped there. I as President and one who has declared my interest in the 2011 Presidential elections have "without bitterness" and rancour received many of the aspirants who have thought it necessary as protocol demands to pay me a visit to intimate me of their Presidential ambitions. And those who have not thought it necessary continue to enjoy my good will.
Contrary to what those with ulterior motives will want us to believe, 2011 will come and go, our beloved country Nigeria will remain. This coming elections will be peaceful because I, Goodluck Jonathan, by the grace of God President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria do not subscribe to the politics of rancour and recriminations or do or die and coercion. And as long as God keeps me, I will never permit any agency of the Federal Government to be used for the purpose of circumventing the will of the Nigerian people.
I want to assure you my friends that the only consensus that will matter in 2011 is the consensus of the Nigerian people as displayed in a free and fair election. I believe this and this is why our campaign team and I will campaign to you on ideas, issues, plans and things already delivered. We will never campaign on the basis of tribe, region, religion and personal attacks. I am reminded at this stage of a lesson taught to me by a learned professor of mine while I was at the university. He said "great minds talk about ideas, minds on the way to greatness talk about things, but small minds talk about people and where they are from rather than where they are going".
You, me and everybody else has no control over where we come from, only God does. Rather we have control over where we are going? Today, I ask Nigerians to make a choice. Would you rather talk about where an aspirant is from or where he/she is going?
- GEJ
What Matters is Where We Are Going, Not Where we Come From (http://www.facebook.com/notes/goodluck-jonathan/what-matters-is-where-we-are-going-not-where-we-come-from/170737356287241).