President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Dame Patience, yesterday, said her mission in Rivers was not to fight Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
She said this in Port Harcourt when 135 chiefs from Kalabari Kingdom paid her a courtesy visit.
“I am not here to fight the Governor of Rivers State because he is my brother. We should come together to develop the state” she said.
“We shouldn’t play politics with our home. Our home remains our home. We shouldn’t play politics with our elders.”
The First Lady said the Presidency provided an opportunity for people of the South-South to rule the country and not to be at each other’s throat.
She said: “The presidency is an opportunity that fell unto us on a platter of gold. We shouldn’t throw it away. We have had people that contested from this region but didn’t win.
“We didn’t fight, we didn’t pay. God willed it to us so we shouldn’t use politics to fight one another or destroy our kingdom. Kalabari has been peaceful and its people are peace-loving.”
Earlier, the chiefs said they came to inform the President that he must run for presidency in 2015.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Chief Dumo Oruobu, Anyawo XI of Bakana, said their mission was “not a phantom solidarity visit.”
He said: “We can no longer remain silent under the present political atmosphere as our silence can be interpreted to mean consent or sitting on the fence.
“We, hereby, state that the question of choice does not arise. Our son should run for office in 2015.
“We assure him that we will do everything within our collective abilities to help him achieve that objective. The Kalabari and Ijaw clans are one people and no revenue allocation or problem can tear us apart.”
Oruobu, who said the chiefs were used to pre-meditated attacks on the President in the past, said: “Our people refused to take sides against our son.”
