President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday commended the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its role in the Bayelsa State political logjam and urged them not to allow themselves to be intimidated into submission by anybody as long as they were 'on the right course.'Jonathan spoke yesterday while responding to the National Working Committee of the party led by the acting National Chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje, who visited the State House, Abuja to rejoice with the president on his 54th birthday anniversary, which was celebrated on Sunday, November 20. The NWC also presented a birthday card to the president.Jonathan said, 'I notice that in Nigeria political environment, people feel that a leader of the party must always influence the decision of the party. So, influencing the decision of the party now becomes a norm. We must change and we must begin to do things the right way. You made reference to the election, I always say my state, Bayelsa has always been a PDP state from 1999 to 2007 election. I commend the party, continue to follow due process, don't be intimidated by anybody as long as you are on the right course. And I believe PDP will lead the country to where Nigerians want it to be.'It is always difficult for people to appreciate things. In most cases, before people appreciate certain things, sometimes even people who initiated it most have passed on. It has happened severally in history. When people are used to doing things in a particular way, they feel that changing to another way may not be right.'It was the president's first reaction to the political crisis rocking his home state of Bayelsa following the exclusion of Governor Timipre Sylva from the governorship primaries conducted by the party on Saturday despite a court order stopping the exercise. The controversial primary, which was boycotted by some of the aspirants, was won by Seriake Dickson, believed to be the candidate of Jonathan.Speaking to newsmen after the meeting, Baraje said Sylva was aware of the sins he committed that led to his disqualification and challenged him to make them public since he has taken his case to the public court.Sylva had challenged the national leadership of the party to disclose the sins he committed which informed his disqualification but Baraje said it was purely an internal affair and that Sylva shouldn't have made it public.He said, 'if the governor wants to make it public, he can make it public. If he is saying the party has not told him what he has done, it means he doesn't want to make it public and the party is not interested in making it public. All I know is that in accordance with the law, the party has the right to present whoever is convenient to the party and that is what we have done.'He said the party has its own processes and party members must go through such processes before going to court, warning that 'If you rush to court and it negates our constitutional provisions, then we will go to court, we will answer whatever you call us for but we will subject you again to the provisions of our constitution.'On the party's conduct of the primaries despite a court order, Baraje said, 'there was no injunction, what the party had was a motion on notice, it was not an order to stop anything, it was a motion on notice asking the party why certain prayers in that court papers should not be granted by the court and that we should show reasons.'We were able to show reasons why we should go ahead. It was not an injunction, it was not an order, it was not anything stopping our party, we are a due process party, if the order had come and say stop, we will stop but that order was not to stop us.'Earlier, Baraje told the president that the party and Nigerians were proud of the president for introducing the culture of non-interference in the activities of party and the affairs of the other arms of government.
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