At exactly 1.30 pm on Thursday, 23rd November 2006, Governor Nnamani collected the Presidential Nomination Form after paying the prescribed N5 million fee to the national secretariat of the PDP at Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.

Addressing the party’s leadership as well as his supporters shortly after picking the form, Dr. Nnamani said it was a process of engagement with the people. “We have arrived here this afternoon, all the way from Enugu, to pick up the form for the presidential nomination of our great party. We are starting a process of engagement. After seven and half years, we have been engaging with the people of Enugu State. Today starts a process of engagement with the people of Nigeria”, he said.

He paid glowing tributes to the leadership qualities of the party’s national chairman, Senator (Dr.) Ahmadu Ali, whom he called a senior professional colleague, pointing out that Dr. Ali had over the years made tremendous contributions towards the development of Nigeria.

“May I acknowledge a pioneer student unionist; may I acknowledge a de-tribalised Nigerian; may I acknowledge a pioneer in the Armed Forces Medical Corps, a pioneer in the National Youth Service Corps scheme”, Governor Nnamani said of his principal host.

In his words, the tribute was to someone who had led the party creditably, adding that the he was acknowledging a party chairman “who has seen major reforms in our party, maintained discipline and held his head high in spite of all forms of accusations”.

“We have held talks about succession, we have had talks about exit… we are not here today to talk about succession, but we are here to talk about success”, the presidential contender said.

Governor Nnamani maintained that the time had come to celebrate the success achieved by the President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in moving the country forward on several fronts.

On President Obasanjo, he said Nigerians needed to celebrate “a true Nigerian, one who has bestrode the firmament of this nation’s political and social sectors”.

While recalling Obasanjo’s roles in the formative years of the country’s armed forces as a military officer, international peacekeeper and the armistice in the wake of the country’s civil war, he pointed out that the President had also brought the expansion of public infrastructures, education, communications, public health and the foreign service, amongst others.

In his view, Chief Obasanjo should be celebrated for moving Nigeria from a pariah state in 1999 to one that could now take its place proudly amongst the comity of nations, citing economic reforms which had brought about the globalization and liberalization of the country’s economy as cogent examples.

According to the presidential hopeful, President Obasanjo also stands to be celebrated because of the reforms in the banking sector and the introduction of the GSM into the country’s economy.

In Governor Nnamani’s opinion, there was no need for him to talk about his Enugu State because many important personalities and institutions were already doing that for the state.

“Enugu is working, President Obasanjo said; Enugu is working, the chairman of the party said; Enugu is working, the chairman of European Union ambassadors said. So we will bore you if we begin to talk about Enugu State here”.

Governor Nnamani also observed that several international institutions such as the DFID, the UNICEF, the WHO, and the UNDP had already testified to the successes achieved by his administration in the areas of medicare, education and overall infrastructural development of the state.

Sounding philosophical, he emphasized that he had joined the race for the presidency “because, over the past few weeks, our elders had sat and watched; our mothers, our brothers and sisters, they had watched the dance arena. They had seen others dancing, and they wondered where their sons were. We have come to raise the tempo, we have come with our drummers, we have come with our trumpeters, and the drumbeats are going to get louder and the trumpets will sound and we are going to dance vigorously”.

In his remarks, Dr. Ali expressed optimism that the crop of young Nigerians jostling for the presidency were all determined to retrieve the country from the ambit of poverty, ignorance and disease, pointing out that the older generation of Nigerians of which he is part, had no cause to doubt their capabilities.

He noted that Dr. Nnamani was head and shoulders ahead of many other contenders to the seat, judging by his plethora of achievements in Enugu State.

“As I have said previously, the young man is a good manager of men and materials. If you look at the monthly allocations to states, Enugu is thrird from the bottom, but if you visit Enugu State, you will see how he had harnessed that little money and we need more of such a man in the political firmament”, he said.

Speaking further, the PDP national chairman averred that “we have gone, we have seen”, noting that the candidate that would be chosen by the party would be “a focused candidate, a candidate that is honest, a candidate that has antecedence”.

Senator Ali observed that none of the political leaders of who had had the opportunity of governing Enugu State since inception had achieved as much as Dr. Nnamani.

Senator Ali further observed that with the entry of Dr. Nnamani into the presidential race, “Nnukwu mmanwu” itself (Igbo word for big masquerade) had arrived the dance arena, pointing out that most other Nigerians he had seen were greatly thrilled by Dr. Nnamami’s lecture series.

“You started this lecture series from the very beginning, lecturing from one state to another, like the great Zik of those days, blowing all the big grammar on poverty, on education, and on progress”.

He however explained that as an impartial umpire, the duty of the party’s national leadership would be to provide a level-playing field for all the contestants to the nation’s topmost political office.

He challenged members of the party nationwide to ensure that they sieved the chaff from the grains, adding that “my job is to preside over this procedure, and I hope you will appreciate our work”.

The chairman used the occasion to warn those he called fifth columnists who were still claiming to be PDP members, to find their exit from the party as the party cannot assist them in their ambition to take the country to the slaughter house.

On Governor Nnamani’s entourage were members of Enugu State caucus in the National Assembly led by Senator Ike Ekweremadu. Also on ground to welcome the Governor to the PDP national secretariat were members of the Nationa Working Committee of the party and various dance groups from several ethnic nationalities who added great colour to the event.