My Dear Arewa Brothers and Sisters,

I write you today, as President and a firm believer in the value and significance of the strategic political alliance between the South-South geo-political zone and the three geo-political zones in the Northern part of our country. In my every act as President of Nigeria, I have been consistently driven by a total commitment to ensuring the nurturing of this age-old alliance in the larger interest of our dear nation's enduring peace, stability, growth and development.

I do understand that my first duty to you, at this time, is to rid the entire North of the menace of Boko Haram and secure your lives and property. You and I know that nothing in Nigeria's past prepared us for the unprecedented reign of unmitigated terror, mayhem, and destruction which these murderous terrorists have visited on parts of our country. The initial slowness in effectively responding to this threat was a result of both the asymmetrical nature of the war on terror and the need for us to properly equip our security agencies for the successful prosecution of the war.

Given the recent successes recorded by our armed forces, with your cooperation and patriotic support, the cooperation of our neighbors, as well as the laudable gallantry of the men and women of our security agencies, I am confident that, in the shortest possible time, the menace of Boko Haram would have been eliminated for good.

My brothers and sisters, your pain is my pain; while there is no way to replace life, we must find ways to soothe the pains of our fellow Nigerians and rebuild the lives of persons and communities affected by these brutal murderers. The painful case of our daughters abducted from Chibok continues to ache my heart. I assure you that I will not relent until these innocent girls are rescued and reunited with their families. While commending you for your prayers, I am confident that, with the help of Almighty Allah we will totally defeat and put to shame these evildoers and their collaborators.

I am sure that you share with me the belief that, without the will of God in Whose Hands power resides, I would never have been your President nor will/ continue to be so in the future. Because Nigeria is today in desperate need of stability, I plead with you to join me in building on the foundation of the traditional affiance between us which has always served to keep Nigeria one strong, united and prosperous nation. My loyalty to my boss late President Yar'Adua and the greatness of the Arewa/South-South alliance under him is a well-known testimony to this tradition.

In the past four years, I have remained faithful to our old alliance especially in the appointments of your sons and daughters to high political offices. In addition, I have worked hard to reverse the over 30 years neglect of Agriculture in Northern Nigeria; address the challenge of Education through the establishment of dedicated Almajiri schools and the establishment of Universities in the nine Northern States that did not have Federal Universities; reduce the death rate of mothers and babies during birth, give loans to start-up businesses, restore abandoned irrigation and hydro-power projects, repair the bad roads and re-build the railway system which is the most viable access for your goods to the rest of Nigeria and the world.

With gratitude to God, I ask you for the chance to rebuild the North East, restore the economy and grains pyramids of Northern Nigeria so that these trains we just brought back can carry your bags of grains to Lagos, Port Harcourt and Onitsha. My vision and commitment is not to just move the grains but to also process our agro produce in the North of our country. It is impossible for me to achieve these great things if you do not support me and worse still if you refuse to work with me.

I urge you to disregard the politicians who abuse my person and cause hatred against my government by telling lies that I denied Arewa power and am arming Boko Haram. This government that I head means well for this country. I am committed to the development of the North. I am totally committed to the unity of this country. 2019 is just four years away and it is only with PDP that the vision of rotating power to the North can be guaranteed. I urge you to stand with PDP. I pray that you recall where we are coming from and how I became President in the first instance. Weigh what your younger generations under the PDP can offer you in the already approaching 2019. Only the PDP can offer a safe 2019 power shift to the North.

May God Almighty Bless you and may God continue to bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Goodluck Jonathan.