Former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, on Friday, revealed that it was deceived into fighting ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo by its former National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
This was disclosed by the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim Jalo, during an interview with the Punch Newspapers.
Jalo noted that Tukur used embattled Senator Buruji Kashamu to cut the former President to size.
He further stated that for PDP to succeed in 2019 it must capture the Southwest zone, noting that there were capable hands in the region who could lead the party.
It would be recalled that Obasanjo had torn his PDP membership card in public before the 2015 election.
This, according to the PDP spokesperson, cost the party a lot in the last general election and it is yet to recover from it.
“We were deceived into fighting Obasanjo, a well respected man in Nigeria and outside the country.”
“It was our former chairman, Tukur, who (did that) because he thought he could cut him to size by empowering Buruji. It was the biggest mistake we ever made in the party.”
“Tukur thought he could use Buruji to reduce the influence of Obasanjo, who was fighting that the party must obey the zoning formula in our party’s constitution.”
“But people believed that we should go ahead with the impunity as sold by the few powerful men in our party. At the end of the day, Obasanjo had the last laugh while the party found itself in opposition today.”
Speaking on the forthcoming National Convention of the party, Jalo stated that it was wrong for the incumbent chairman Ali Modu Sheriff to continue his tenure beyond May.
“The North has produced seven national chairmen for the party. PDP isn’t meant for the North alone. Solomon Lar, Audu Ogbeh, Bernabas Gemade, Ahmadu Ali, Tukur, Adamu Mu’azu and Sheriff are all from the North. Other zones have all produced the national chairman as well.”
“But the South-West has yet to produce the national chairman. It is their turn and we must not deny them this opportunity.”
“We need to curry the favour of the zone, because that’s where we need votes in 2019. The North is for the PDP and what the people there are expecting is the presidency and not the office of the PDP National Chairman.”
“Former Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu started with only one state, which is Lagos but he later took over the entire South-West and now he’s controlling the entire country.”
He went further to list some capable hands from the southwest who could lead the party to success.
They include: Sen. Bode Olajumoke, Bode George, Ebenezer Babatope, Femi Fani-Kayode and Chief Shuaib Oyedokun.
