Northern leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have declared that only the national convention of the party can produce its presidential candidate.
The stakeholders, rising from their meeting in Abuja on Monday, rejected the Ango Abdullahi-led Northern Elders Forum’s (NEF) claims of having shortlisted Bala Mohammed and Bukola Saraki as the party’s consensus presidential candidates.
In a communiqué signed by Sule Lamido and Maina Waziri, at the end of the meeting, the northern leaders maintained that “all our aspirants are qualified to occupy the Nigerian Presidency under the PDP banner and we shall continue to support, promote and campaign and win the presidency by the candidate produced by our national convention scheduled for May 28 and 29, 2022”
The party leaders who were mainly from the 19 northern states, however, maintained that “the party is neither Northern nor Southern but Nigeria”
“We would like to state from the onset that there is nothing called the Northern PDP.
“Our coming together as key stakeholders from the northern states is only for the purpose of debunking any notion or impression which might have been created.
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The communiqué noted that the PDP as conceived by its founding fathers is the foremost national political platform wherein the democratic aspirations of its teeming members can be actualised devoid of any sectional consideration.
“We are happy to note that The Northern Elders Forum has through its secretary, Hakeem Ahmed disassociated itself from Abdullahi Ango’s media statement. They made it clear that it is Ango’s personal opinion.
“The aspirants have informed us that they are discussing among themselves. They are consulting other senior citizens in order to create a better understanding and unity among themselves. Their ultimate objective is to build a national consensus that will produce a national candidate for the party.”
The party leaders reiterated earlier appeals made to all the aspirants “to be more temperate in their utterances and work to promote harmony and better understanding within the PDP.
“We also want to assure all PDP members and indeed all Nigerians that we are aware of your pains, prayers, expectations and hope to be rescued. Your abiding faith in PDP shall set us free in 2023.”
The meeting was attended by a former minister of works, Sanusi Dagash, Maina Waziri; former governor of Niger, Babagida Aliya; Dino Melaye; former Adamawa State governor, Boni Haruna; former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, and former Kogi State governor, Ibrahim Idris, among other notable politicians.
