Chuks Okocha
The three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirants, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Hon Aminu Tambuwal and Bala Mohammed have continued their quest for a consensus presidential candidate for their party ahead of the May 28, 29 presidential convention.
The three aspirants yesterday met the governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku ,who pledged his support for the party to produce a consensus candidate for the overall unity of the PDP.
Speaking after the meetingin Abuja, the Taraba state governor, who is a member of the PDP 37-man committee on zoning pledged his support for the PDP to produce a consensus presidential candidate for unity and development of the party.
According to Ishaku, “This is a wonderful golden initiative. PDP is known for being a family. We have shown Nigerians how to rule and manage their affairs and I think we should still be the leaders.
“I very happy with this visit. You have my 100 per cent support. I am sure my colleagues too will give you the same support and any right-thinking person should be able to support this mission.
“We only have to produce one person. Let walk together, hold our hands together and agree that this person should be our leader and then will all fall in line. Then salvage this country, bring it back to what it is. Nigeria is one of the most beautiful countries God has given this country but we need to make it more beautiful.”, he stated.
Ishaka, who explained why the PDP must embrace a consensus approach said: “We need to salvage our people, we need to reduce the pains in our people, particularly security. In the past, People can travel midnight from here to Lagos and Maiduguri before, but now even in the afternoon you cannot travel.
“That is so bad. We need to put our hands together and work for Nigeria by bringing first unity among ourselves and then we now get the whole country united in one accord.”
I want thank you for this initiative.”
Also, the leader of the consensus team, Senator Saraki told the governor of Taraba state that their quest of consensus is to ensure a united political party.
Saraki said that they have visited the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom and will also visit the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and there after commence a visit to all PDP governors.
He said: “We met a couple of days ago to forge a consensus as a way to bring unity to our party because we see that PDP is the only alternative left for Nigerians and to say that we are committed more to Nigerians than to ourselves.
“Yes, we all have our individual ambitions, we all are eminently qualified to lead this country but we all cannot lead the country at the same time. What is important now is to provide leadership and unity, lets close ranks because if we all go to the primary, you know the problems that it will create and we agreed to work together and come up with a candidate.
“Part of our plan is to meet with other aspirants, we intend to meet with the Waziri Adamawa later today(yesterday), we have made plans to meet with the governor of Benue and we will also meet with other governors, the governors from the south early next week and some of the elders in the country.
“The main thing now is for PDP to come back and provide leadership for this country and provide direction for the millions of Nigerians who are going through a lot. We will rescue them, take over the country and rebuild it and we have made ourselves committed to this project and with God’s guidance, we will come up with one person and when we do that, we would like your support.
“Why we are coming early is because we want to ensure that you are part of this process. It is not being the president that matters, it is a team work that we want to bring to this country, to take a change from what leadership used to be, one person.
“The leadership we want to provide in 2023 is a leadership of unity where we will all play a role because it is clear that the problem of Nigeria is not what one person can do and that starts now in the emergence of that candidate,” Saraki added.
Just like Ishaku, Governor Ortomcommended the unity amongst the three presidential aspirants, urging them to continue the advocacy and understanding amongst them.
Governor Ortom said as an opposition, the PDP has set a standard for the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in the manner it conduct its affairs, adding that Buhari has brought this country to its knees hence, the need to take the country out of the woods.
