Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
A Presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kabiru Turaki SAN, on Monday, gave qualities the candidate of the party for the 2019 election should possess to include good education, experience, a bridge-builder and somebody that has no traces of corruption and above all, the fear of God.
Turaki, a former Supervising Minister, Ministry of Labour and Productivity and current chairman of Peoples Democratic Party former Ministers’ Forum of Nigeria, however, said presidential aspirants of the PDP are ready to put aside pride to queue behind whoever emerges as the party’s presidential candidate to win the 2019 election.
Addressing delegates and party faithful at the Edo State party secretariat in Benin-City, the former minister said the decision was for the interest of Nigerians who have never had it so bad since the annals of the country, adding that what the country needed at the moment is someone who can rescue it from the present shackle of economic woes.
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“Even though we have a lot of aspirants in PDP today and a lot of people are sitting by the window and are saying with all these gladiators that are contesting in PDP, I will reap from where I have not invested and I laughed at them.
“I have been able to go and talk to each and every one of the aspirants. We will be speaking to each other and to ourselves and we clearly understood that it is not about us.
“It is not even about our party but it is about our country. If Nigeria people will say they have agreed and about other 39 political parties will also ask the party to be in the front, we must be very careful. We must subordinate our selfish interest to national interest.
“And today, even though, each one of these aspirants are eminently qualified to become Nigeria’s president and do it one thousand better than what APC is doing, we believe that power comes from God.
“And we must concern ourselves with the fact that whoever gets the ticket of the delegates, we will line behind that person.
“If we must rescue Nigeria, so let us leave our pride aside. Let us look at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is that, PDP should get a candidate that will overwhelm the APC candidate in 2019 election”, he said.
Kabiru said the country has never been so divided than as it is now, pointing out that it is a misnomer for a president of a country to say he would develop certain states because they voted for him massively during the last presidential election, while other states that barely contributed five percent to his election would equally be given development commensurate with their votes.
He said having won as the president, it is incumbent on President Buhari to allow even development across the length and breadth of the country, irrespective of the quantum of votes cast for him.
According to the Presidential aspirant, the present state of the nation is moving from bad to worse due to the failure of the ruling party to implement the 2014 confab report and address the issues raised at the confab.
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A believer in restructuring, Kabiru, however, said the kind of restructuring must be looked into critically to know what is paramount in each of the agitations, adding that for the country to get it right at the moment, Nigerians must cast their vote for one who has an impeccable character and one that can serve as a bridge builder across the country.
“I will ensure security of lives and properties of Nigerians, improve the economy, infrastructure, if I have the whole ideas it will not work out unless I become the president of this country”, he said.