From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Former Governor of Kaduna State and Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Mohammed Ahmed Makarfi has criticised the recent comments of former President Olusegun Obasanjo(OBJ) that made a “genuine mistake” to have picked Atiku Abubakar as his running mate in the 1999 presidential election.
Makarfi said it is too late for PDP members to desert Atiku, adding that what is required of the PDP family is to support the presidential candidate of the party to emerge victorious in 2023.
Senator Makarfi also blamed the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of PDP, Senator Walid Jibrin, for joining issues with OBJ on Atiku, saying that such comments were unnecessary and diversionary.
Senator Jibrin had penultimate Tuesday tackled OBJ and threatened to expose the former President over comments on Atiku.
However, Makarfi expressed optimism that the Party Will win the 2023 general elections in the country, urging the leaders and other stakeholders to close rank and resolved all political problems.
“What OBJ and Walid Jibrin said were unnecessary and they shouldn’t have spoken in that form. All we need now is how to move our party forward for the task of forming government in 2023.” He said.
Makarfi, who spoke to reporters in Kaduna on Thursday, also debunked rumours of decamping from PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that what will make him to leave the Party is when he retires from politics.
According to him, all hands should be on deck to resolve all the misunderstandings associated with the outcome of the Presidential Primaries and the choice of the running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State by the PDP Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, while asking all the Aspirants that contested the primaries to close rank in working for the Party’s success in 2023.
He called on the former Vice President Atiku, as the flag bearer of PDP to engage in a meeting with the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike with a view of resolving any problem that may have risen from the choice of his running mate.
“I won’t blame Wike For feeling Bad. Because he has been one of the pillars of the Party. Let the Presidential Candidate, Atiku sit down with Wike to discuss issues because he is the only one that knows why he picked his running mate. The Matter is resolvable”.
Senator Makarfi who said that PDP Will bring back true democracy to Nigeria in 2023, explained that “we have learnt our lessons and we Will do more than we did when we are in power”.
He insisted: “as long elections Will hold, PDP Will win, but we need to work hard for us to win in 2023”, noting, “PDP is set to bring true democracy back to Nigeria, and we have learnt our lessons”.
On rumour of his defection from PDP, he said, “honestly, I am hearing this for the first time that I am defecting from PDP to APC and I don’t know what can be the basis.
“Why should I make an investment in terms of time and whatever you can mention in PDP and now decoder to leave. Why should I go through the stress and just when we are getting it right, then I now leave the PDP for APC or any other party? What will be the attraction for me to leave the PDP? Well, people don’t approach me with such a rumour because they know the type of person that I am. If they want to come they come to me with substance. What could be the basis, because in every rumour there must be a basis.
“Is it because members of the opposition party attended my son’s wedding and that is the basis of that rumour. Even then people of my own political party were all there. Is this the kind of country that we want to build that because people from all shades of life attend wedding ceremony, burial that they will now start flying rumours of defection?
“The rumour is the figment of the imagination of people who are jobless. I am a PDP member through and through. If I leave PDP, I should be retiring from politics. And because you hold a different political opinion then you now cut off all relationships with people and you want Nigeria to move forward?
“I will continue to hold my political opinion as a PDP person. I will continue to stand by my opinion in the PDP. I have stood by it a long time ago and I will continue. People that have been gallivanting between PDP and APC are known.
“I am in politics in PDP on principle. If people are moving across parties because they want to capture power or they want to enhance their financial and economic position or whatever; I am still in PDP and I will continue to be in PDP and this time around, I believe we are going to be in power God’s willing in Kaduna. And we shall be successful even at the national level.”
On the recently concluded PDP primaries, he argued: “You see, anytime there is election some people will have an opinion. I that you are speaking with have gone through all that. Any result of every electoral process, I personally have never allowed that to bother me and to becloud a larger picture.
“The PDP convention was a keenly contested convention that nobody was sure of its outcome until it came out. And me, as a man of faith, when power comes, I believe it ultimately comes from God but of course, winners and losers should expect that after the election and the pains of losing, should put out all these behind them so that the party will move forward.
“No matter the personal view of many of us on the outcome, we should work with that outcome and of course, the winner now is Atiku. And of course, all leaders of the party should work tirelessly together to accommodate, because nobody can go it alone.
“Any of the aspirants who contested that presidential primary election even though if he had won, would not be able to do it alone. He would need the support of others. If Tambuwal had emerged, he would not be able to do it alone; if Wike or any other person had emerged, they would not be able to do it alone. If even as Atiku has won, he would not be able to do it alone.” Makarfi said.