PDP’ll field winning candidates in 2019 - Prof Adedoja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will field winning presidential and governorship candidates for the 2019 general elections, a former minister of Sports and Special Duties, Prof Taoheed Adedoja, has said.

He said the emergence of candidates across board would be through a thorough, transparent and fair democratic process and not by imposition.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja at the weekend, Adedoja, a contender for the party’s chairmanship slot, said the PDP would have nothing to fear if he is given the mandate to lead the party to the 2019 polls.

He said there would be no room for consensus candidacy under his reign in the context of 2019, explaining that the same consensus arrangement that produced a person also has the clout to remove the person from office.

Adedoja, a two-time governorship candidate in Oyo State, said the elective national convention of the party, slated for December, would be a test case for it, stressing that the era of impunity and imposition was over as the party had learnt its lessons.

He said the convention is a “political laboratory” for testing the democratic credentials of the PDP, adding that if the convention produced a national chairman through “undemocratic means,” it would affect the emergence of credible candidates in 2019.

“We require a chairman that has a thorough understanding of the political thinking of Nigerians today.

“Leading the party to present a winning presidential candidate for the 2019 election and winning candidates for all elective positions is one of my 15-point focus,” he said.

He added that, “Nigerians are now in a hurry for the PDP to come back only after two years. There is a reason for it. What Nigerians expect now is to give the PDP another opportunity to come back in 2019 to rule better.”