We can’t abandon Jonathan – Shekarau
‘PDP will alway determine who emerges Senate president’
Former Kano State governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, yesterday declared his unfettered loyalty to former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Shekarau, who served as Education minister under Jonathan’s administration said Wednesday in a chat with journalists at the Abuja National Stadium that all the ministers who served under the administration of former President Jonathan are still with him.
He said there was no iota of truth in the claims in some quarters that the former president has been abandoned by his former aides.
“No, you see, all of us who worked with Jonathan are still intact with him. We are still with Jonathan we cannot abandon him because, as our leader, he has played his part in the development of the country. We don’t need to publicise our meetings with him in our private capacity,” he said.
The former governor, who expressed optimism that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will bounce back in 2019, said what happened was good for the party to recoup and plan for the great challenge ahead.
“We have done our beats and we have taken a retreat to plan ahead, and prepare for the next competition in which Nigerians will judge.
“PDP will bounce back, it is like a force button which has given us the opportunity to reorganise for future elections and get back our mandate.
“What is happening is a good development for democracy in the country like in advanced world where you have two strong parties competing for space, and the electorate are always there to judge when it comes to election time. I am confident PDP will definitely weather the storm and take its rightful position,” he said. The situation of the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, occasioned by his assets declaration case, remains a distraction to the legislative arm government and it is endangering Nigeria’s democracy, a member of the House of Representatives, Rep Igariawey Iduna, has said.
He alleged that the crisis was the handiwork of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which according to him could backfire.
He argued that due to the numerical strength of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Senate, the party would always determine who occupied the Senate president’s office.
“It’s not true that PDP legislators are happy. Rather, they feel that the exercise is politically motivated and endangers our democracy. PDP feels (that) the exercise is a mere distraction.”