Ex-PDP Ministers: We Want to Defeat Buhari in 2019
Say next weeks’s S’Court ruling will reunite party
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) former Ministers’ Forum made up of politicians who served in the ministerial capacity when the party was in power has said they will like to see President Muhammadu Buhari re-contest in 2019 so as to defeat him in the election.
The forum said that they have resolve to work in tandem with other organs and tiers of party and that they have taken a decision that whatever happens with regard to outcome of the judgement of the supreme court which is comming sometime next week, they would join hands to reunite the party.
The forum which met at the residence of the former Minister for Special Duties in the ex-president Jonathan’s administration, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki in Asokoro, Abuja yesterday held that as a result of the inept leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led federal government, “Nigerians have never been so polarised along regional, tribal, ethnic religiuos and other divides”.
Addressing journalists on the resolutions reached at the emergency meeting of the Forum, Turaki who is the chairman said rather than pay back President Buhari in his own coin by demanding his impeachment as he did against late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, PDP desires that he recovers and come back to complete his remaining tenure.
“People behave differently to different situations. We are not unaware of the point President Buhari made when Yar’Adua was sick. For us as former ministers forum, we wish him speedy recovery. We want him to come back and continue the job for which he persistently fought to be elected and for which he was elected. We want him to come and continue because we want to defeat him in the 2019 election and not anybody else,” he said.
The forum said it is calling for an urgent meeting of all organs of the party to harmonise all necessary strategies to consolidate the party and unite all efforts particularly in the buildup to the 2019 general election which it hopes will lead to a resounding victory.
While reading the communique of the forum, Turaki said they observed with great concern the deteriorating security situation in the country.
He made particular reference to the increasing spate of kidnapping, armed robbery and the unchecked menace of herdsmen that regularly kill, rape and vandalise farmlands across the communities.
He said that the forum also noted that “as a result of the inept leadership of the APC led federal govt in Nigeria that Nigerians have never been so polarised along regional, tribal, ethnic, religious and other divides and we feel that this is really most unfortunate”.
According to the forum, PDP made the supreme sacrifice to make Nigeria one and ensured that our indivisibility as a people and as a country were not compromised.
The former ministers further buttressed their point on the patriotic disposition of PDP saying that the presidential candidate of the party in the 2015 election conceded defeat to president Buhari in order to disprove pessimists who thought that Nigeria would break-up.
In their communique, the forum also condemned the alleged persecution and decimation of the opposition.
They particularly frowned at what they described as “the unwarranted invasion of the residence of the immediate past Vice President, Arc. Namadi Sambo and the continued harsament and detention of key members of the oppostion”.
“The forum strongly feel that the APC government should be alive and up their responsibility as a government to Nigerians, we wish president Muhammadu Buhari quick recovery and return to his post a president of the federal republic of Nigeria”