A People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential aspirant, and the Governor of Sokoto, Alhaji Aminu Tanbumwal said on Thursday in Abuja that Nigerians are overstretched and they are wondering about what they are doing in this country.
Alhaji Tanbumwal stated this during a meeting with the former Ministers that served under the party in preparation for the party’s primary next month.
He said “I’ll tell you that, that is a general concern, virtually in every nook and cranny of this country.
Where I’m presiding over as governor of the Sokoto, neighbouring Niger Republic. We have communities that are not more than 10 kilometers to each other in Nigeria, and the Niger Republic”
“As I speak to you some of those communities, once it is evening, move into Niger Republic, where they can sleep with their two eyes closed, and in the morning, they come back to Nigeria. So I quite understand how precarious our situation is, in terms of insecurity and displacement of people of this country. I have multitudes of IDPs in my state, and we have been managing a very troubling situation in my state” he said.
“A few weeks back I was asked in Yenagoa, or a journalist alluded to the fact that Nigeria is on autopilot, I said no. When you are on autopilot, at least you are sure that you are being technologically driven and you may land or have a safe landing. That is not the situation in Nigeria.
It is exactly what has been described by the chairman. It is rudderless, we are in the ship without its Captain, and we are in a ship that is clearly sinking. And it behooves all of us, irrespective of whatever our leanings are, irrespective of where we’re coming from, to rally round together to rescue our country” Alhaji Tanbumwal said.
The Presidential aspirant said the country had never had it so bad, the economic situation of the country was nothing to write about when compared to 2015 when PDP left government.
“Some of you may say but you’re a part of those who participated in the process is the ouster of the PDP government in 2015. Yes, I was. And the reason is clear. when my dear brother Sheidu Tambuwal came to my house in Apo village in 2011 with the form of President Goodluck Jonathan seeking nomination on the platform of the PDP for me to nominate him, I did sign the nomination forms For the President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 and participated actively in my home in my local government in My state to deliver present Jonathan. I became the speaker of this country soon after and we worked together with quite a number of you as members of his council. We had reasons to disagree, not because I disliked the person Jonathan but because we disagree as to a house, as an institution that I was leading and Providing leadership for with some of the policies of the executive arm of government of our administration and some saw it as a personal disagreement between me and president Jonathan and I had reason to disagree with that and unfortunately, as we’re building up towards 2015 elections I had to leave and join the APC For us to now do what we did, work together to bring in President Buhari. What happened thereafter? In 2017 2018 I told so many of my political associates that I’ve disagreed also with the way president Buhari was running this country.” “he said
In his remarks, the chairman of the former Ministers’ Forum, Tanimu Turaki said the most important issues that were affecting the country were the issue of injustice and non-respect for the rule of law.
Alhaji Turaki said the forum had resolved that after this series of interactions we would meet the leadership of the party and thank God for the national chairman of PDP today was a member of our forum.
“He was a former Minister of the Republic of Nigeria, so not only are we going to play a very important role in that decision of who shall be our candidate, we want to assure your excellence that we shall carry that candidate on our head from local government to local government, ward to ward, state to State and ensure that that candidate wins election for People’s Democratic Party,” said Alhaji Turaki.
He said what the country need was a leader that while sitting on top of the executive arm of government; would also have respect for other arms of government and a leader, above all, that had proved himself as being capable of aggregating diverse people, diverse opinion and then leading them together without compromising the efficacy of democracy and democratic rule.
“We believe we need a leader that will be capable of building strong bridges of friendship across the various divisions. We want a leader that is not too old; so that he will not be running to go to London for medical tourism but at the same time he should not be too young as to be away from the youth. A hybrid kind of leader that will be a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right, while maintaining his stand in the center” Alhaji Turaki added.
Olusola Akintonde
