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The 2019 presidential election is still about three years away but we already have an aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He is former governor of Jigawa state, Sule Lamido.
While speaking with journalists at his village, Bamaina, Birnin-kudu local government area of the state on Monday, he said he would gladly contest for president in 2019 if his party finds him deserving of the ticket.
He admitted, though, that he would have to first earn it, as nobody gets the PDP presidential ticket on a platter of gold.
His words:
“If my party finds me worthy of the party’s presidential ticket to serve Nigeria, I will thank God and oblige
“Although there are issues in the party that we are all working to resolve, we hope to have success soon and come out united. As I’m talking to you now, we are working silently to resolve our differences and bring back to our fold those that left the party for APC.”
Lamido blamed PDP’s defeat at the 2015 general election on its internal crisis.
“PDP has the capacity to rule the country again but the members must work hard to achieve that”
“We have mutual respect for each other and I have no differences with him other than political ideologies.”
On Saturday, Lamido, seeking to explain the poor performance of PDP in the north at the 2015 general election, had claimed that many northerners did not have the freedom to vote their choices because of the branding of the PDP as a Christian party.
The Cable had quoted him as saying:
“In the build-up to the last general election, PDP was vilified, intimidated with religion, falsehoods and propaganda through Facebook postings. Rwandan genocide pictures were posted as Boko Haram victims. PDP was blackmailed into silence”
“When you queued to vote in the north, people viewed you as an infidel. You were all there and these things happened in a country where freedom should be the operating word. APC man can vote APC but if Lamido votes PDP, he is a Christian; he is a pastor.”