Ex-Ministers on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, met in Abuja on Monday and agreed to choose one from their group as a presidential candidate for the 2019 general elections.
The ex-Ministers who met on the platform of the PDP Ministers’ Forum, say the presidential choice for the 2019 elections would go to the North in order to give the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, a run for its money and candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, a revenge defeat.
A former Minister of Special Duties under the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Saminu Turaki (SAN), who addressed journalists after the meeting expressed hope that the party would stage a comeback to power in 2019.
Turaki, who read the communique of the meeting to journalists, said that the forum was solidly behind the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of the party.
According to him, “People behave differently to different situation. We are not unaware of the point President Muhammadu Buhari made when Yar’Adua was sick. For us as former ministers, we wish him speedy recovery.
“We want him to come back and continue the job for which he persistently fought to be elected for and for which he was elected.
“We want him to come and continue because we want to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 election and not anybody else.”
“We believe very strongly that the judgment of the Supreme Court which is coming sometime next week will unite the party more than dividing us.”
Turaki also said that the forum resolved “to remain committed to the ideals of visions and mission of the PDP and we are determined to join other organs of the party in revitalizing the party into a virile and more constructive opposition.”
They blamed the increasing insecurity in the country occasioned by the high incidence of kidnapping, herdsmen menace, hate speeches and increasing sectarian violence on what they considered the inept administration of the APC led government.
“The forum also notes that as a result of the inept leadership of the APC-led Federal Government in Nigeria that Nigerians have never been so polarized along regional, ethnic, religious and other divides and we feel that this is really most unfortunate.
“The PDP made the supreme sacrifice to make Nigeria one and ensured that our indivisibility as a people and as a country was not compromised and that was why our presidential candidate in the 2015 election conceded defeat to President Muhammadu Buhari which singular act contrary to the expectation of pessimists that Nigeria remained one country.”
They condemned the frequent raid of the house of former Vice-President Namadi Sambo’s house in Kaduna, by security men and tasked them to show respect for constituted authorities in the discharge of their duties.
