Some members of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP under the aegis of PDP One Umbrella Project in Kwara state, have said that the return of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to the party will assist to dislodge the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari come 2019.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin weekend, coordinator of the group, Comrade Ben Duntoye, flanked by other PDP leaders from all the three senatorial districts of the state, debunked the speculation that Saraki would not accommodate old members of the opposition party.
They said Saraki as the national leader of the PDP will be fair to all members of the party, not only in Kwara but Nigeria as a whole.
The PDP leaders, who welcomed Saraki back to the PDP, said that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari had brought untold hardship to Nigerians.
“And here in Kwara state, we cannot isolate ourselves from the misrule of President Buhari that is a more insightful reason why Senator Saraki’s return to the PDP is beyond a Kwara phenomenon.
“The PDP One Umbrella Project is a bridge building caucus in the Kwara State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party. Our objectives are borne out of the need to ensure a bigger, stronger and united party.
“We believe strongly that development and service to the people is key and should be paramount in politics.
“The defection of some leaders around the country, Kwara state inclusive from the ruling APC to the PDP has been public domain issue recently. No doubt, the political realignments preceding the 2015 elections is repeating itself.
“From that time till date, a handful of us remained in the party till date and the issues that led to the defection from PDP in 2015 may have been playing out again in the ruling party.
If we may recall, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki gave among his reasons for leaving in 2015, lack of internal democracy, faulty economic policies which continued to endanger the future of the nation.
โฆas Bafarawa seeks Obasanjo’s prayers, support over presidential bidโ
Former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, on Sunday visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo to seek his blessings over his presidential ambition in 2019.
Bafarawa, who led a delegation of his campaign group to Obasanjo in Abeokuta, told the elder statesman that the visit was to seek his โprayers, advice and supportโ.
He described Obasanjo as his leader and mentor and attributed his success as Sokoto State governor between 1999 and 2007 to advices from the former president.
He explained that based on Obasanjo’s advice on savings, he left about N11.8 billion in Sokoto State treasury when he left office in 2007.
The former governor recalled that Obasanjo visited Sokoto State 14 times to commission various projects, adding that he also replicated an all-inclusive government ran by the former president at the Federal level.
Bafarawa hailed Obasanjo for his continued interventions at critical stages of the nation’s history, noting that many Nigerians had misunderstood the intentions of the elder statesman. Responding, Obasanjo noted that โNigeria can be better than what it is nowโ and pledged his support for any step to lift it up.
โMy own strong belief is that Nigeria deserves better than we have now and we can get better than what we have. I believe the task of moving Nigeria to an enviable height is a collective responsibility and if we fail to act together as we ought to, the nation will not be where it is supposed to be in 2019,โ he said.
