In an interview with THISDAY correspondent, the former two-time governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Sule Lamido, spoke about the developments in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
with and emphasised on the need to unite Nigerians in search for a new leadership ahead of the 2027 general election in the country.
While he was reacting to the claim that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, has been more than silent on the hardship the Nigerian people are facing in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, as he was also asked what is preventing the PDP from holding its NEC meeting, Sule Lamido said that the malaise, ambivalence, docility of the Peoples Democratic Party’s leadership, is something they inherited.
He said that from the time of Vincent Ogbulafor, who was forced out by former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, thereafter governors started to appoint their lackeys and boys into leadership of the party.
He said from 1998 to 2007 under former president Olusegun Obasanjo, they had Ekwueme, Solomon Lar, Gemade, Audu Ogbe, Amadu Ali. And if people look carefully, they will see that these are people that were at home with the history of the party, and they were able to enforce their authority over the party.
He said,
“But soon after Jonathan (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) flushed out Ogbulafor because of his ambition, which in any case was not the fault of Ogbulafor.”
Further talking, he said
“The Peoples Democratic Party’s governors, who after a meeting said they needed to make a statement to address the northern environment and that in 2011 they are going to get a candidate from the northern basin.
It was just a political statement and Jonathan took offence and removed Ogbulafor.”