One of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and immediate past governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is the greatest beneficiary of the crisis in the PDP.
Lamido argued that there was no way Buhari could have been given an opportunity to contest for presidency at the outset of the present dispensation in 1998/99, saying that the President was able to come to power in 2015 because of the efforts of the PDP in reconciling and stabilizing the country.
Lamido, who spoke in his Bamaina hometown at the weekend, stated that all the leaders, including himself, are to be blamed for the party’s woes, but maintained that the PDP is beyond any personality, and that it belongs to Nigerians so cannot be appropriated by anybody.
The former governor who admitted that his party, the PDP was presently undergoing several challenges said the party successfully stabilized the country before the incumbent (President Buhari) could contest.
In his words: “It is not about one’s own personality or one’s ego, but it is about this party called PDP which carries the Nigerian hope which was able to get Nigerians stabilised in spite of the vilification and propaganda and prepared the ground fully for Buhari to come in and become a president because if there is any great beneficiary of PDP in Nigeria, it is Buhari.”
Speaking further, he said: “between 1998 and 1999, there was no way Buhari could have gotten the opportunity to contest, he can’t contest I don’t mean to insult him, but it is simply a historical fact that all those that are now calling the shots, is all, thanks to PDP because the country has been stabilised and reconciled.
So, anybody in the Villa or Government Houses or wherever they are, who are now enjoying this APC thing are simply because PDP was able to restore the country and made it possible for them,” Lamido said.
Speaking on the massive defection of members from the PDP to the ruling APC, Lamido said: “But today, no matter how big you are as a thief, if you go to APC, they would accept you, look at those going to APC in the last two to three weeks, these are people who are literally on trial by the EFCC.
Maybe because the PDP couldn’t stand up for them, that’s why they are going there or maybe APC has no qualms about fraud by accepting them with the intention of cleaning them,” he added.