PDP Convention: The 12 Candidates, How They Stand and their Chances of Winning

The 2019 presidential election is just about four months away and various political parties have been working round the clock to present a candidate that will challenge President Muhammadu Buhari during the polls.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is at the forefront of this.

On Saturday, the party will hold its presidential primary election in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. Determined to return to power in 2019, the PDP would have to choose its presidential candidate from a list of 12 presidential aspirants.
Who are the aspirants and what do they stand for?


ATIKU ABUBAKAR


Former President Atiku Abubakar Abubakar is running for president for the fourth time, having contested in 2007, 2011 and 2015. Since he left office as vice-president in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Abubakar has been actively involved in politics although on different political platforms, leaving the PDP only to return there in 2017.

No doubt one of the most prominent figures in the race, Atiku was also a founding member of the PDP and is seen as one of the party’s biggest financiers. One of Abubakar’s priorities if elected president, according to him, would be restructuring the country. He is aged 71.

BUKOLA SARAKI


Call him Nigeria’s Francis Underwood – from popular American series ‘House of Cards’ – and you may not be far from the truth. Smart, ambitious and dogged, Senate President Bukola Saraki is one of those who makes the presidential race a close contest. He declared to join the race after leaving the All Progressives Congress (APC) amid a running battle with the APC-led federal government.

A two-time governor, Saraki’s emergence as senate president remains a mystery to many, especially his party which at the time was rooting for another candidate in the person of Ahmad Lawan, incumbent senate leader. Whether the politics surrounding that incident will also play out at the PDP primary or not, only time can tell. At 55, he is one of the youngest in the race.

AMINU TAMBUWAL..
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http://www.theeasterntelegraph.com/2018/10/pdp-convention-12-candidates-how-they.html