… Says APC, other opposition parties
will throw the country into chaos.
The National Chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, Bamanga
Tukur, on Thursday said he was not
ready to take up an ambassadorial
position because he had not
completed his tenure as the national
chairman of the ruling party.
He stated this when a team of PDP
youth drawn from 19 northern states
paid him a solidarity visit at his
Abuja residence.
Mr. Tukur was elected in March 2012
for a four-year tenure.
There were reports at the weekend
that the presidency had pencilled the
national chairman down for an
ambassadorial position following the
protracted crisis in the PDP.
The reports said the agenda was
being pushed by the governors
elected on the platform of the party
who were not comfortable with the
increasing defection of their members
to other parties, especially the All
Progressives Congress, APC.
Mr. Tukur, however, debunked the
reports, which suggested that he was
being considered for an
ambassadorial position as a way of
easing him out of his job.
According to him, there was no iota
of truth in the reports which he
described as figment of the
imagination of their authors,
stressing that the presidency never
contemplated sending him out of the
country as an ambassador under any
guise.
He told the youth, led by Galadima
Yahya, that he was not distracted by
the sustained campaign of calumny
against him, the PDP and the
Presidency, more so when the source
of such campaign had been traced to
familiar quarters.
“I have a job to do as the PDP
Chairman, and I cannot throw in the
towel in the middle of it just because
certain individuals known for selfish
motives get to the media to fund
fictitious report often crafted to
precipitate crises in our party and
ultimately cause its fall,” Mr. Tukur
said.
He described the crises within the
party as a phase that would pass
away once preparations for 2015
general elections begins.
“The crises we are witnessing in PDP
are about 2015. The promoters are
members who wanted to be President
at all costs, they are those who
wanted to be vice President at all
costs and those who wanted to seek
re-election as governors. Most of
them felt if there was no crisis, their
different ambitions would not be
fulfilled,” he stated.
Mr. Tukur said the National Working
Committee, NWC, of PDP had always
meant to institute reforms meant to
deepen democratic ethos in the party.
According to him, efforts by the
committee to kick start the process
had consistently been rebuffed by
members who, he said were averse to
reforms.
“If you check it very well, the people
who say Tukur must go cannot lay
hand on one reason to justify their
wish,” the national chairman said.
“I did nothing to violate the
constitution of the party. I did nothing
to wrong anyone. I did nothing to soil
my hands in anything. My conscience
vindicates me every time. So I am free
as the PDP National Chairman.
“Now some people said I am not a
friend of the governors. But they
forgot that during my campaign, I
visited all of them one by one to sell
my programmes for the party. We
started with the process of
reconciliation and asked estranged
members to return to the party. Some
people opposed it.”
Mr. Tukur said the party resolved that
internal democracy should start with
transparent elections and in some
cases, consensus, adding that those
who opposed reform preferred
selection and imposition of
candidates during elections.
“They preferred the way of
dictatorship rather than being
democratic. And when these are not
allowed, then they say Tukur must
go,” he lamented.
Mr. Tukur urged members of the PDP
to key into the agenda of reform in
order to make the party Nigeria’s
strongest and most dependable.
He argued that it was only when
Nigeria had a strong ruling party that
the government could be strong,
stressing, “A strong government
would always produce a strong
economy, and then a strong society.
That is why we are always behind
President Goodluck Jonathan to
succeed.”
Mr. Tukur asked party faithful to put
behind them issues about crises
within the party and brace up for the
challenges of taming the opposition
ahead of the coming general
elections.
He said he was convinced that
Nigeria had no alternative to PDP,
adding that the opposition party had
not developed the capacity and the
wisdom to manage Nigeria effectively
like the PDP.
He asked Nigerians not to give the
opposition the opportunity to govern
the country because they would
cause chaos.
http://premiumtimesng.com/news/151768-ill-quit-pdp-chairman-till-2016-tukur.html

Ok

We the youths want Baba Tukur till 2023, let haters hang.