PDP Would Have Won The Election If I Remained Chairman – Bamanga Tukur

The former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has said that the party would have won the presidential election if he remained as its leader.

Tukur was speaking to news men today, September 10, at a press conference organised to mark his 80th birthday celebration, Leadership reports.

He said: “Well, when I was there I won elections and in the same vein, if were there also I expect to win the election.”

Speaking on his forceful removal as the party’s chairman, he said: “Well, I thought we were in a system of democracy and my views are such that what I believe in is what I will preach. I want election and people say they want selection. If the majority or the strong people in the PDP did not believe in it then the chioce or the next thing for me to do was to leave.

“It is either I leave or they leave but I did not want them to leave so decided to leave. At that time, people said I am preaching internal democracy instead of imposition. So it will be difficult for me to sit down”

Commenting on some party members calling for the sack of the current PDP National Working Committee, Tukur distanced himself from such calls and adding that the problem of the party was the loss of the election.

He said: “You know to get the solution you have to look at the problem. The problem is that the party did not win election. Therefore the focus should be what should be done what is goingwrong? Is not about sending somebody away For instance if you have malaria, what are the causes of malaria, maybe mosquitoes, then you try to eliminate the mosquitoes from the system so that the malaria can stop.”

He also opined that President Muhammadu Buhari was on track as far his manifesto is concerned but cautioned the president to appoint the right people as his ministers and not just who want the job.

Tukur said: “As far as I am concerned he is going according to his agenda. So you can judge as well as I can judge. It is not for me to assess. A hundred days became a kind of syndrome. What has been said by Buhari is that he wants to confront corruption, he want to confront insecurity and he wants to confront unemployment and empower, by these he has set the agenda and it is going on.

“So how can you now tell me that you have a land mark to asses NEPA by improvement to know if it is improving. What are you going to use to measure the insecurity? Are they fighting it, are the moving to me they are going the right way he has not deviated from that they said they will do”.

Meanwhile, the PDP has alleged that Nigeria’s democracy has been suffering since the All Progressives Congress took over the reins of power in the country.