Former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has explained that he left the party because ‘people’ said they wanted selection, not election and that led to the loss of the 2015 presidential elections.
Tukur who spoke with journalists in Abuja explained that although the party is facing a crisis, it will rediscover itself.
Tukur 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, the strong people in the PDP did not believe in it then the choice 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 I decided to leave. At that time, people said I am preaching internal democracy instead of imposition. I had drawn up cardinal programmes and I captioned them my agenda, if you will remember – the triple R. I think that any good leader will do tell people what you want to do and if they agree with you without any protest then it is carry- go. As for zoning, nobody is faulting zoning, what we are saying is let the people decide on what they want. This is the democracy we are talking about, the rule by the majority.
“First and foremost, this is a democracy. And in every democratic system, you have the opposition and the party in government. So it is time again because it is a democracy, it is the people that decide who they want to vote for and that is what the people have done. Sure the party will rediscover itself.
“ I am sure about that, it is their own party and they can find out what went wrong . If for 16 years people allowed you to rule them and in the 17th year they say no, you have to find out why they said no.”
He also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint people who are not looking for to become ministers.
He said “Don’t give jobs to those who want the job but give it to those whom the job wants.”
On his assessment of the President’s 100 days in office, he said “It is not for me to assess. A hundred days became a kind of syndrome. What Buhari has said 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.”