Former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has announced he will not be joining the All Progressives Congress.
Tukur, while speaking to newsmen in preparation for his 80th birthday celebration, said he felt he was too old to be switching parties.
According to him, “at 80 what do you want somebody to do? You want to change somebody’s character at 80? Is it possible? At 80 you remain who you are because you cannot bend anymore. If you do it by force, you will break.”
Furthermore, he identified disunity and fusion of religion with politics as the cause of Nigeria’s problems.
“Nigeria should try to conquer the basic reason why what I consider we cannot move as a nation. We must remove religion from politics. We must accept ourselves as Nigerians and not see ourselves as being from A or B state, or local government. We must ensure that anything, culture or ethnicity that we cannot change we don’t bring to the table. What you cannot change we must endure.
“You cannot change yourself from being an Hausa man to Ibo man or an Ibo man to a Yoruba man, or a Yoruba man to an Ijaw man. You can’t. So forget about that, it is not an issue. So don’t bring it on the table. Ethnicity should be removed from our politics. What we must bring into our politics is equity, justice and for us to be our brothers keeper. We can do it. I have told you, God has given you land, water and us, as people that is what He gave to every nation on earth,” he declared.
In the same vein, he commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his giant strides in the areas of creation of power, youth unemployment, insecurity and fight on corruption.