Change of name will not solve PDP’s problems —Lamido

Sule Lamido

IMMEDIATE past governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has said changing the name of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not solve the myriad of problems facing the party.

This was as he disclosed that the party was not nursing any ambition to contest for elective positions in 2019, but rather making efforts to restore its lost glory.

The former governor made this known while speaking with newsmen in his village, Bamaina, at the weekend, adding, “We are now busy restoring the party and not working on ambition and contest”.

Lamido explained that he and some other PDP national leaders were on tour of the states under the control of the party, in continuation of the meeting with the major stakeholders aimed at restructuring and regaining it consciousness.

The former governor said a lot of issues were raised, including changing the name of the party, which he said were not the right process in solving the myriad of problems facing the party.

“Changing the name of the party and not changing the faces of those in the party cannot solve the problem. Yesterday, I wore blue and today I am wearing cream colour; it is the same Sule Lamido you are seeing.

“The letters of P, D and P are innocent. Even a party like APC has a ‘P’, but it is we (politicians) who are changing. When you abandoned AD, ACN and CPC and now you are in APC, you don’t have a different Muhammadu Buhari or Bola Tinubu.

“You can’t declare that the Atiku Abubakar that has now joined APC wields more powers than the Atiku Abubakar who was vice president, or are you saying Bello Masari and Aminu Tambuwal, who are now governors, were not the same speakers of PDP or the governors who left?

He said all PDP members must collectively share blame of the crisis bedeviling the party, adding that, “along the line, a number of things happened and everybody in PDP, including me, should share the blame.

“We talked about impunity, imposition and what have you and it was our trend, depending on who is benefiting. So, all of us have been part of these crises of misdemeanour which means we did more wrong as a political party than right.

“All of us in PDP knew our history and those of us that left for the All progressives Congress (APC) know their own reasons. But, as leaders, we are tasked with the challenge of how can we now resolve to do more right than wrong.”

“As a party, even though we are going through a political crisis which is even good for us because it is a wake-up call, there is no campaign. But we are going round to meet our governors and our leaders and say, ‘look, we all know what went wrong. Let us come back, because in Nigeria it is either PDP or PDP’.

Lamido also averred that the courts and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot solve the problems in PDP, declaring that it was not their business to do so.

“Today, all the PDP state chairmen are on the side of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee. The zonal chairmen from the six zones; the legislature of the 12 states we are controlling; the governors of the party, all former ministers, all former ambassadors and former presidents in PDP are on Makarfi’s side, because that is where the party is.

“So, if somebody like Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who is my very good friend and brother whom I like a lot, who is also ignorant of the tradition and culture of the PDP at formation, what is his mission for the vision for Nigeria?

“Naturally it is more about the aura in power of leadership, than the function of the office in terms of what he can do for Nigeria. I can understand because he was an ANPP governor, senator and then, leader and part of the amalgamation of APC.

“So, he is coming from an entirely adorned background. If he fumbles, don’t blame him; if he fails to understand, don’t blame him; if he can’t, comprehend don’t blame him; if he fails to know the vision, don’t blame him.