Kola Abiola, Bugaje, two others to contest for PRP presidential ticket

The son of Bashorun MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections, Kola Abiola, will slug out with three other aspirants for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Tribune Online has confirmed.

Kola will battle for the ticket with Dr Usman Bugaje, a political activist and former member of the House of Representatives; Patience Ndidi Key,  former chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) United States chapter; and Colonel Gboluga  Mosugu (retd).

A statement obtained by Tribune Online on Sunday from the Special Adviser on Media to the PRP national chairman, Comrade Bello Ishaq, said the party’s presidential primaries will hold on Tuesday 31st May, 2022 in Abuja where the four presidential aspirants will have their fate decided by delegates’ votes.

Abiola, while submitting his nomination and expression of interest form at the party secretariat on May 12, 2022 said he is committed to the party’s ideology. He noted that PRP allows for inclusiveness of the youth not just for voting but also to participate and be voted for. He, however, promised that should he fail to pick the party’s presidential ticket, he will support whoever emerges as PRP presidential candidate at the poll.

Ndidi Key while briefing the media about her presidential aspirations in April said what  Nigeria needs is the total overhauling of the system by bringing in people who can change the situation of things in Nigeria and Nigerians for good.

“It is time to inject a fresh breath of air, a fresh ray of hope, for every Nigerian. At this defining moment, we cannot allow political party prejudices and the primordial sentiments of religion, ethnicity, tribe, and gender to becloud our reasoning. This is also not the time for indifference, complacency, or despondency. We must all honestly admit that our nation-state is precariously drifting in murky waters,” she said.

In his own submission, Bugaje noted that “Simply put Nigeria is not working, but worse still it becomes one of the most dangerous places on the globe. Meanwhile, its peers are all well ahead catching up with the first world. This is clearly the culmination of the two decades of bad governance.

“Governance has been defined by pilferage, wastage, prodigality and mind-boggling corruption. Our political culture has been pedestrian, defined by money and violence while caught in the web of politics of big men rather than the politics of big ideas. All these can be traced to the quality of leadership or lack of it as it were.”

PRP will hold its state House of Assembly and House of Representatives primary elections on May 27, 2022; Senatorial primary elections on May 30, 2022 and Governorship primaries May 31, 2022 same day as the presidential primaries.