PDP will produce next president ― Saraki

SENATE President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has held harmonization meeting between old and new members of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Kwara state, expressing confidence that the party will win the next general election and produce a new President for Nigeria.

Addressing ward and local government delegates from the old and new members of the PDP in Kwara state during a harmonisation meeting in Ilorin on Wednesday, Saraki said that, “the future is better and brighter than the past,” promising to ensure cohesion between the two sets of party members.

Saraki, who said that he had no anointed candidate in the forthcoming elections in the state, added that the best candidate and the most popular among the people would also be his own candidate. He, therefore, warned party elders and other structures against dropping his name in the contest.

“In 2019 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will produce the president. If we emerge victorious at the federal level all of us will be the beneficiaries. In the state, with your support, we will win the state too. All of you here are the key players in Kwara politics. With unity of purpose, no party can contest with you.

“We are here to unite all of us under the party we belong to today. I am assuring all members that there will be equity, internal democracy and justice. It is not going to be winners take all. As far as I am concerned everybody here today belongs to our political structure. There is nothing like old or new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). We have all become one PDP.

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“There is nobody here that will not say one way or the other we have not been together before. I am very sure that the future is bigger and brighter than the past. I want all of us to be united for the progress and development of Kwara state. Where we are today as far as I am concerned all of you belong to me. As par the politics of the state, nobody can wrest the power from us if we are united. By the grace of us in the forthcoming elections, we will emerge victorious both at the federal and state levels.

“We will ensure that we work as one party because we have always worked together before. We will see that all the wards and local governments popular candidates emerge based on their popularity and acceptability. I want to emphasise that I don’t have any anointed candidate at all levels. I don’t have candidates for state Assembly, it is the person you want in your constituency that I will okay. Don’t allow anybody to deceive you that I have endorsed any candidate.

“I implore party leaders and elders not to drop my name to impose unpopular candidates. I don’t have candidate for the National Assembly. All of us will collectively choose who becomes the next governor. There will be equity, internal democracy and justice.

“We will ensure that there is no faction but one PDP. We will ensure that meetings in the local government areas take place in one venue. And we will all work together for the interest of the party. I want to assure you all that as far as I am concerned everybody belongs to one PDP family and there is no favouritism of one man over the other. I know that when we defected many of your leaders entertained fear that once I come we will take over everything, but there is nothing like that.

“Please go back home to start the work. I am sure many more will come back and join us because those that left, left under the wrong assumption that it will be different from what it used to be.

“They were misled that those coming are out to move them away. Nobody is moving you away because this place belongs to you too. Let us go back and start work closely together and by the grace of God, we will all be victorious. I urge both old and new members of the party to ensure peace and harmony in your wards and local government areas,” he said.