Former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, has alleged that governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are deliberately standing in the way of his bid to become the party’s national chairman.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa, Lamido claimed the governors refused to issue him a nomination form, despite a court ruling ordering the party to allow him to contest.
According to him, the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, personally called to advise him to step aside. Lamido said Bala Mohammed told him the governors were uncomfortable with his perceived independence.
“Bala, the governor of Bauchi, called and said, ‘My elder brother, you are stronger than us. If we make you chairman, we can’t influence you,’” Lamido recounted.
He said he reminded the governor that the PDP was built on collective leadership, not control by a select few.
“I told him, ‘When PDP was formed, you were not there. A party with such a rich history should not be controlled by one person,’” he added.
Lamido explained that even after obtaining a court order compelling the party to open the race to him, the governors ignored it and proceeded to file an appeal instead.
He also dismissed the outcome of the party’s recent national convention, which produced Tanimu Turaki as national chairman, describing the process as flawed and unacceptable.
“That convention is null and void,” he insisted.
The former governor called on elder statesmen and key stakeholders including former President Olusegun Obasanjo to step in and rescue the PDP from internal power struggles. He stressed the need for the party to return to its founding ideals in order to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy and national development.
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