2023: Despite zoning PDP looking for best candidate that would win election – Saraki
Former Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is looking for is the best candidate that would win the election even if it has zoned the PDP national chairmanship to the North Central.
Saraki speaking on Tuesday on a television programme further said that the zoning of the PDP national chairmanship will not stop qualified aspirants from any zone from contesting the presidency in 2023.
On whether he will contest for the 2023 election Saraki said in due time he will answer the question of whether he will contest or not.
Saraki also said though the PDP has differences they are resolving the issues because according to him the PDP is the only alternative party for Nigerians that would provide leadership, that is why those in the PDP believe that the interest of Nigerians should supersede that of individual interests.
He said: “On the issue of zoning, the party has made it very clear in all our meetings that even though we have zoned the position of party offices, it does not preclude anybody that has any presidential ambition.
Most of our leaders have said that, and we have said that at our NEC, and all the possible meetings, that even though we have taken the chairmanship of the party to the North Central, it does not preclude anyone from contesting. What we are looking for is the best candidate that would win the election.”
“It is not true that we are haemorrhaging members because I had said it a couple of times that there were certain governors that we knew were going to leave. In fact, they had left, but we were just waiting for their final exit, so we were not surprised. We have got some big wigs that will be coming to our party this week, there is a former governor that would join us and you should know that when leaders in the ruling party want to defect, they don’t defect early. I think Nigerians should not be surprised when they begin to see some defections from the ruling party.
“In 2015, the number of states that APC has now is almost the same as what we had in the PDP, and the concern that people are defecting should not matter. More importantly, the country is in a different place now and Nigerians have seen what the ruling party has to offer.
We all have differences in our party and we are resolving because this is the only alternative party for Nigerians that would provide leadership, that is why we in the PDP believe that the interest of Nigerians should supersede our individual interests.
We have been able to resolve our differences across the states so that we can convince Nigerians that we are able to take over the leadership of the country,” he said.
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“Because some people defected from the PDP to APC does not mean that I would defect. You have to look at my antecedents in 2019 and you will see that the fact that I didn’t win elections didn’t make me defect, so I can’t see why that would come up.
Where we are now is not about anyone’s personal ambition, it is about how we can work to make this country better. What is important for us is to build a strong party and that was why I took up the responsibility of leading the reconciliation committee because there was concern that the party was losing a lot of steam.
We can’t talk about our ambition without a strong party and in due time I will answer the question of whether I will contest or not.”
