- Many Presidential Aspirants Better for PDP –Jonathan
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the more presidential aspirants the Peoples Democratic Party has, the better for the party.
The former President and leader of the PDP said this on Friday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, when a presidential aspirant under the platform of the party, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, visited him as part of his political consultations.
Jonathan told journalists at his guest house in the Bay-Bridge area of Yenagoa that Bafarawa came to brief him about his political interest and political developments going on.
Speaking about the number of the PDP members that have declared interest in contesting the Presidency, Jonathan noted that it was good for the party.
“A number of people have asked me this question and I say, the more people that are interested, the better for the party. If you have only two aspirants, for a political party and you know the way play politics is in this country, the division between the two camps will be so bad, not from the candidates themselves, but supporters of the candidates will be exchanging all kinds of bitterness.
“And at the end of the day, one person must lose and those people will feel that they do not belong to the system and that they will not be accepted. There will be tendency for them to leave.”
He advocated level-playing field for all aspirants during the party primaries, saying if the party’s candidate emerges through transparent process, there will not be bickering and division in the party.
Jonathan added, “But when there are more aspirants and the party does what is right, the key thing is level-playing field for every aspirant. When the party makes sure that the field is level for every aspirant and the best person among them emerges, they will all work for the party. When there are only two aspirants, they start throwing stones but when there are many, who will you throw the stone at because they are many. You do not even know who will take the day.
“So, to me it is better to have many aspirants. As leaders, we are talking. Before the primaries, I believe we will talk to the aspirants to ensure that things are done in a way that everybody will be happy. The key thing is not the aspirants, but during the primary, we must make sure that the ground is level and nobody will leave the party out of anger.”
Jonathan described Bafarawa as an experienced politician, saying that since he joined the PDP in 2014, the former Sokoto governor had been consistent.
Speaking during the visit, Bafarawa, a former governor of Sokoto State, boasted that the PDP would wrest power from President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
