Former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has said former President Goodluck Jonathan remains the best choice for the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Although Mr Jonathan has not declared his interest to run, there has been mounting pressure on him to join the 2027 presidential race.
Speaking on the chances for Mr Jonathan, who lost his re-election bid in 2015, Mr Lamido said he was the opposition party’s surest bet to bounce back.
Mr Lamido, who stated this during an interview on Channels TV on Friday, urged the party to make deliberate moves to bring him back.
According to him, no current PDP member from the South can match Mr Jonathan’s experience.
“I think for PDP now they should try to woo him. He is their best bet. Anybody put forth by the PDP, Nigerians will support him.”
He also described Mr Jonathan as a leader who has guided the country before and understands governance and works well with others.
He said the former president, “is most welcome, competent and very qualified. To me, I welcome him into the PDP. I think so far in the PDP, with all respect to all members, I do not see a better alternative than Jonathan if he comes to the PDP.
“I do not see any other person really. If we are giving the presidency to the South, it will be the PDP. Who is there in PDP now that can challenge Jonathan in terms of being in office, being full headed, being somebody who is willing to listen and somebody who is also a key player who believes in partnership” the former governor submitted.
On the protracted crisis rocking the PDP, Mr Lamido called for the expulsion of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, former Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, former Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, and other PDP members whom he said worked against the party during the 2023 general elections.
“All those erring members, the Wikes, the Ortoms, the Ikpeazus and others who openly campaigned against the PDP in the 2023 elections and who say that they are going to work for the APC in 2027 should be sacked from the party,” he stated.
He also expressed frustration over the “long-standing culture of impunity within the party”, stressing that it was time the leadership enforced disciplinary measures.
“From way back after the primaries of 2022 leading to the elections of 2023 there are people who because of their interest and ambition felt aggrieved about what transpired in the party’s convention.
“And they turned against the party and fought the party. We have been having this kind of problem, the impunity of people castrating the party and denouncing it,” Mr Lamido added.
