Some presidential aspirants, who had remained with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, since 2014 have warned the party’s hierarchy against giving preferential treatment to aspirants, who recently returned or defected to the PDP.
Stressing the need for the leaders to reward loyalty, the old PDP aspirants contended that the main opposition party would have ceased to exist but for the loyalty of those, who refused to defect to other parties before the 2015 presidential elections that the PDP lost as a ruling a party.
Senate President Bukola Saraki; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal; and former Kano State governor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso, are among presidential aspirants who recently returned to the PDP from the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Their defection to the APC played crucial roles in the party’s victory in 2015 and election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Indeed, ahead of the presidential primaries of the PDP, five (non-defecting) aspirants have resolved to work together to forge a common front, Vanguard gathered, Monday.
The meeting according to a source, who pleaded anonymity, is aimed at drawing the attention of delegates and the National Working Committee, NWC, on the need to reward loyalty by picking someone who has never defected from the party from the pack of the 13 aspirants currently vying for the office of the President.
Former Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the party, Ahmed Makarfi, ex-Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki, one-time Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, immediate past governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang and Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State, are expected to meet this week in Abuja in yet to be identified venue, on the issue.
The highly-placed source said the party may be forced to accord them maximum cooperation given the fact that they remained in the PDP at a time many chose to defect for one reason or the other.
He said: “If they had left like most of these leaders who now want to be President on the platform of the party, there would have been no platform for them today. I think what they are saying here is that picking one of them as the party’s candidate would be a reward for a worthy sacrifice.
“Do not forget that some of those who defected spoke ill of this party when they were on the other side but these leaders remained and took all the bullets. I believe the leadership of the party will listen to them and do that which is just,” he said.
Governor Dankwambo on Sunday gave a hint of this development. In a tweet, he gave an indication of what is to be expected. He tweeted: “We have sacrificed everything for PDP. Loyalty to party must mean something.”
Makarfi had earlier drew the attention of the NWC on the dangers of according preferential treatment to defectors, warning that it could affect the morale of old members who held sway while others turned their backs on the party.
Should these five aspirants succeed in projecting one of their own before the delegates; the aspirations of Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Saraki, ex- Sokoto and Kano state governors, and Aminu Tambuwal and businessman cum politician, Datti Baba-Ahmed may be hurt.
