IBB Advises PDP Presidential Aspirants to Put Nigeria First

Laleye Dipo in Minna

A former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, yesterday, counseled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirants and told them to always put Nigeria above other interests in everything they do.
Babangida gave the counsel, when he received a former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Bauchi and Sokoto State Governors,  Bala Mohammed and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who paid him a courtesy visit at his Minna uphill residence.

“Your belief in having a better Nigeria featured very prominently. You made my day. What you talked about is Nigeria, Nigeria, Nigeria. I want you to keep it up, for the benefit of this country and generations yet unborn,” Babangida said in reaction to the comments by Saraki, who led the three-man delegation.

“I want you to keep it up, for the benefit of this country and generations yet unborn. What you are doing is good. This is how the country should develop,” he said, promising to support the group “so long as you stay on the course of promoting Nigeria all the time, making it a secure country.”

Earlier, Saraki had said they were in Minna “as part of our consultations, going round the country talking to our elders and stakeholders”.

Saraki, who spoke to newsmen after the visit to Babangida, said the team felt the former military president should be briefed about the efforts they were making to get a consensus presidential candidate that would face that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in next years presidential election.

According to him, “We took him through what we are doing. This is part of what we call solution providing. We are trying to provide solution to the political process, because we want to ensure that it is smooth, it is not rancorous and it leads to a better Nigeria. At the end of the day.”

He said it was out of their “desire to make a better Nigeria that those of us who are aspiring to be president came together that we must find a way of having a consensus so that we can reduce the number and ensure that we have a candidate, who is competent; who has the support of everybody,” adding that they could not achieve the objective without the wise counsel of General Babangida and other leaders.

Saraki said Nigerians had been going through hell especially, in the last few days and condoled with those who lost their loved ones and those whose relations were injured or missing as a result of the train bombing incident in Kaduna on Monday.