PDP Ex-ministers Insist on Age, integrity, Others as Criteria to Choose Presidential Candidate

Chuks Okocha in Abuja 

Ahead of the May 28 and 29 presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),former ministers of the party, have insisted said that age and integrity, amongst others, must form the criteria that would determine the choice of the party’s presidential candidate.

The forum, however, identified faulty political recruitment process as the bane of development in the country over the years.

The former ministers from 1999 to 2015, spoke yesterday, when the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, formally notified them of his presidential aspiration.

But  Anyim, on his part, tasked the former ministers to ensure that the party adopted a proper political leadership solutions for the purposes of exiting Nigeria from its current political crisis, stressing that, fixing political leadership was panacea for rescuing the country. 

Speaking through their leader and Dean of former ministers,  Tanimu Turaki (SAN), who was Minister of  Special Duties and Inter Governmental Affairs, the ministers insisted that the party must ensure that age and ability becomes the determinant factors in choosing the presidential standard bearer of the PDP in the coming national convention of the party. 

He reckoned that, as a result of leadership failure, Nigeria has not been able to take her rightful place in the comity of developed nations.

Nigeria, he said, needed a man with the energy and capacity to tackle the developmental needs of the people in 2023, stressing that the ex-ministers, given their knowledge in the inner workings of government, would play a pivotal role on who becomes Nigeria’s next President.

“We need a person that is not very old. He (Anyim) has acquired sufficient experience and maturity and he is not also very young. So, he can relate with some of us that are young.

“We need somebody that has the courage to take decisive decisions, because Nigerian needs a very strong and powerful president. We need a man of integrity, a person that will listen, a person that will be compassionate, a person that will show sympathy and empathy to Nigerians.

“The greatest problem we have had in this country is leadership failure, because leadership has failed in this country and because the head of the fish is rotten, ultimately and quite invariably, the body of the fish will also be rotten.

“We have resolved that we must take special interest in what happens to our party in the build up to this election. We will play a very active role, we will liaise with the leadership of the party in selecting a credible candidate that will win election for us and win election for Nigeria and in the process, salvage Nigerians from the twin evils of hunger and poverty,” he said. 

Turaki also lauded Anyim’s experience across the three arms of government, likening same to exactly what Nigeria needs to awake the giant in her.

Anyim said his knowledge of public service placed him in a vantage position to make Nigeria work for all.

According to him, “When I worked as a civil servant, it was in two parastatals in the presidency. I worked as President of the Senate, working along with the President to move the country forward.

“I worked as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the engine room of the presidency. My experiences are cognate. I am not going to learn on the job; I am going to continue from where we stopped. 

He pointed out that if Nigerians elected the wrong leader, the country would sink deeper than she already has today. 

“Let me also say that today in Nigeria, we are concerned about things that are not going well. There is insecurity, there is economic downturn. The first commitment I want to offer Nigerians is to stand on the framework of consensus and reunite Nigerians and reduce mutual suspicion,” he pledged.

Anyim added that, “When we are able to redirect the nation on the path of unity and eliminate mutual suspicion, all of us will come together, pick the right hands based on competence and capacity and work together to refocus the economy, rescue the country and rebuild our society.”

Present at the meeting were Elder Godsday Orubebe, Labaran Maku, Solomon Ewuga, Sanusi Dagash, Josephine Anenih, Ina Ciroma, Mukhtar Shehu Shagari, Osita Chidoka, Solomon Ewuga and Sola Akamode among others.