Senate Minority Leader: PDP Group Backs Tambuwal

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

A political pressure group affiliated with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the PDP Action 2023, has backed the immediate past Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, and Senator representing Sokoto South Senatorial District to clinch the Office of the Senate Minority Leader when the red chamber resume from the Sallah break.

This is just as the group flayed the recent attacks on Senator Tambuwal by those it described as ‘dictators’ afraid of the growing political profile of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In a statement signed by the group’s chairman, Rufus Omeire, and made available to journalists on Saturday, the PDP-affiliated body, accused some unnamed persons of leveling unsubstantiated allegations against Tambuwal, for reasons not unconnected with his aspiration to the Senate minority leadership.
“In the National Assembly, a Speaker outranks a senator. As a former Speaker, he has the ranking and qualifications to become the Minority leader of the 10th Senate. So, why are they afraid of Tambuwal? Are they worried that he may become a stumbling block to the alleged plot for complete dictatorship in Nigeria?” the group asked.

The statement read in part, “They alleged that he (Tambuwal) once betrayed some people and PDP. Behind these allegations is an attempt to re-litigate the 2022 PDP presidential primaries. They have consistently tried to pin on him the issue of the betrayal of some of his friends because of the patriotic role he played during the PDP national convention. We cannot hold brief for Tambuwal, but at the appropriate time, the relevant question would be asked: Who betrayed who? He didn’t betray the PDP or the nation in his eight years as Sokoto State governor.

“Tambuwal had shown interest in the PDP presidential nomination long before some people suddenly appeared on the since and expected him to drop out for them just because they believed that they had more financial resources than him. Whether they had better programmes for Nigerians or not, didn’t matter.”
Lauding the leadership quality of the former Governor, the group argued that Tambuwal’s broad-mindedness played a huge role in his unanimous election “As the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, a position usually reserved for majority party Governors,” stressing that he successfully “Rallied round the entire Nigerian governors to speak with one voice and assist the nation at its trying times of transition.

“He has demonstrated the capacity to forge alliances within his team for good cause. He has also shown that he is not over-ambitious. He demonstrated the political equivalence of supreme sacrifice by voluntarily relinquishing his quest for PDP presidential nomination in 2022 when he was a strong enough contender to clinch the ticket.

“To those who are sponsoring these attacks on Senator Tambuwal, let them first purge themselves of the ignoble roles they played in the last presidential elections. Some Nigerians have no shame.”

The group also counseled the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio ‘Not to allow people to destabilise the Senate by dabbling into the Minority leadership issue of the 10th Senate but to concentrate instead on assisting Mr. President to deliver sound legislation and good policies to ensure good governance in Nigeria at this critical period of change and leadership.”