Running mate: I won’t blame Wike for feeling bad – Ex-Kaduna gov, Makarfi

 

A former Governor of Kaduna State and Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, on Thursday, said that the main opposition party would win the 2023 presidential election.

 

He, however, urged leaders of the party to close rank and resolve all political challenges that might have arisen as a fallout of the party’s presidential primary.

 

Makarfi, who spoke with newsmen in Kaduna on Thursday amid rumour of defecting from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress, said he was not contemplating leaving the party he joined others to form in 1999 to date.

 

According to him, the only reason I will quit the party is when retiring from active politics.

 

He said that the misunderstanding associated with the outcome of the party’s presidential primary and the choice of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s running mate must not be allowed to rock the PDP boat.

 

Makarfi urged Atiku to reach out to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers, on the choice of his running mate, saying that “the matter is resolvable.”

 

“I won’t blame Wike for feeling bad. Because he has been one of the pillars of the party. Let the presidential candidate, Atiku sit down with Wike to discuss issues because he is the only one that knows why he picked his running mate. The matter is resolvable,” he said.

 

Makarfi, a former National Chairman of the party, expressed optimism that PDP would bring back true democracy to Nigeria in 2023, adding that “we have learnt our lessons and we Will do more than we did when we are in power”.

 

He explained that as long as the 2023 election would hold the party “will win but we need to work hard for us to win in 2023. PDP is set to bring back true democracy to Nigeria and we have learnt our lessons”.

 

Meanwhile, Markarfi described his rumoured defection from the PDP to APC as the handiwork of jobless politicians.

 

He said, “honestly, I am hearing this for the first time that I am defecting from PDP to APC and I don’t know what can be the basis.

 

“Why should I make an investment in terms of time and whatever you can mention in PDP and now decided to leave. Why should I go through the stress and just when we are getting it right, then I now leave the PDP for APC or any other party?

 

“What will be the attraction for me to leave the PDP? Well, people don’t approach me with such a rumour because they know the type of person that I am. If they want to come they come to me with substance. What could be the basis because in every rumour there must be a basis.

 

“Is it because members of the opposition party attended my son’s wedding and that is the basis of that rumour? Even then people of my own political party were all there. Is this the kind of country that we want to build that because people from all shades of life attend wedding ceremonies, a burial that they will now start flying rumours of defection?

 

“The rumour is the figment of the imagination of people who are jobless. I am a PDP member thorough and thorough. If I leave PDP, I should be retiring from politics. And because you hold different political opinions then you now cut off all relationships with people and you want Nigeria to move forward?

 

“I will continue to hold my political opinion as a PDP person. I will continue to stand by my opinion in PDP. I have stood by it a long time ago and I will continue. People that have been galivanting between PDP and APC are known.

 

“I am in politics in PDP on principle. If people are moving across parties because they want to capture power or they want to enhance their financial-economic position or whatever; I am still in PDP and I will continue to be in PDP and this time around, I believe we are going to be in power God’s willing in Kaduna. And we shall be successful even at the national level.”