The contest for the 2019 presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, informally got underway, Monday night, with the former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, declaring his bid to state chairmen of the party.
Lamido, according to multiple sources at a dinner he hosted for the state chairmen and zonal chairmen of the party in Abuja, said his bid followed a series of nationwide consultations at the end of which he said he was now offering himself to rescue the nation from drift.
Lamido served as governor of Jigawa State between 2007 and 2015, and before then, was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. He was one of the nine men referenced as G9 who conceived the PDP as a national party.
One of those present at the meeting said: “He said that in view of the callings coming from Nigerians and different groups that he was offering himself for the presidency and he gave a long speech of the history of Nigeria from independence to date, noting how Nigeria missed it and how the compass can be redirected.”
A party chairman confiding in Vanguard on the outcome of the meeting, quoted Lamido as saying that the meeting was “an opportunity for him to appreciate the wonderful work that the state chairmen had been doing for the party to commend them and to whisper that if the opportunity is there that he would be prepared to serve the party at the highest level.”
“He said that a lot of people are urging him on and that as key leaders of the party who would play a major role in the contest he was now informing the chairmen.”
Lamido according to another source told the party chairmen that “they are the leaders of the party in their various states and he said that he is not the only candidate and may not be the best candidate, others will come out and when they come out that they should make sure that they select the best for the party and for Nigeria.”
Following his speech party chairmen among them those of Imo, Plateau and Akwa Ibom responded.
The consultation with party leaders Vanguard learnt is to go to the next level with other higher level players in the party.
