Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa state, has sought to explain the poor performance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 general election in northern Nigeria.
The former ruling party lost governorship in all northern states apart from Taraba and Gombe — and won presidential election only in three out of the 19 states, compared to seven in 2011 and 12 in 2007.
Lamido told Weekly Trust on Saturday that many northerners did not have the freedom to vote their choices because of the branding of the PDP as a Christian party.
“In the build-up to the last general election, PDP was vilified, intimidated with religion, falsehoods and propaganda through Facebook postings. Rwandan genocide pictures were posted as Boko Haram victims. PDP was blackmailed into silence,” he said.
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“When you queued to vote in the north, people viewed you as an infidel. You were all there and these things happened in a country where freedom should be the operating word. APC man can vote APC but if Lamido votes PDP, he is a Christian, he is a pastor.”
Significantly, APC had also accused PDP of branding it as a Muslim party.
Many PDP leaders labelled APC “Muslim Brotherhood” and “Janjaweed Party” ahead of the 2015 elections.
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Lamido praised the appointment of Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor of Borno state, as the acting national chairman of the PDP as the party seeks to re-position itself ahead of the 2019 elections.
He said: “Modu Sheriff has a long standing political history. All those making noise are product of political invention. Sheriff has been in politics and defeating PDP at the poll since 1999.
“He was in the ANPP and worked for the alliance that brought together incompatibles. I mean, how do you put (Alhaji Abubakar) Atiku, (President Muhammadu) Buhari and (Chief Ahmed Bola) Tinubu in one political pot? How do you cook them? No, tell me. You can’t cook Buhari and these two in one political pot.
“When they were forging alliance with ANPP, Sheriff was the arrowhead. They were celebrating him when he was in APC, working for APC. He was a very wonderful person. But, when he joined the PDP, he became a Boko Haram member. Who is saying so, of course, the APC members because they are scared of him? He knows them damn too well.
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“I think, today, Sheriff is the best thing to have happened to PDP. It is a huge good will, he has a huge followership. He is somebody who is courageous, inspirational and he can say: look, APC go to tell. APC is thoroughly scared because they know him and what he is capable of doing. He will come to Jigawa sometime next week.
“We will come out en masse to welcome him and assemble the biggest crowd ever in Nigerian politics. We want to force them (APC) out in 2019 because they have no agenda and manifesto to govern.”
7 comments
That is absolutely true, before the election I was in Jigawa…religious sentiment was too high that even at the polling unit you are compelled to vote against your will…preachers even tagged PDP as christian party while APC was seen as Islamic party…but today they are regretting the choice the made…their hope is 2019 where most of them have vowed never to vote APC.
They steal money and then play religious card when called to account! Was it not the same PDP Vice President who said APC is a Christian party and PDP for the muslims? Stop all these religious rubbish!
What the former VP said was that APC had the same religious content with pdp even more Christian content in its leadership than PDP this was in answer to those who where saying that APC is Muslim and PDP Christian
Whatever it’s let’s not allow ourselves to be fooled by the politicians. We need to shine our eyes and ask them to be accountable for the mandate given them. All we need in this country is deliverable
What Sule Lamido said was the true story of what happen in the North. Christians were forced to vote against their wish. They forced to say Nigeria sai Baba Buhari. I was in charge of Bauchi Central and what they were chanting was they will use their PVC for JIHAD meaning they can kill to bring Buhari on board, I advise Horop to stop the ignorance and be objective in his assertion.
Sule remember to mention also if one steals poeples money or property in the north is tag BARAWO there you are
In Islam, government money is nobody’s money. Alhaji Gumi said so during IBB government.