‘Northern consensus’: We’ll work to get support of PDP stakeholders, says Bala Mohammed

Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi, says he will work towards encouraging other stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support the process that led to the decision on the “northern consensus presidential candidates”.

On Friday, Mohammed and Bukola Saraki, former senate president, were announced as “northern consensus candidates”, following a report by Ango Abdullahi, elder statesman.

The development came after weeks of consultation by some presidential hopefuls on consensus candidacy for the PDP.

But Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto, who had earlier canvassed for consensus, rejected the decision.

Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa, had also said the emergence of Saraki and Mohammed is not a decision of PDP members in the north.

Speaking to journalists on Saturday in Bauchi, Mohammed said he did not influence the outcome of the decision.

He, however, lauded the forum for a thorough job.

“Just yesterday, I was elected as one of the consensus candidates for the next presidential election,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“People may take it as something influenced or that we have gone to ask people to give us the recognition. Far from that; it is a mark of recognition and the work of God that I will not take for granted this recognition on my humble self and senator Bukola Saraki, after we decided to do consensus with two others and came on bracket after due consultations with other elders in the north.

“We have been asked to further consult among ourselves and other aspirants within the country so that we can minimise rancour, division and any unpleasantries for us to come out with a candidate that would win the election for the PDP.

“We have taken it as a responsibility and we are calling on others, even those who didn’t make it in the consensus, to come and join hands with us and our southern compatriots so as to do it with minimal rancour and come out of the primary and selection that would produce the best in terms of leadership recruitment in the country.”

Commending himself, Mohammed said he was one of the best candidates that had so far shown interest in the presidency.

“This is part of politicking. We are not the only ones. There is also the Waziri Adamawa who has not even participated in the consensus. It is part of political engineering,” the governor said.

“There are other aspirants from the south, but we must work through and make sure that we come to a converging point, including the group of alhaji Sule Lamido.

“We will make sure that we get their endorsement and confidence, and I assure you that we are going to come out of this.”