I Was In Hell As PDP Chairman-Tukur …Asks Nigerians To Pray For Jonathan, PDP.
Erstwhile National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has said a mortal who would lead the party must be fearless, consistent and focused as he admitted passing through difficult times while in office.
Tukur said but for the doggedness of President Goodluck Jonathan and the wisdom he displayed in managing the affairs of PDP, the party would have long collapsed, given what he described as 'evil plots' by certain members to completely destroy
the party.
Tukur said he made a huge sacrifice by resigning from office as he expressed regrets that some members of the PDP preferred the party to be run with the mentality of business as usual, because, according to him, such members were utterly
opposed to any form of Change in the running party.
He said his loyalty to President Goodluck Jonathan and his governmentb remained unflagging as he pledged to always support the president and the PDP to\ the best of his abilities, at any given time.
Tukur made these known when some clerics visited and prayed with him at his residence weekend, insisting that he stood by every decision he took to reform the party just to deepen democracy and make Nigeria raise its head in the comity of great nations.
He told the clerics not to cease in praying for President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP to overcome what he referred to as their trying moments in the contemporary politics of Nigeria.
He said he found it unbelievable to discover that some stakeholders of the party never had the interest of PDP or Nigeria at heart.
According to him, personal ambitions, crave for sudden wealth and unimaginable level of treachery usually got the full attention of such stakeholders than anything else.
He said, “I did my best to bring PDP to good standard and international best practices on politics. I came in with the mind-set to reform the party by promoting the principle of election instead of selection and the idea of consensus instead of imposition.
“Alas, I was proved wrong by those who believed that the old order in PDP must be retained, not for any good thing, but for their selfish interests.
“Some members got so desperate that they turned to the media and funded all negative reports against me. If you are familiar with all the negative media reports, none attributed any wrong doing to me. The reports only echoed the views of the sponsors that I was unbending in my desire to change the bad situation in PDP.
“They even attempted to use the media to get me in confrontation with Mr President. I never spoke to anyone about issues, yet the media would attribute some reports to me. But we knew those who were behind it all. They had forgotten that what ever goes round surely must come round.
“To put me on the spot, they sponsored another report that governorship aspirants were buying me bullet-proof jeeps so that I can give them governorship slot in their states. I understood that the authors of such reports had denied what they wrote. It is wickedness when the media distort facts against you, just to please their pay masters”
“How could I do such a thing, when indeed, I was the one advocating change in PDP. I waged war against the idea of imposition or selection of candidates for elections in our party. We did that successfully in Adamawa and it is working. We conducted transparent elections in Anambra and the best candidate won. We never favoured any candidate during the process.
“All the same, those who benefited from the rots within the party in the past stood on our ways. My conviction is that very soon, Nigerians will know the truth. It then matters what the country would do with such truth”.