Ahead of next year’s election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Forum of former Ministers, has insisted that the party’s Presidential flag bearer in the 2023 election will not be very old.
Speaking on behalf of the Forum while hosting the former Senate President and PDP Presidential aspirant, Senator Pius Anyim, recently in Abuja, chairman of the forum and former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Relations, Tanimu Turaki lamented that leadership failure has affected development of Nigeria.
He said: “We need a person that is not very old. He (Anyim) has acquired sufficient experience and maturity and he is not also very young. So, he can relate with some of us that are young.
“We need somebody that has the courage to take decisive decisions because Nigerian needs a very strong and powerful president. We need a man of integrity, a person that will listen, a person that will be compassionate, a person that will show sympathy and empathy to Nigerians.
“The greatest problem we have had in this country is leadership failure because leadership has failed in this country and because the head of the fish is rotten; ultimately and quite invariably, the body of the fish will also be rotten.
“We have resolved that we must take special interest in what happens to our party in the build up to this election. We will play a very active role, we will liaise with the leadership of the party in selecting a credible candidate that will win election for us and win election for Nigeria and in the process, salvage Nigerians from the twin evils of hunger and poverty.”
Turaki who stressed that Nigeria needs the Anyim’s experience added that “Between the experience you have gathered both from the legislative and executive arms of government and of course while you have never had the opportunity of heading or playing a pivotal role in the judiciary; your qualification as a senior lawyer now fills that gap and makes you one person that has the opportunity of gravitating and serving from both arms of government in this country.
The ex-Ministers lamented that never in Nigeria political history have we been so divided among different unimaginable lines.
He stressed that It is important that the party go for a person that can build very strong bridges of friendship among the various divides.
Addressing the former Ministers, Anyim who was also a Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said he has the required experience to rescue and rebuild Nigeria.
He said: “When I worked as a civil servant, it was in two parastatals in the Presidency. I worked as President of the Senate, working along with the President to move the country forward.
“I worked as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the engine room of the Presidency. My experiences are cognate. I am not going to learn on the job; I am going to continue from where we stopped.
“Let me also say that today in Nigeria, we are concerned about things that are not going well. There is insecurity, there is economic downturn.The first commitment I want to offer Nigerians is to stand on the framework of consensus and reunite Nigerians and reduce mutual suspicion,” he pledged, adding that “when we are able to redirect the nation on the path of unity and eliminate mutual suspicion, all of us will come together, pick the right hands based on competence and capacity and work together to refocus the economy, rescue the country and rebuild our society.”
Present at the meeting were Elder Godsday Orubebe, Labaran Maku, Solomon Ewuga, Sanusi Dagash and Josephine Anenih.
Others included Ina Ciroma, Mukhtar Shehu Shagari, Osita Chidoka among others.