Former Governor of Niger State, Dr Muazu Aliyu Babangida, has said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will not allow the imposition of candidates for the 2019 general elections.
According to Babangida, who spoke with journalists in his residence in Minna, the Niger State capital on Sunday, the party would not impose any candidate at any level on the electorate to avoid the mistakes that led to the loss of of 2015 polls.
The former governor also insisted that the party would not give automatic ticket to new members or old members who defected to other parties to contest offices, except a waiver is given in line with the party’s constitution for fair play, adding that PDP is taking these steps were being taken also to avoid similar mistakes by the party in 2015, which led to its failure at the polls.
He said: “If you left the party for one reason or the other and returned and have the ambition of contesting, you cannot just be given the ticket, no matter how influential such an aspirant is, except a waiver is given and will also join the queue.
“We want to avoid the same mistake we made in 2015 that led to our dismal outing at the polls.”
He further revealed that though the party had zoned the Presidency to the North for the 2019 presidential election, it had not zoned the vice presidential slot anywhere, and that it was not the responsibility of the party to pick a vice presidential candidate but that of the presidential candidate.
Aliyu however explained that even with the zoning, the caucus of the party had said that any member of the party was still free to contest any position.
“Any party that wants to win election must first put its house in order, if you have a vehicle without an engine you do not have a vehicle, the people are the engine of the party,” he said.
