Ex-militant leader in the Niger Delta, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, has advised the Peoples Democratic Party on the choice of presidential candidate ahead of the 2019 election.
Asari, who spoke with Sun believes that only former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has the credentials to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, come 2019.
Speaking on other candidates indicating interest under the umbrella of the PDP, Asari, said mentioning names such as Tambuwal, Sule Lamido, and others shows that the main opposition party is not ready for the election.
His words, “Yes, the PDP is not ready for a fight. If the PDP is ready for a fight, there won’t be talks of Tambuwal candidature, someone who is a governor in APC. He destroyed PDP and ran to APC. They are talking of Tambuwal, who knows him in Bayelsa?
“PDP governors are lobbying a character like that to join the PDP and contest for the presidential ticket. They are talking of Makarfi, a man who could not win Senate election; a man who during the 2015 presidential election allegedly voted for Buhari and showed his ballot paper to the people before putting it in the box.“Such a man is the one some PDP people are lobbying to get on the presidential ticket.“Sule Lamido is not different from Buhari. He is one of these arrogant Fulani people who feel they own this country and the rest of us are just like appendages.“Yes, I was in the SDP with Atiku Abubakar. He is the most liberal of all the people coming from the North. He has his own baggage. Let us look at other people. What are people like David Mark doing that they can’t contest?“Is it that they are not courageous enough to come and fight? So everybody in the North would abdicate to the Fulani. Other Northerners are even afraid to take their liberty even when we have told them that we have taken our liberty and they should take theirs.”
On Fayose, he added, “Yes, he has signified his intention but it is not going to fly. Who is going to run Fayose’s election for him? Whose money is going to be used?
“The South West does not vote heavily. The percentage of voters is low. Ekiti state where Fayose is governor has one of the lowest voting population.
“The other voters in South West are in the hands of the APC. For me, David Mark would have been the very best for PDP to galvanise the swing nationalities; those people outside Hausa, Fulani and Yoruba and bring them together to join with the Igbo and some other liberal Yoruba people.
“But if David Mark is not there, among the Fulani if the PDP insists on having a Fulani to become its presidential candidate, Atiku is their best bet.
“We also have Ibrahim Shekarau, a very honest and cerebral man. But does he have resources because election demands resources. At the end of the day, a lot of people do not know Shekarau in the South.
“Atiku already has platforms across Nigeria and whatever it is he can fight more.
Aside that, he has also talked about restructuring and as an Ijaw man, we want to engage him, what he means by restructuring. If PDP is looking for somebody with a war chest to fight and that would attract a lot of people from the APC, it is Atiku.”
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