A former Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has sent letters to members of the Peoples Democratic Party to inform them about his desire to vie for the presidency in 2019 on the platform of the party.
In the letter dated October 22, the former governor said all the party needed to reposition the country was to take over power in 2019 and bring it back to its path of recovery.
He regretted that the nation had departed from the dreams of its founding fathers.
The letter read in part, “Today, 57 years after the independence of our dear country, can we in all sincerity claim to have achieved the dream of our founding fathers? Where did we fail and from where did we begin to fail?
“Nigeria with its natural endowment and human capacity cannot be forgiven for being otherwise. We cannot even demonstrate our ability and capacity to meet domestic, regional and global challenges which currently seems to overwhelm us.
“The PDP will and must lead the nation back into a bright, progressive, and innovative future,”
Lamido, who has yet to officially declare his intention said that the PDP must rekindle in Nigeria a new hope, a nation of united people with a common and assured destiny.
He said, “To the world, Nigeria must demonstrate our confidence, tenacity in our ability and capability to address our domestic regional and global challenges that confront us.
“It is against this background that I offer myself to vie for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019 if my party finds me worthy to fly its flag.” The letter reads.
Lamido noted that the PDP has enough talents to salvage the nation from its current woes.
He said, “I am no means claiming to be the only capable material, any PDP member given the trust and support can fly our flag, and I expect many more aspirants will express the desire to run.
“My hope and prayer is that at the end of all the process which I hope will be open, fair transparent and credible is to give Nigeria in 2019 candidate who will lead the party and Nigeria. This is because there is no alternative to PDP in 2019, it will be a defining moment in the Nigerian political evolution.”
He said why the clamour for restructuring rages, the most important aspects of addressing the Nigerian economy by creating prosperity will make the debate less emotional and sentimental.
“Our imperfect union as a federation should not be an excuse for our legendary failure which appears to have found vent in the call for restructuring, a union of multi-ethnic multi-lingual and multi-religious can certainly task the best of human capacities, but that is precisely the challenge and how to work on it and build a nation of people of a common destiny, and this is where the PDP must raise to the challenge,” he added.