2015: North Will Confront Jonathan — Lawal Kaita

An elder statesman and chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, has hit hard on the party over its recent convention which, he said, fell short of the dreams and aspirations of its founders.

Kaita, who described the emergence of the Bamanga Tukur-led NWC of the party as a grand ploy by President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential race, said the north would ensure he never succeeds.

“We hear rumours all over that Jonathan is planning to contest in 2015. Well, the north is going to be prepared if the country remains one.

That is, if the country remains one, we are going to fight for it. If not, everybody can go his way,” he told LEADERSHIP in an exclusive interview in Katsina. Lawal Kaita said the recent stand of the party on consensus was a total negation of the motive behind forming the party.

He stated: “It is a disgrace that a party like PDP is running away from election. I am one of the G18 members who founded the PDP and we formed the party because of our firm belief in election. I have contested election five or six times. We believed in election, but now the whole thing has collapsed”.

“They are running away from election. This entire consensus thing doesn’t make sense. For us who formed the PDP, we regret what is happening now. Ten candidates, overnight, all stepping down for one person! All the candidates were renowned and each of them is capable of running the party, but they all withdrew…”

Kaita, who was a governor of the old Kaduna State, insisted that the just concluded national convention of the PDP was devoid of excitement, noting: “Tukur is a highly qualified person but the fact that he allowed himself to be used as Jonathan’s candidate is what has lowered his status.”