Why PDP Has Large Followership – Tukur

Bamanga TukurNational chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, has chided leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari for threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria if President Goodluck Jonathan loses the 2015 presidential election, saying there was no need for such a statement.

Tukur, who just returned from Canada and was speaking with journalists in Abuja said, “It is a wrong thing even to talk about war in election. Election should be free. People elect whom they want. So, election is free. Election should not be something you say something will happen if someone loses.

“Election means, you offer yourself and they take you or they take another one. That is what election means.

“We are in a democratic country. So, do not fight. When time comes for elections, people are expected to vote  according to their consciences.” he noted

Tukur also admitted that the planned merger of opposition parties would enhance healthier political rivalry in the polity.

Encouraging the opposition to formulate a people-based manifesto, Tukur added, “It is a combination of all what they (the people) want you put in your manifesto. If you want to have a party, you should go to the people.

“First of all, to understand what they want. This is how you base your manifesto. The manifesto is on the wishes, fears and expectations of the generality of the people.

“If you put it like that and you reflect it in your manifesto, usually, they will come to you because you are making a promise to them.

“But if you do not allow them, or the majority of them to really know, after coming to you, to find a free and fair access of expressing these wishes, then you will start getting problems.”

Tukur also explained that the people-oriented nature of the PDP was the reason it “has large followership”.