Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, has said quitting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not an option for him despite people in the state voting massively for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), because the PDP can still recover from its loss.
He spoke to State House correspondents after he met behind closed doors with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa on Thursday night, Daily Independent reports.
Lamido lamented the loss of the PDP in the presidential polls, blaming it on the mismanagement of its initial successes, but praised Muhammadu Buhari of the APC for his ability to snatch the Presidency from the ruling party; although he said the ultimate winner remains Nigeria.
“I’m sure if you know the party’s (PDP) history, what it went through in the last 16 years, it has the capacity to bounce back.
“With the elections, the pains and the anger, PDP made some mistakes and I have been saying so; very costly mistakes, and we have not been able to properly manage our successes.
“But I don’t think quitting PDP is the answer and in any case, Nigerian people have said yes to the APC; they have spoken in very loud and unmistaken ways.
“The votes are very unambiguous and so, we respect their choice and their rights and we praise Buhari for being able to take the ticket from the PDP.
“Though, I am not happy, but it is Nigeria that won, not Buhari. None of them lost but Nigeria won and it is enough of the anxiety, enough of the worry and the fear in Africa.
“It was so intense, you would not believe it as confirmed by the chairperson of the African Union and other international friends who have called thanking Nigeria for really saving Nigeria and also saving Africa,” he said.
On the speculation that PDP governors did not work hard enough for Jonathan, he said, “we won’t go into blame game; in what way will this blame change the attitude of the crowd?
“Leadership is a very huge burden and it is normal for the followership to stick in order to look at things from their own perspective.”
Lamido added; “whoever becomes the president is a Nigerian president, not a president for a particular region. This is how I see this election and I thank Nigerians for standing for Nigeria.”
Governor Lamido was one of the PDP state governors who shunned a visit to President Goodluck Jonathan following the conclusion of the 2015 Presidential election.
