A former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has announced his formal retirement from partisan politics.
He stated this in his address, in Abuja on Tuesday, at a lecture organised to mark his 80th birthday.
Tukur, a former governor of old Gongola State, said he had done his best for the former ruling party and that it was time for him to leave the scene.
He said, “I deem it fit to use this opportunity of my 80th birthday celebration to announce my retirement from partisan politics.
“It is time to say goodbye to formal politics. I have used several political platforms to serve my country.
“I leave partisan politics for the younger generation. I want to be a statesman and an adviser”.
“At the age of 80, I feel I can serve our dear nation more in the capacity of a statesman and father figure”, he added.
Tukur noted that during his short-lived tenure as the chairman of the party, he tried to introduce sanity in the party affairs.
He listed some of his achievements as PDP national chairman to include introduction of internal democracy, party discipline and party supremacy.
These, he said, remained the ingredients of strong party systems which, he said, drove the democratic process.
