I had difficult times as PDP chairman – Tukur

The former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has said that he “passed through difficult times while in office.”  He thereby urged anyone aspiring to head the party to be fearless, consistent and focused.

He spoke when some clerics visited and prayed with him at his residence in Abuja on Saturday. He insisted that he stood by every decision he took while in office.

Tukur said he made a huge sacrifice by resigning from office as he expressed regrets that some members of the PDP preferred the party to be run with the  business as usual mentality, because, according to him, such members were utterly opposed to any form of change in running other party.

He said that his actions were aimed at reforming the party and to deepen democracy and made Nigeria raise its head among the comity of great nations.

He said, “I did my best to bring PDP to good standard and international best practices on politics. I came in with the mindset to reform the party by promoting the principle of election instead of selection and the idea of consensus instead of imposition.

“Alas, I was proved wrong by those who believed that the old order in PDP must be retained, not for any good thing, but for their selfish interests.”

He said but for the doggedness of President Goodluck Jonathan  and the wisdom he displayed in managing the affairs of the PDP, “the party would have long collapsed” given what he described as “evil plots” by certain members to completely destroy the party.

He said his loyalty to President Goodluck Jonathan and his government remained unwaivering as he pledged to always support the President and the PDP to the best of his abilities, at any given time.

He told the clerics not to stop praying for President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP to overcome what he referred to as their trying moments in the nation’s contemporary politics.

He said he found it unbelievable to discover that some stakeholders of the party never had the interest of PDP or Nigeria at heart.

According to him, personal ambitions, crave for sudden wealth and unimaginable level of treachery usually got the full attention of such stakeholders than anything else.

He also said that he didn’t collect any bulletproof car from any governorship aspirant as being speculated in some quarters.

Tukur said, “Some members got so desperate that they turned to the media and funded all negative reports against me. If you are familiar with all the negative media reports, none attributed any wrongdoing to me. The reports only echoed the views of the sponsors that I was unbending in my desire to change the bad situation in PDP.

“They even attempted to use the media to set me against Mr. President. I never spoke to anyone about issues, yet the media would attribute some reports to me.

“But we knew those who were behind it all. They had forgotten that whatever goes round surely must come round.

“To put me on the spot, they sponsored another report that governorship aspirants were buying me bulletproof jeeps so that I can give them governorship slot in their states. I understood that the authors of such reports had denied what they wrote.

“It is wickedness when the media distort facts against you, just to please their pay masters.”