From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

Amid speculations that former president, Goodluck Jonathan, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar and 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi may return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to contest for the presidential ticket, a chieftain of the party,  Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has said the former leaders are welcome to the contest.

Olawepo-Hashim, in a statement by his

Chief Press Secretary, Ibrahim Hassan Mahmoud, noted that the more, the merrier, stating that a competitive and transparent presidential primary would reawaken the PDP’s legacy as the true party of democracy in Nigeria.

“The PDP was never meant to be an exclusive club. From day one, it was designed to be a national platform, a big umbrella for all shades of opinion, ideology, and aspiration.”

Reflecting on the formation of the major opposition party in 1998, he said: “We had giants of Nigeria’s political class under one roof. Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Solomon Lar, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Chief Melford Okilo, Prof. Jubril Aminu, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, and many others, all men who could have been good presidents.

“Yet some dropped their initial ambition as things developed, while others went ahead and submitted themselves to a fair contest in Jos in 1999, which Obasanjo eventually won.”

Olawepo-Hashim, who  emphasised that it was free and fair internal democracy that gave the PDP its strength in its early years, “not backdoor consensus or gatekeeping politics”, lauded  the inclusive leadership style  of the party’s interim chairman at the time, late  Chief Solomon Lar, who kept the doors wide open for all.

“Those who feared competition quietly exited the founding process. But we pressed on, and Nigeria benefitted.

“If Jonathan, Atiku, Obi and others wish to contest, they should be welcomed. Let the best ideas and visions emerge through fair competition. That is how to build a party of the future.”

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