By Lateef Ibrahim
A former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, had said Nigeria would have an emperor as President if the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), collapses.
Lamido, a founding member of the PDP, said this on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm programme on Tuesday.
He maintained that the PDP is an integral part of Nigeria’s democratic history, adding that the continued existence of the party is tied to the country’s survival.
“If the PDP collapses, Nigeria will collapse. Where there is no opposition, then there will be an emperor. When the party collapses, then you have an emperor all over Nigeria, and all emperors are destroyed by their greed.
“The PDP is Nigeria’s history in the last 25 years, therefore, look at the bigger picture. If the party collapses, it is Nigeria’s history which collapses,” he said.
According to the ex-foreign affairs minister, if the PDP hadn’t restored Nigeria’s democracy in 1999, there was no way ex-military head of state Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress would have taken over power as President in May 2015.
He stated further that without the PDP laying the foundation for Nigeria’s democracy in the Fourth Republic, incumbent ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu wouldn’t have taken over from his party man, Buhari, in May 2023.
Lamido reiterated that Tinubu needs the PDP as a focal opposition party to keep him in check.
“More than anybody, Tinubu needs PDP to be chasing him, to be on his toes, but when it collapses, nobody will be chasing him; he will be chasing himself,” he added.
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