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Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Saturday said the ease with which he was removed from the party was because former president Goodluck Jonathan could not protect him from the dominating influence the PDP governors wield.
The elder statesman who featured in Kaduna-based Liberty Radio’s programme, “Guest of the Week,” pointed out that certain people in the party didn’t want him to practice internal democracy that he was preaching which led to his removal.
He however exonerated the former president of complicity in his removal, saying, “Jonathan did not insist I leave the party. There are people in the PDP who felt I should not practise what I preached because discipline is very important. Following the laws you established is very important. When you don’t, then you have problems.
“President Jonathan could not protect me due to the powers of the governors. The governors are very powerful and therefore, if you do not do what they want, you are done away with and I believe nothing can be done to them.
”I was accused of being a virus in PDP and I did not deny it; I told them I am a virus for good governance, virus for internal democracy, virus for equity and justice. I hope that virus will continue,” he said.
He blamed his party’s defeat at the 2015 general election on its inability to deliver on promises, pointing out that the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the centre was a desire for an alternative to a failed party.
According to him, “Democracy is government of the people by the people for the people. So, if the PDP fails to deliver on its promises, people will go to the alternative. Change is always good, provided it is going to bring better alternatives.”
He said APC allowed the democratic system to prevail by allowing the people to choose their leaders through elections.
Speaking further, the former PDP chairman commended the leadership style of President Muhammadu Buhari and asked Nigerians to allow the President as he leads the nation at his calculated pace.
“I salute Muhammadu Buhari because he has integrity. He believes in discipline, he believes in fighting corruption and believes in good governance because the only way we can go forward and be respected in the comity of nations is by coming together and carrying our people along,” he said.
