One-time Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Mohammed Ahmed Makarfi has said the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is now in a vintage position to flush out the Elrufai’s led All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the state at the forthcoming elections.
Senator Makarfi, who is the former governor of the state between 1999 – 2007 noted that the present APC in the state has nothing to offer.
He said it was based on this premise, that said he decided to remain at home, to trash all manners of threats that may work against PDP before and during the election in the state.
According to Senator Makarfi, the business of returning the PDP to power is enormous in the state, hence he excused himself from following the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar on a campaign tour across the country.
Fielding questions from journalists Tuesday on the preparation of the PDP towards the forthcoming elections, the PDP chieftain said PDP is the only political party without ethnic and religious sentiments out of the three dominant political parties(LP, APC and PDP).
“Politics is local, I have been at home leading the campaign here. If you notice hardly do you see me at the national rally. Because my personal opinion is that the work is at home. And the work at home is enormous. And one needs to be at home to do the needful, not to be deceived.
“It is not about following candidates on the campaign. I have just told you that I have not been going to rally with our candidate, but I am 100 per cent with our candidate.
“And I am at home working 100 per cent to make sure that Kaduna returns to PDP. If you have a responsibility to remain at home you remain at home. If you don’t have a responsibility to remain at home you can be anywhere. That is the way. I don’t want to talk about someone not being at the rally.
“The issue is the voters, APC has nothing to show to the voters that will make voters enthusiastic to vote for them. But they want to make use of money, sentiments, and religious sentiment, And from experience, this sentiment will take them nowhere.
“I believe people want a state that is fair and equitable. And PDP is structured in a way and manner that is fair and equitable for development in Nigeria. So for me, it is not showing up at the rally, but about the people who are looking for an alternative, and that alternative is PDP which the people are happy to associate with.
“Each election always comes with its difficulties and peculiarities. In 2019, we didn’t have Labour Party. To me, it is a challenge to PDP in certain parts of the State.
” But again, the sentiment used in 2019 in some parts of the State is not the same sentiment used today. There are efforts to use the same sentiment by the ruling party. But, the rejection by the people is very obvious. So, there is dynamism in politics. Things are changing.
“For us in the PDP where we have concerns, we have been engaging with people and we are progressing pretty well. I am very confident that we will win the 2023 elections in the State, and Nigeria. Well, I can say that we don’t have resources, but the ones we spend are our resources.
“The party in power use public resources. But, people are now wise. Up till 2015, the PDP was in power, with over 20 States under its control. no matter the resources then, the opposition party took over the government. People made up their minds. And I believe, this time around the people have made up their minds because they are not satisfied with the APC government.
“So, no matter the amount of money they would spend, people are going to take their money and vote against them.
“You can also see that our party today in Kaduna has absolute acceptability by the people everywhere. The issue now is, let the election be free and fair. Some people think that with the BVAS the election cannot be manipulated. It can. And, I believe those in authority know it can. So, let us safeguard the electoral materials and equipment to make sure that unpatriotic elements in our country don’t subvert democracy.
