2019: We want to save Nigeria – PDP leaders

Nigeria is in crisis and should be saved, leaders of Peoples Democratic Party have said as they prepare to take on the All Peoples Congress for a return to power in 2019.

The opposition leaders led by the national vice chairman, Babayo Gamawa, on Friday, were in Obosi, Anambra State, the country home of Osita Chidoka, a former minister, where they said their party did better in anti-graft campaign than APC currently does.

They asked Mr Chidoke to join their “mission of rescuing” Nigeria.

“We are not here to ask you to rejoin the party but to join a rescue mission because the country needs to be saved,” said Mr Gamawa.

Also in the visiting team were the southeast zonal vice chairman, Austin Umahi and the zonal secretary, Casmir Ugwu, among others.

Speaking further, Mr Gamawa suggested PDP fought corruption better than the APC, arguing the anti-graft agencies were created by the PDP.

Furthermore, he stated that Nigeria “needs a vibrant economy, which will revive all the lost opportunities which were available during the PDP leadership.”

PDP, after being in power for 16 years, lost to the APC in the 2015 presidential poll. Unbridled corruption, mismanagement of the economy and insecurity were the bases of the APC’s campaign against PDP then.

In his remarks, Mr Umahi noted that Mr Chidoka was one of the founding members of the party but left due to lapses within the party. He said there is now an assurance that all has been taken care of and the party “has come to take back what is its.”.

In his reaction, Mr Chidoka told his guests that the national chairman of the United Progressive Party, which he joined ahead of the last Anambra State governorship election, was aware of the visit.

He added that the UPP is ready to get into “any positive coalition that will pull the country to a better place.”

“Our country is in a crisis and I have never seen it this divided throughout the time I have lived in Nigeria, ” he said. “There is a need to heal the land, there is need to build a nation where no one will be oppressed alienated.”

He made the point for the restructuring of the country to make all groups feel as stakeholders, adding:  “We need not wait for another violent outburst to structurally adjust the nation.”

He said he would relay the message of the PDP to the UPP and a feedback will be sent back through the zonal vice chairman.