Posted by By JACOB EDI, Abuja on
After several postponements, former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, on Wednesday picked the nomination forms to seek the mandate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to vie for next year's presidential election. He becomes the 15th presidential aspirant on the platform of PDP.
After several postponements, former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, on Wednesday picked the nomination forms to seek the mandate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to vie for next year's presidential election. He becomes the 15th presidential aspirant on the platform of PDP.
After about one-and-a-half hours of closed door session with the leadership of the party, General Babangida came out to face the press where he read a terse two page statement.
Short of announcing his programmes, Babangida said his desire to vie for the highest office in the land was to expand the frontiers of reforms that are designed towards building a better society.
'My decision to seek for the highest office is not based on any desire to change the direction of Nigeria but to expand the frontier of reforms that are designed towards building a better society.
'If I say I would copy the president, this would not be fair to him. Speaking from what I know of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, he had always expected his officers to be bold, innovative and imaginative. This is what I plan to be," stated Babangida, who refused to answer questions from journalists. He only announced that he was planning a world press conference where all the questions would be addressed.
Babangida said seeking the office of president was the second time in his life he would seek employment.
The first, he said, was his entry into the army, adding, 'and the second occasion is this one I'm about to enter." He noted that unlike in the military, where the Army Board decides who gets the job, in politics it is the people, through the instrumentality of the political party that determine who gets the job."
The former military president urged Nigerians to go out en masse to participate in the on-going voters' registration.
Babangida rode into the PDP headquarters in a 25-seater Coaster bus, with registration number, Niger AA 225 SRP, at about 10 am, to the surprise of supporters who had gathered in their thousands as early as 8am. He struggled through the crowd and went straight to the PDP national chairman's office, Dr. Ahmadu Ali.
Dressed in white babanriga with black stripes and a multi-colour matching cap, Babangida was accompanied by his wife, Maryam, eldest son, Mohammed, Governor Abdulkhadir Kure of Niger State and his deputy; former Chief of General Staff, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, all commissioners in Niger State, former PDP national chairman, Chief Barnabas Gemade, retired Brigadier-General John Shagaya and AVM Anthony Okpere (retd), among others.
At exactly 11.59am Babangida, accompanied by the leadership of the PDP and led by national chairman, Ahmadu Ali, sneaked out of the party secretariat using a back door just as the supporters waited downstairs to cheer him after collecting the forms. By the time the supporters realized what happened, Babangida was already on his way out to Rockview Hotel to attend the inauguration of his campaign coordinators who ended a two-day national workshop.
Sources revealed that Babangida would make a public declaration of his presidential ambition soon. No date has been fixed yet.
It was gathered that the former head of state would flag-off his public declaration in Katsina State before doing same in all the six geo-political zones.