Governor Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe State is in the race for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in next year’s election, and this is official.
He formally declared his intention yesterday in a tweet.
“After wide consultations with party members & Nigerians of diverse backgrounds! I, Dr Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo will be running for office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party. #GoingBeyondPromises”, he said.
He is the fifth aspirant to announce his interest for the ticket in the PDP. Others are former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who only two weeks went to Gombe to solicit Dankwambo’s support, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, a former governor of Kaduna and chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa, Attahiru Bafarawa, former governor of Sokoto and Tanimu Turaki, a former minister of the Jonathan era, who has launched a campaign via billboards.
Other possible candidates are Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, Senator Bukola Saraki and Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto. They are yet to make their plans known, officially.
Also yesterday, at a meeting with PDP officials the North East geo-political zone, Dankwambo said Nigeria’s next president ought to come from the North East.
He also said all interested candidates from the zone should be allowed to showcase themselves while the most qualified should emerge.
Speaking on the recent defection of top ranking members of the All Progressives Congress to the PDP, Dankwambo described the move as a reflection of the fact that the PDP has been reformed and repositioned, and urged existing members to welcome the new ones.
“All defectors should be accepted with an open heart and be given an equal opportunity as others who have been in the party”.