Former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a “defunct” political party.
NEWSNGR reports that Ganduje made the remark on Wednesday in Abuja while speaking at the annual conference of the Forum of Former Deputy Governors of Nigeria.
The former Kano State governor took the jibe at the PDP while acknowledging Delta State’s former governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, the party’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 election.
“My big brother, the former governor of Delta State and a former vice-presidential candidate of the defunct party, PDP,” Ganduje said.
Speaking on nation-building, the former APC chairman urged Nigerians to love and believe in their country, lamenting that the nation’s diversity was gradually becoming a burden.
“On the issue of nation-building, we have to believe in our nation. Do we actually believe in our nation, Nigeria? Do we actually believe that our diversity is an asset and not a liability? The way we are moving our diversity is becoming a liability,” he said.
Ganduje claimed that the British colonial authorities brought the various peoples of the country together mainly to serve their own economic interests.
According to him, the colonialists met existing systems of governance in the territory, but chose to merge the different groups so that they could produce raw materials to feed industries in Britain.
“And in order to promote protection in their own country, they decided to put us together so that we can work and produce raw materials for their own industrial development; that was their primary objective and not an objective that we should come together and become a stronger country,” he stated.
The former governor, however, praised Nigeria’s First Republic politicians for their nationalism, which he said led to the formation of political parties and the eventual attainment of independence.
“We need to thank our First Republic politicians who developed a sense of nationalism in order to get independence, form political parties, and they succeeded in getting our independence.
“We are so lucky that we didn’t carry arms like other nations to get independence,” Ganduje added.
