Babangida advised the leadership to ensure that there is fairness and transparency in all its dealings, including the forthcoming primaries of the party.

John Adams, Minna

Former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, has advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to ensure its forthcoming presidential primaries is free, fair and devoid of any rancor.

The former soldier said the party should learn from its past mistakes, which led to its defeat during the 2015 general elections, saying that the aspirants should not see the contest as a do-or-die affair.

Speaking in Minna, when one of the party’s presidential aspirants and former governor of Sokoto State,

Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, visited him in Minna, Niger State capital, in continuation of his political consultations and meeting with key PDP stakeholders on his presidential aspiration.

The presidential aspirant held a closed-door meeting with Babangida, which lasted for about one hour. Though the outcome of their meeting was not made known, it was gathered that the two men must have discussed the forthcoming PDP primary election.

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It was further gathered that Bafarawa used the meeting to brief the former Military president of his mission to Minna and enlisted his support for his presidential aspiration.

General Babangida told the delegation that PDP cannot afford to go through another crisis and, therefore, advised the leadership to ensure that there is fairness and transparency in all its dealings, including the forthcoming primaries of the party at all levels. He expressed hope that all the aspirants who had signified their interests to contest the presidency in the party has the capacity to lead the country out of it present predicament.

He described Bafarawa as an upright and honest man with an intimidating political credentials good enough to pilot the affairs of the country, stressing, “your recent triumph at the court over corruption allegations is a clear indication that you are a honest and transparent person, and Nigerians need someone like you.”

Earlier, Bafarawa intimated Babangida that he entered the presidential race in order rescue the country from the present situation of insecurity, hunger, injustice and impunity.

Those on Bafarawa’s entourage included the Director General of his campaign organisation, Senator Paul Wampana; Mrs Becky Igwe, Alhaji Sani Kabiru, Dr. Amanze Obi and Dr. Iliya Stephen.