The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Debo Ologunagba, has submitted that the party’s primaries that led to the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the 2023 presidential candidate of the PDP were free and fair.
Ologunagba explained that the primary election was not conducted to favour any region but was based solely on the principles of democracy.
He said this on Tuesday during an Arise News interview where he spoke about democracy and governance in Nigeria.
Highlighting the complexities of Nigeria’s political structure, the PDP spokesperson argued that the country must embrace an inclusive perspective in determining its political future.
Ologunagba urged Nigerians to live beyond the North-South political divides.
“We as a party allowed for a free field for everyone who’s qualified to contest. The northerners contested, the southerners contested, and someone won the elections—the primaries—and it happened to be Atiku Abubakar. If there had been democracy and that happens, I don’t see why you blame anybody for that.”
“There are about 45 or more ethnic multiplicities competing for attention in a very volatile Nigerian political landscape,” he noted.
“When you look at the country, and you see something that is convenient for a country as disparate as Nigeria, you have to also try as much as possible to bury your own particular partisan picture and look at the bigger picture,” he said.
On the political institutions in the country, Ologunagba said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), can do better.
“For the PDP that I speak for, I think what is more important for us as a people is to speak to the fact that democracy should be what it ought to be, where the will of the people, where the institutions, particularly, the INEC, with respect to Nigeria, do exactly what it should do.
“I’m sure you will agree with me that INEC can do better. It hasn’t done well, and we should be united in saying that irrespective of the areas that we’re having challenges.”
“I’m not speaking for the north, and I’m not speaking against the north. I’m speaking about good governance,” the PDP chieftain submitted.