We were rejected by Nigerians —Lamido
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JIGAWA State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has described the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last Saturday’s presidential election as an expression of the collective wish of Nigerians which, he said, must be respected.
He, however, said that in spite of the loss, the PDP had the capacity to put its house in order and bounce back soon.
The governor told State House correspondents, on Friday, after a visit to President Goodluck Jonathan in his residence that Nigerians had spoken loudly through the victory of the APC presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), in the election.
He praised President Jonathan for his courage to concede defeat and Buhari for being humble in victory.
The governor said it would be unnecessary to begin to trade blame over the PDP’s loss of the election as it would not change anything.
Lamido advised that the PDP should work hard in the coming governorship election in order to stave off a bandwagon effect following the emergence of Buhari in the presidential election.
“There is a tendency of a bandwagon effect but it is up to us to work very hard,” he said.
“We won’t go into blame game. In what way will that change the attitude of the crowd? Leadership is a very huge burden and is normal for the followership to speak, to begin to look at things from different perspectives, to conjecture.
“Therefore, leaders are leaders. They should be able to stand up and be above emotion or sentiment because if we submit to it, we will destroy our country,” Lamido added.
The governor expressed confidence that the PDP would stick together after the election defeat and rebuild for the future.
“If you know the party’s history, what it went through in the last 16 years, it has the capacity to bounce back.
“More so, the elections, the way they are coming with pains and anger, the PDP made some mistakes. I have been saying so, very costly mistakes, and we have not been able to properly manage our successes.
“But to me, I don’t think quitting the PDP is the answer. And in any case, the Nigerian people have said yes to the APC. They have spoken in very loud and unmistakable ways. The vote is very unambiguous and so, we respect their choice and their rights and we praise Buhari for being able to take the ticket from the PDP even though I am not happy.
“But it is Nigeria that won, not Buhari. None of them lost but Nigeria won and enough of the anxiety, enough of the worry and the fear in Africa.
“It was so intense you will not believe it was confirmed by the chairperson, African Union and other international friends who have called thanking Nigeria for really saving Nigeria and also saving Africa,” the governor said.
Lamido gave the assurance that with the way the election had gone, the person elected would not be the president of one region but the whole of the country.
“Whoever becomes the president is Nigerian’s president, not the president of a particular region. This is how I see this election and I thank Nigerians for standing for Nigeria,” he stated.
