Former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki has urged politicians of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) fold to set aside their political ambitions and seek the unity of the party and Nigeria.
As defection and internal crisis continue to rattle the PDP, Saraki stated that the party’s cohesion is now more important than any individual ambition.
Saraki spoke in Abuja during the inauguration of the PDP National Reconciliation and Strategic Committee to be chaired by the former Kwara Governor. The Committee was set up to bring aggrieved leaders back to the opposition party.
As against the pursuit of personal aggrandizement, he said the critical condition of the country in terms of the economy, insecurity and other challenges has called for politicians to focus on addressing the various problems.
He said: “It is my belief that this is a critical time in the life of our nation when politicians must forget about our individual ambitions and focus on building a nation that can overcome the challenges of insecurity, economic crisis, indiscipline, disunity and internal as well as external aggression. After all, it is only when there is a nation that somebody can aspire to govern or lead her.
“Let me state it clearly that while it is legitimate for politicians to have ambition, this is the time for us to push our ambition to the back. How can anybody realise his ambition when the political party on whose platform he wants to pursue his ambition not fully united?
“That is why I believe our pre-occupation as members of the PDP now should be how to unite the party, strengthen it and put it in a position to beat all opposition in coming elections.
“The preoccupation of leaders now should be how to keep our country united, rebuild her institutions, defeat the forces seeking to pull her apart, rebuild the infrastructure, reposition it as a respected and responsible member of the international community, make the country truly serve the citizenry and inspire patriotism from them.
“Any political party or politician not worried about these issues is not worth the ambition he or she is pursuing. We believe that nothing is more important at this point than Nigeria and our party. And it is obvious that the success of the PDP today is the only hope that Nigeria needs to survive and bounce fully back.” Saraki said.
The former Governor promised that his committee would woo political stakeholders, youths, businessmen among others to the fold of the PDP as it bids to return to power at the centre.
He said: “We will go all out to reach our members who have one grievance or the other and seek to reconcile all of us. We will reach out to numerous key politicians who have left our fold and have indicated an interest in returning to the PDP.
“We will reach out to all the youths looking for a party on whose platform they can contribute to the development of our country. We will reach out to those who create jobs in our country and want to support a party with clear and realistic economic policies.”
