Sule Lamido, the former governor of Jigawa state and tribal chief of the Democratic People’s Party (PDP), has asked former President Goodluck Jonathan to remember, how he was demonized by important members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as president and not defective at APC.
Lamido said it was unfair to the PDP and party members who would have sacrificed for Jonathan during his persecution by APC members if he decided to join the ruling APC.
Some of his supporters recently stormed his office in Abuja, called his name and asked him to contest in the 2023 presidential election.
Jonathan said in conversation with supporters that he could not say whether he would be taking part in the 2023 presidential election, but added that they should be “cautious.
However, Lamido warned the former president in an interview that if he gave in to the ongoing request to join the APC, he would risk replacing President Muhammadu Buhari.
Lamido asked Jonathan to think about the suffering of the PDP members who supported him during the 2015 election campaign before deciding to join the ruling party.
He also recalled how APC members persecuted the former president and many PDP supporters before the 2015 presidential election who lost to Buhari’s Jonathan.
He said, “The people of the North stood for Jonathan because they were working for Nigeria because they believed in Nigeria. I was called a Christian and pastor because of Jonathan. I was called anti-Islam because of Jonathan. Everything evil was me and all PDP people who supported Jonathan.
“That means all they went through, the pain, the humiliation, for supporting Jonathan in 2014 was nothing. Even Jega (then-INEC Chairman) was not left out. We went through hell in 2014 all for Jonathan. He called me during the election in Jigawa. I said “sir”, and he said, “I hope you are safe”. I said, “don’t worry sir. We are home and dry”. He said, “thank God”.
“Even though Buhari won in my state (Jigawa), in the polling units in my ward, he scored zero. I am taking the pain of this narration that Nigerians suffered a lot for Jonathan. And God has been good to Jonathan.
“It is for him now to reflect and see those people who demonised him, who called him evil, who said Boko Haram was PDP company in 2014. Buhari with APC members went on demonstration because fuel price was increased to 60-something naira. He (Buhari) was on the streets demonstrating.
“Let him check what El-Rufai (Kaduna governor) said about him. Let him go check what Lai Mohammed said about him. Let him go and check what the APC propaganda machine said about him in 2014. He lost.
“I knew the kind of humiliation he went through. How he lost the election through blackmail, threat and division between tribes and Christians and Muslims. I met him in the Presidential Villa four days after Buhari won the (2014) election. What I told him in the Villa is for another day. I won’t say that now. He should remember what I told him. He should take all this into consideration. Is this the way he wants to reward PDP? Is this way he is going to reward PDP for inventing him? Minus PDP, who will ever know anybody called Jonathan? Today, he is an international person, being called upon by the world to perform functions for the world.
“How did he get that kind of status? It is from PDP. Now, he is said to be going to APC because of greed, to destroy all this history of his? God will not allow him. If he goes, God will defend PDP.
“If he goes, he will meet the wrath of God. I urge him not to do it. The people courting him now are liars. They lied to get to government. I urge him in the name of God, the very God that made him from nothing, to think about PDP which made him from nothing. He should please reconsider. People are looking at him. You do not destroy the foundation that made you. These people ‘evilized’ him. He is now going to them, to turn him into saint? He should never ever believe in APC. APC is a creation of lies, cultured by lies, maintained with lies.”
SKJ