2019 Presidency: Ex-Gov Shekarau Writes PDP
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – Ex-Governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahhim Shekarau has joined the growing lists of aspirants eyeing the 2019 presidential contest.
Shekarau officially declared his interest in the Presidency under the umbrella of country’s major opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
His spokesperson, Sule Ya’u Sule, said in statement made available to the media that Shekarau, a former Minister of Education under President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, has already notified the PDP of his intention to gun for the country’s highest office come 2019.
According to Sule, Mallam Shekarau had also communicated his political aspiration to various elders, community leaders, opinion leaders, political associates and religious leaders regardless of their ethnic and party affiliations.
He said; “Malam Shekarau deliberately refused to make his ambition public because he does not want the relevant stakeholders to read it for the first time on the pages of newspapers.”
“He first notified them before making it public. He is now making necessary consultations”, the spokesperson said.
Recently, a letter written by one, Mallam Hassan Sani Indabawa, who served as SA (Research and Documentation) to the former Kano Governor, was released in the social media space rubbishing his intention to vie for the highest political office in Nigeria.
Titled: “RE: NOTIFICATION OF INTENTION TO CONTEST THE PRESIDENCY IN THE 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS”, the letter quoted Mallam Shekarau as claiming that after the 2015 general elections, he has continued to receive requests from individuals and groups from different quarters urging him to contest the presidency in 2019.
“This is to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated August 22, 2017 in which you intimated me, among others, on your intention to once again contest the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the forthcoming 2019 general elections. In so doing, you highlighted some reasons, especially the several calls you claimed to have been made by some individuals and groups from many quarters, nationwide, urging you to contest for the Presidency. Similarly, you claimed to have made some wide consultations across “all the geo-political zones” by which you became convinced and thus accepted the “clarion calls” to embark on the contest to vie for the nation’s highest office come 2019”, Mallam Indabawa had said,
So far, Shekarau’s notification makes it the third in line by aspirants declaring their presidential ambitions on the PDP’s platform. Others are the former Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido and Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose.
However, the declaration by Fayose, who is also Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, has continued to elicit criticisms from Party’s stalwarts because the position has already been zoned to the North.
