Former Jigawa State governor Sule Lamido, who is also a member of the executive council of Nigeria's main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has said that the party refused to field a candidate for the 2023 presidential election due to nationalism and a sense of responsibility.
In an interview with the BBC, he said his party was often seen as unpopular, but today it is seen as having more and more candidates, indicating that the party is wanted.
Sule Lamido said this shows that the PDP is for citizens, patriots, for the country, unlike other parties.
The former governor said it was not wrong for anyone to demand that his party run for office, but if everyone was to speak for themselves, "who is in the middle?"
Therefore, the wisdom of their party is that the right to govern is central, they are the ones who treat Nigerians, they are the ones who do it, which prevents them from contesting for one party.
He said the issue of their decision would make them more likely to win in the by-elections, adding that it showed that their party was in good hands.
He said after they lost the election when Buhari came to power, almost all of the north did not belong to the PDP, because they were scared, they were scared: "This noise, we are scared, we even doubt ourselves."
He added: "We have had our jobs burnt down, some have had their houses burnt down and some have died. "This is a party that is said to be in a state of panic. There are a lot of candidates."
"This shows that the party is wanted," he said.
A senior PDP official said the allegations by some that they were trying to figure out which side of the country the APC would field in the 2023 by-elections, before making their decision, showed that if that were the case. It is not a crime because it is like a war in which everyone has to fight in secret to win.
That is why in Nigeria, the main parties, the ruling APC and the main opposition PDP, continue to squabble over the issue of accepting the presidency.
Even at the PDP executive council meeting on Wednesday, it was expected to lose the constituency it had set aside for the presidency, but left the race open.
So far, more than a dozen people have declared their intention to run for the PDP presidency in the 2023 general election.
Four of the party's 19 governors are among the candidates, including former vice president Atiku Abubakar and former Senate president Bukola Saraki.
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