Makarfi promises to deliver Kaduna to PDP, explains absence from national rallies

Former National Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmed Makarfi, has pledged to deliver Kaduna State to his party, stating that the era of “poverty and hardship after almost eight years of governance in the country” is over.
Speaking yesterday in Kaduna, the ex-governor said he had remained in the state to perfect strategy in dislodging the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Acknowledging that returning the main opposition party to power was herculean, Makarfi told reporters: “The PDP is the only political party without ethnic and religious sentiments and well-structured for the people.”

He continued: “Politics is local, I have been at home leading the campaign here. If you notice, hardly do you see me at national rally (ies). Because my personal opinion is that the work at home is enormous. And one needs to be at home to do the needful, not to be deceived.

“It is not about following candidates on campaign. I have just told you that I have not been going on rally with our candidate (Atiku Abubakar), but I am 100 per cent with him. I am at home working 100 per cent to make sure that Kaduna returns to PDP. If you have a responsibility to remain at home, you remain at home. If you don’t have responsibility to remain at home, you can be anywhere. That is the way. I don’t want to talk about someone not being at the rally.

“The issue is the voters. APC has nothing to show to voters that will make them enthusiastic to vote for it. But they want to make use of money and sentiments.”

And from experience, this sentiment will take them nowhere. I believe people want a state that is fair and equitable. And PDP is structured in a way and manner that is fair and equitable for development in Nigeria. So for me, it is not a show-up at rally, but about the people who are looking for an alternative, and that alternative is PDP, which the people are happy to associate with.

“Every election always comes with its difficulties and peculiarities. In 2019, we didn’t have Labour Party. To me, it is a challenge to PDP in certain part of the state. But again, the sentiment used in 2019 in some parts of the state is not the same sentiment (being) used today. There are efforts to use the same sentiment by the ruling party. But the rejection by the people is very obvious. So, there is dynamism in politics. Things are really changing.”