The PDP Chairman in Plateau, Dr.
Haruna Dabin, has denied allegations that the party imposed unpopular
candidates to contest the Feb. 28 elections.
“We did not impose candidates; what we did was to follow the party’s guidelines to determine who should contest and who should not.
“The PDP guidelines say that an aspirant must have been a card carrying member of the PDP for two years before he is endorsed as candidate and we tried to apply that in many of the cases,” Dabin told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos.He said that the law had always been there but was usually set aside if a contestant was granted a waiver.
“But in this particular local government election, we decided that new politicians should join the queue and learn the ropes before seeking elective posts.
“We wanted to reduce the situation where people just resign from government, walk into politics and are PDP candidates 30 days later,” he said.
Dabin said that the criterion made it impossible for many to be cleared, adding that many others also had to give up their ambitions after stakeholders used consensus agreement to decide on whom to field.He said, “Consensus is a fundamental principle of democracy and what we tried to do was simply to explore it to the fullest.”
Noting that local administration was solely a state affair, he said that the party made it mandatory for all PDP stakeholders to be carried along in the decision making processes, and insisted that no one was left out.He also rejected the suggestions that Gov Jonah Jang decided on who should be fielded in all the local governments.
“It is not possible for the governor to be everywhere, but as the leader of the party, he may take the bashings from all disgruntled members; but I want to assure you that we carried everyone along,” he said.Dabin called on PDP faithful to support the candidates to succeed in the election, pointing out there would still have been losers whether candidates emerged by consensus or direct primaries.
“We did not impose candidates; what we did was to follow the party’s guidelines to determine who should contest and who should not.
“The PDP guidelines say that an aspirant must have been a card carrying member of the PDP for two years before he is endorsed as candidate and we tried to apply that in many of the cases,” Dabin told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos.He said that the law had always been there but was usually set aside if a contestant was granted a waiver.
“But in this particular local government election, we decided that new politicians should join the queue and learn the ropes before seeking elective posts.
“We wanted to reduce the situation where people just resign from government, walk into politics and are PDP candidates 30 days later,” he said.
Dabin said that the criterion made it impossible for many to be cleared, adding that many others also had to give up their ambitions after stakeholders used consensus agreement to decide on whom to field.He said, “Consensus is a fundamental principle of democracy and what we tried to do was simply to explore it to the fullest.”
Noting that local administration was solely a state affair, he said that the party made it mandatory for all PDP stakeholders to be carried along in the decision making processes, and insisted that no one was left out.He also rejected the suggestions that Gov Jonah Jang decided on who should be fielded in all the local governments.
“It is not possible for the governor to be everywhere, but as the leader of the party, he may take the bashings from all disgruntled members; but I want to assure you that we carried everyone along,” he said.Dabin called on PDP faithful to support the candidates to succeed in the election, pointing out there would still have been losers whether candidates emerged by consensus or direct primaries.
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