The
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have settled for Aliko Dangote as
their presidential candidate with reports indicating that the party is
said to have sent emissaries to woo the billionaire businessman.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
File photo
Ahead of the 2019 general election, the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), has started making overtures to billionaire business man, Alhaji
Aliko Dangote, to come and contest for the presidential election on its
platform, DailyTimes exclusively reports.
Already, the opposition PDP has zoned the presidency slot for the
2019 election to the Northern part of the country, while the National
Chairmanship slot of the party has been earmarked for the Southern part.
An impeccable insider source disclosed in Abuja that the party, in a
determined efforts to win the 2019 election, has already sent emissary
to the billionaire businessman from Kano, who is reputed as the
wealthiest businessman in Africa.
It was learnt that the decision to reach out to Dangote with a view
to wooing him to come and contest for the presidential election on the
platform of the PDP, was part of the decisions reached by members of a
think tank committee put together by the immediate past President of the
country, Dr. Jonathan Goodluck.
The opposition PDP, which recently came out of its leadership
crisis following the ruling of the Supreme Court that recognised Senator
Ahmed Makarfi as its National Chairman, was said to have taken a lot of
things into consideration before the decision to go and woo Alhaji
Dangote for the 2019 mission.
The source said: “I can confidently tell you that the PDP has
made overtures to Alhaji Aliko Dangote to come and fly the presidential
flag of our party for the 2019 presidential election.
“So many things were taken into consideration before the party
arrived at this decision. Alhaji Dangote has the clout, the pedigree,
the name, the followership and above all the financial war chest to
match any presidential candidate that the governing All Progressives
Congress (APC) or any other party may be bringing forward in 2019”.
It was further gathered that Dangote allegedly spent personal money
running into about N37 billion in 2015 to help in realising the
presidential ambition of President Muhammadu Bihari, before and after he
(Buhari) emerged at the presidential candidate of the APC then. It is
still not clear if Buhari will be seeking a second term in office come
2019.
Further findings showed that Alhaji Dangote had equally made a lot
on financial contributions to the emergence of other past presidents in
the country.
Another source within the party who spoke to The Daily Times said:
“If Dangote can make financial contributions to ensure the emergence of
other past Presidents in the country in the past, don’t you think he
will be willing and ready to spend any amount to realise his own
presidential ambition if he accepts the overture from the PDP?
“This is one of the reasons why the PDP made the overtures to
him (Dangote) and we sincerely hope and pray that he accepts it. If he
does, the journey to the Aso Rock presidential villa for the PDP in 2019
would have been made less stressful and less thorny”, the source added.
When contacted, a source close to Dangote disclosed that his
principal is not interested in politics, saying that the PDP should look
elsewhere for its candidate.
The source, who sought anonymity because of the sensitive nature of
the matter, insisted that the stance of the business mogul not to
dabble into politics has not changed, saying that any attempt by any
political party to woo him for 2019 presidency is a distraction.
He said: “The attempt to woo him will fail because Dangote is
not interested in politics. He is a businessman to the core and what you
just asked me to react to is a distraction.
“The PDP should go and look elsewhere for its candidate for
2019 as Dangote is committed to his core vision and desire to invest and
create jobs to the people”.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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