2011: PDP can’t win 36 states - Waku

Dipo Laleye, Minna - 03.11.2009

Contrary to a claim by the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Vincent Ogbuluafor, that the party would have a clean sweep of all the 36 states and win the presidency in the 2011 general election, a frontline member of the party, Senator Joseph Waku, has described the assertion as “mere wishful thinking.”

“PDP cannot win the 36 states in Nigeria, there are some states that are just impossible for the party to win,” Waku said in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune in Minna, Niger State, on Monday.

Senator Waku said the outburst of the PDP chairman was his personal opinion, because the party had not sat to take such a decision.

According to him, the PDP was currently being embarrassed by its victory in some states and to add to that embarrassment would not be in the interest of the party and the country.

The former federal legislator opined that the present situation whereby the legislature in some states and the National Assembly did not have minority leaders was not in the spirit of good democratic practice.

“Democracy is about having opposition. The joy of democracy is having opposing views,” he said, adding that the PDP was not planning to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.

According to him, for Nigeria to become a one- party state would be breeding anarchy in the country, adding that for democracy to continue to thrive, the people should be allowed to make choice.

Senator Waku also pleaded with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2011 for democracy to be meaningful and for the international community to have confidence in the government that would be installed.