Mu'azu, has charged members of the party nationwide to ensure that it
wins 24 states in the April 11 governorship elections.
In a statement on Saturday signed by his media aide, Tony Amadi, Mr.
Mu'azu listed the states the party must win to include Lagos, Rivers
and Imo, whose governorship candidates he described as "first class
materials",
The PDP currently controls 21 of the 36 states in the country. They
are Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu,
Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Benue, Plateau, Niger and Kogi.
Others are Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Kaduna, Ekiti and Ondo.
Mr. Mu'azu, who could not deliver his home state, Bauchi, to the PDP
in last Saturday's presidential election, however, urged party
faithful to pick up the pieces of the defeat and ensure that they
return the party quickly to "winning ways".
According to him, the gubernatorial election next week would certainly
provide the PDP a soft-landing after conceding the presidency to the
All Progressives Congress in the presidential election on March 28.
"I urge the PDP faithful to pick up the pieces and ensure that we
return quickly to our old winning ways. There should be no room for
voter apathy that was a major factor to our losing the presidential
election", Mr. Mu'azu said.
He added that while the All Progressives Congress is busy savouring
its famous victory, "we should out flank them and corner at least two
thirds of the states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria".
"This is not an impossible target if we return to our elements with
immediate effect", he said adding that "We have done it before and we
can do it again. Nothing will be sweeter than PDP taking Lagos, our
own Rivers State and Imo. Our candidates in these states are first
class material who have fully penetrated the political structures of
those states and are set to win".
Charging party faithful that their remaining target should be to
retain states currently under the control of PDP, Mu'azu called for an
incursion "into the heart of our political opponents and show that
their presidential victory is nothing more than a one-off that won't
be repeated in a long while".
The PDP national chairman in the statement, recalled that earlier in
the week, he had reminded gubernatorial candidates of the party at the
Wadata House national secretariat of the party that one thing that
won't happen in the gubernatorial race is "the so called bandwagon
effect. The reason is simple. Our party is used to bouncing back
whenever we experience a setback.
"The PDP in the past 16 years of democracy has maintained fair play
consistently, this much the APC admitted in their response to
President Jonathan's speech conceding to President-elect General
Muhammdu Buhari".
He stressed that the key to winning the remaining election was heavy
turnout and voting the PDP all the way.
"There should be no tactical voting. Be consistent in your support for
the party. What we experienced in the presidential election is merely
a hiccup which we must cast out in the gubernatorial polls. All PDP
supporters must remember their pedigree, our track record and history
of the party and the source of our electoral feats of the last 16
years. We are the reason that democracy has taken root in Nigeria
since 1999. This is something every member of our great party should
be very proud of.
"We have only lost a battle but the war to bring our country to the
highest level of democratic governance is still to be won or lost. Our
governorship candidates should go out and finish the good fight and
come up trumps in the remaining gubernatorial and houses of assembly
election on 11th April. We remain the winning party and by God's
special grace, we shall win again and again".
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