2019: Tanimu Turaki Declares For Presidency

AISHA ABUBAKAR

Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, a former Minister of Special Duties, has declared his intention to contest the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The ex-Minister also announced Boni Haruna, a former ‎governor of Adamawa State, as the Director General of his Campaign Organisation ‎and former Minister of Niger Delta affairs, Dr. Steve Oruh, as Deputy Director General, South.

While addressing newsmen in Abuja, Alhaji Turaki said ‎that his entry into the presidential race was to win the election and rescue the nation if given the ticket by the PDP.

Alhaji Turaki will have to slug it out at the PDP primaries with a former governor of Jigawa State, Dr. Sule Lamido; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau; former Senate President, David Mark; Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe State, former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, and current Senate President, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who are also eyeing the ticket.

Alhaji Turaki is said to be anointed ‎by former President Goodluck Jonathan under who he served as minister. The ex-Minister said that the other aspirants were not threat to his ambition, but admitted that they were all eminently qualified to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari if the latter succeeded in securing the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket.

“I went to sit down with every one of them. We have spoken and we have understood each other. We have a serious national problem that Nigerians have come to see PDP as a saviour of this country.

“If therefore, Nigerians have said that PDP is the only vehicle that will rescue them from this situation, then we the gladiators must be able to subject our interest to the larger interest of Nigerians.

“Anybody who gets this ticket, we have the understanding, all of us will join hands and support him. We feel that we have what it takes to unify Nigerians. We need a winning team that can provide a level-playing ground and opportunities irrespective of where you come from,” Alhaji Turaki said.

The former minister said he was not scared of arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), explaining that immediately he left office in 2015, he was probed by the anti-graft agency but was not found guilty of any wrong-doing.

Alhaji Kabiru Taminu Turaki was born on April 3, 1957 at the Nassarawa area of Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State. He studied Law at the University of Jos (1982-185) and was called to the Nigerian bar in 1986. He also studied Islamic Investment Structuring at the Islamic Finance Institute of Southern Africa (2010). In 2002, he became the first lawyer from Kebbi State and the entire former North Western States to be elevated to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). The Dan Masanin Gwandu was a member of the National Political Reform Conference in 2004, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Team Nigeria Trust Fund, a body that was set up to galvanize private sector participation in the sports development and financing in Nigeria.  His publications include Intrusion of English Law on the Inheritance of Land in Nigeria (1985); Problems of Bail in Nigeria Law and Courts (1990)  and The Challenges of Political Parties: INEC Regulatory  Functions vs Electoral ACT, 2010 – (2011).