PDP Chairman Turaki says the party will run a transparent PDP ballot, allowing only credible and honourable aspirants to make the ticket
Abuja, Nigeria – 2 February 2025: National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Tanimu Turaki, said on Sunday that the party under his watch will operate a transparent PDP ballot process that guarantees fairness, equity and internal democracy, ensuring that only aspirants of integrity make it to the ticket.
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Turaki made the pledge at a banquet and book presentation in Abuja held in honour of former Minister of Information and Culture, Professor Jerry Gana, who turned 80.
The chairman was responding to remarks by former Niger State Governor, Babangida Mu’azu, who said Nigeria missed the chance to have Gana as president.
Turaki said the reformed PDP would allow the people to determine who carries the party’s mandate.
He emphasised that qualities associated with Gana, including credibility and moral clarity, would be the minimum requirements for aspirants seeking nomination.
“The new PDP is one that will allow the people to decide what they want, how they want it and when they want it,” he said.
“We will ensure that there is transparency, fairness, equity and justice in every process.
If you have the integrity of Prof Jerry Gana, that is all you need to reach the ballot paper.”
Turaki, who emerged national chairman at the disputed convention in Ibadan on 14 and 15 November 2025, reiterated his earlier promise to restore discipline and end impunity within the party.
He described internal reform as essential to rebuilding public trust and strengthening the PDP’s electoral prospects.
The chairman delivered an emotional tribute to Gana, praising him as “a man of credibility” and “a politician’s politician,” whose long years in academia, public administration and politics had remained free of scandal.
He said such consistency set Gana apart as “an institution” within Nigerian public life.
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Speakers at the event celebrated the former minister’s influence and legacy, while the biography Jerry Gana: Stewardship in Integrity, written by Mark Simon with a foreword by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, was formally unveiled.
