One time Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has thrown his weight behind the re-emergence of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), as the group seeks to re-position itself to play an influential role in the 2015 presidential election. Members of the movement, which was started by the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, met in Abuja at the weekend to hone their strategies for the 2015 election, and concluded that they must come together to return the country to the path of progress. Atiku Abubakar, who was in attendance, compared the PDM to the Tea Party in the United States of America and urged members to return to their states to set up state, local government and ward chapters, with a view to recruiting all those with similar philosophy.
The former vice president stressed the need for the PDM members to work within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for which he said PDM members formed its bedrock, noting that such PDM members must bring the movement’s ideology to bear on the ruling party. He also noted that the PDM remained the “greatest and largest political movement in Africa.” The former number two citizen contended that this action was necessary, considering the fact that PDP has lost ground in the South-West and South-East “and we must do our best to reclaim these areas by 2015.”