The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has deferred the deadline for the submission of forms from today, April 22 to Monday, April 25, 2022.
The party’s spokesman, Mr. Debo Ologunagba, disclosed this in a statement.
The latest shift is the fourth time the party would be extending the dateline for the submission of nomination forms for its aspirants.
While deadline for the submission of completed forms Monday, the last day for the purchase of forms is Friday (today).
Recall that the party had initially fixed the closure of forms for April 1 but extended it to April 8 and then to April 14. However, it shifted the date to April 20 and now April 22 (today).
Nevertheless, the party said the slight adjustment would not affect its dates for primary elections.
“After a thorough consideration of various issues and concerns in the party, the PDP has further adjusted its timetable and schedule of activities to extend the closing dates for the purchase of expression of interest and nomination forms for the 2023 general elections to Friday, April 22, 2022.
“Under the reviewed timetable, the last day for the submission of already completed forms has been extended to Monday, April 25, 2022”
“The date for screening House of Assembly and National Assembly aspirants is Wednesday, April 27, 2022, governorship is Thursday, April 28, 2022 while the date for screening of Presidential aspirants is Friday, April 29, 2022. Appeals on all screening exercised: Monday, May 2, 2022
“Under the updated timetable, the three- person Ad-Hoc Ward Congress has been fixed for Saturday, April 30, 2022 while the local government area national delegates’ congresses will now hold on Thursday, May 5, 2022,” Ologunagba said.
Meanwhile, the party’s United States-based presidential aspirant, Mr. Nwachukwu Anakwenze, yesterday held a closed-door meeting with former president Olusegun Obasanjo at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
In an interview with journalists after the meeting, Anakwenze blamed the parlous state of the Nigerian economy to lack of foresight by the past leaders to combine both the natural and human resources into productive ventures.
He said Nigeria should have become a manufacturing nation to be regarded as the leader of black nations if its resources were well managed.
He said with avalanche of God-given natural resources, Nigeria ought to have become an export nation of technological devices such as computers, automobiles, and airlines.
The PDP presidential aspirant did not spare the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for incurring loans to fund the 2022 budget.
“Nigeria should be leader of all black nations if we have smart and intelligent leaders.
“We need to start investing in the youths. The youths have been destroyed and drowned. My job is to rescue the young people and put them in place to save Nigeria. The old politicians’ time is up. I will give scholarships and skill acquisition and government soft loans to drive their businesses.
“(The) APC is a failed government, they are taking loans. We don’t need to take loans to service our economy, we need to become an industrial and manufacturing nation. We need to be making cars, trains, and ships, we need to be an export nation of computers. Our young generation can do that. I will empower the youth to make that happen.”
He said if elected president, his administration would focus on youth empowerment.
Commenting on the health sector, Anakwenze said every region of the country should have specialist hospital to deal with major surgeries.
“I manage 4,000 health doctors in the USA. We need specialist hospitals in every region of the country that can do everything like eyes, nose, ear, brain, bone, prostate.
“In America, if your heart and kidney stops working, we can replace them with another one. Prostrate should not be a deadly disease in Nigeria.
“We will bring experts from the US to train our indigenous doctors on these special treatments.
“In America, prostate is like having catarrh. In America, Nigerians are top in education; why is it that when they come here, they fail?
“On energy, we should have 24hours power. We have the flaring gas on our rivers. We can convert the rivers gas into turbine and generate electricity from it,” he said.
Anakwenze who described himself as a “detribalised Nigerian” said he would share power among the six geopolitical zones.
“Nobody will feel left out. The north are good in agriculture, I don’t have any problem working with everyone,” he added.
