Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, says he was asked to beg for the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Dogara said this when he played host to some of his supporters at his Abuja residence on Thursday.
The supporters had presented 2019 forms of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to him, urging him to pull out of the ruling party.
But Dogara, who said he does not need the APC to be reelected, appealed to the people to give him more time for consultation.
“Truly, I have decided that I will not seek election again. They said they will give me ticket in APC but that I must go and beg for it. I said I do not need the ticket. In politics, I have never gone to anybody’s house to beg for ticket.
“My ticket is my people. I have assured them that even if I run under zero party, my people will vote for me. So long as it is Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa, even if we run under zero party; we will win by God’s grace.
We have thrived well in many political battles in the past and this one too, we shall overcome it. Nobody can threaten us or tell us that we cannot contest election in a political party we spent our resources to establish, only God can stop us.
“I had heard your voices and the voice of the people is the voice of God. We are in politics to serve and not to be served. As I said, if it were for myself, I will quit because truly I am tired and even thought of stepping aside. But we must run election so long as our people say so.
“I have seen the forms you brought. I don’t know how you got it but I must thank you for this sacrifice. Left for me; I will appeal that you give me sometime to go and consult further.
“I have a lot of supporters in the APC but I have not told any of them what I intend to do or where I will go because I was not given the opportunity but I will assure you that wherever you want me to go or whatever you want me to do I will obey you because you have been with me. This is leadership.”
Dogara also narrated how he gave the APC the condition to pacify some federal lawmakers before he could reconcile with the leadership of the party.
“Even when they were talking about reconciliation in APC, we told them that even if I will be given free ticket in APC, so long as they do not do justice to Senator Sulieman Nazif, Senator Isa Hamma Misau, Honourable Ahmed Yerima, Hon. Aminu Tukur, Hon. Maryam Bagel and others, I will not accept it. I even said that if they will do justice to these people I will be satisfied,” he said.
“You have now given us another opportunity to correct the greatest mistake we did in politics, which was to bring this present government in Bauchi State. This is one of the reasons we must run for election and do away with this plague, chase these termites from Bauchi State.
“I will not disobey you but before I fill these forms, I will have to inform all my supporters in the APC about the decision taken by my constituents since all politics is local.”