One of the presidential aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, has announced his withdrawal from the race.
Hayatu-Deen said he exited from the race, because it has been “obscenely monetized,” a decision he said he made after wide consultations.
Disclosing this in a statement dated May 27, 2022, Hayatu-Deen also informed that efforts to forge a consensus which would have facilitated a seamless emergence of a candidate, could not be achieved.
According to Hayatu-Deen, an investment banker, he said he did not join the presidential race for personal gains and inordinate ambition, but to serve the country.
“I joined the contest as a democrat, with an open mind to keenly contest and accept the result of a process that is fair, credible and transparent.
“It is, therefore, based on personal principles and with great humility that I have decided after wide consultations to withdraw from this contest which has been obscenely monetized,” he said.
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With his decision to withdraw from the race, Hayatu-Deen said his plan “to ensure that the great potential that had become the hallmark of Nigeria’s development paradigm, should be actualised during his presidency” would be put on hold.
According to him, he had planned to make Nigeria the continental economic powerhouse which would guarantee high quality of life to the vast majority of our citizens.
Part of his plans was to end insecurity and the incessant university strikes, some of the reasons that compelled him to enter the political space “in order to provide tangible solutions to these problems.”
While he thanked his supporters, he promised to avail himself at all times to ensure the victory of the party.
Hayatu-Deen had been enlisted among PDP presidential aspirants being one of its 17 presidential hopefuls who got the PDP presidential form for N40 million each, and he was cleared by the party’s screening committee.
Hayatu-Deen’s withdrawal would be the second of the PDP aspirants withdrawing from the race, only days after a former frontrunner in the party, Peter Obi, withdrew from the race and resigned from the PDP.
Obi announcing his decision blamed it on “recent developments in the party,” after which he joined the Labour Party.
