The senator representing the Cross River South senatorial district, Gershom Bassey, has expressed happiness that even after many of them have exited the Senate in the next few days, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will still be a formidable party in the 10th Senate.
Speaking with DAILY POST in Calabar, Bassey avowed that PDP has enough strong leaders to guide the party.
“We have leaders like Senator Adamu Alero, Aminu Tambuwal, and others coming in—a number of very solid leaders who are strong enough to lead the party in the parliament. So I have no problems with the PDP; we are going to have a very strong and cohesive PDP in Parliament,” he said.
On how PDP can maintain opposition leadership, Bassey said it is beyond Nyesom Wike and Atiku Abubakar but that it is about the parliament, which includes the senators and members of the House of Representatives.
On the issue of independent candidates in the electoral process as enshrined in the electoral law, Bassey said that even though the electoral law talks about and provides for independent candidates, the threshold for independent candidates is high.
According to him: “An independent candidate would have to meet the same threshold as a political party. For instance, if you are an independent candidate and you want to contest for governorship in Cross River State, you must meet the same threshold as every other political party in terms of offices and presence in every local government and ward.
“You cannot just say you want to be an independent candidate and you do not meet the threshold, but the political parties do; that would not be a level playing field.”
