Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a “defunct party” while referring to former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his elder brother.

Ganduje made the remark on Wednesday at the Annual Conference of the Forum of Former Deputy Governors of Nigeria in Abuja.

Introducing Okowa, a former PDP vice-presidential candidate, Ganduje said: “My big brother, the former governor of Delta State and a former vice presidential candidate of the defunct party, PDP.”

The former Kano State governor also spoke about Nigeria’s nation-building process, arguing that British colonialists granted the country independence primarily to secure access to raw materials for their industries.

He said the colonial administration had little interest in uniting Nigerians to build a stronger nation, adding that the country’s diversity was increasingly becoming a liability rather than an asset.

Ganduje urged Nigerians to develop a stronger sense of patriotism and believe in the country’s potential.

“On the issue of nation building, we have to believe in our nation, do we actually believe in our nation Nigeria? Do we actually believe that our diversity is an asset and not a liability? The way we are moving our diversity is becoming a liability.

“The colonial masters when they came to Nigeria through missionary and other routes, they found us and our old system of governance.

“And in order to promote protection in their own country, they decided to put us together so that we can work and produce raw materials for their own industrial development, that was their primary objective and not an objective that we should come together and become a stronger country.

“We need to thank our First Republic politicians who developed a sense of nationalism in order to get independence, form political parties, and they succeeded in getting our independence.

“We are so lucky that we didn’t carry arms like other nations to get independence.”