ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba at the weekend laid the blame for the loss suffered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just-concluded general elections, at the doorstep of its state governors.
Speaking on “Majority and minority parties in legislature,” during the induction course for legislators elect for eighth National Assembly in Abuja, the Senate Leader lamented that politicians “defect because their former party squeezed them out, or in the case of the PDP recently, that they did not fit within the governors’ calculations. In my view, since every politics is local, each case should be treated on its merit.
“The phenomenon will endure for as long as ownership of political parties is not with its members but, as in the case of the PDP, with governors. Governors (especially of the PDP) have become so over bearing that it is only their wishes that rule. The party (at the national level) suborns its Constitution, guidelines and even court orders to please the whims and fancies of governors who appropriate the will of members and impose theirs in its stead.
“Within the parties, especially the PDP, government is no longer of the people and of the people. It is now government of Governors, by Governors and for Governors. This has resulted in brazen injustice and restricted the political space for many, he said.
On the other hand, Senate President David Mark urged PDP faithful to put the failures of the past elections behind them and prepare to build a strong and united party, besides being ready to provide credible opposition.
He said that the not-too impressive showing of the PDP in the last elections may in the long-term be a blessing to the party and the nation, “because we are going back to the drawing board to do a critical review and fashion out a blue print that would get us out of the woods for good.
Also, Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson boasted that after a return to the drawing board, the APC would not be able to withstand the PDP in 2019.
Dickson, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, spoke at the weekend during his monthly interactive session with PDP members in Yenagoa.
“The era of indiscipline and disloyalty that has bedevilled this party in this state is over for good. People should take this message home. We want honest and genuine members who understand the meaning of being a party man or woman and being a party official means subordinating personal interest for group interest,” he told them.
Meanwhile, as the battle to remove the embattled National Chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu ranges on, a former Chairman of the Bauchi States Elders Advisory Committee of PDP, Alhaji Bibi Dogo has urged him to humbly relinquish office to avoid being disgraced.
Speaking with journalists in Bauchi on Sunday, he advised Mu’azu to take path of honour and resign saying, “Mu’azu should be held responsible for the failure of the party during the polls and his failure to deliver the party proved that he failed as a leader.”
However, in a move to douse the tension within the party, the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP has constituted a Post-Election Assessment Committee to review and evaluate the performance of the party at the just concluded 2015 general elections and make recommendations for the repositioning of the party.
Both Mu’azu and the National Secretary of PDP, Professor Wale Oladipo, have had specific resignation messages delivered to them by aggrieved party members who wanted them out of office.
The chairman in a bid to buy time, on Sunday, announced the setting up of a Post-Election Assessment Committee, headed by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. The committee is to be inaugurated tomorrow (Tuesday).
The committee also has among its membership, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom state who is the arrowhead of the plot to remove Mu’azu.
Other membership, according to a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity, Olisa Metuh, include: Governors Theodore Orji; and Ibrahim Dankwambo; as well as Nyeson Wike, Rivers State governor-elect; former governors Mal. Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano); and Abdulkadir Kure (Niger); Emeka Ihedioha (Deputy Speaker, House of Reps); Abba Moro (Minister of Interior); Adamu Waziri; Sen Ahmed Makarfi (former Kaduna State governor) And Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe; while Sen. Walid Jibril is Secretary of the 15-man committee.
Oladipo, in a statement, however denounced calls for his resignation, describing as mischief by a group led by a party chieftain, Chief Bode George, insisting that he would not bow pressure.
“My attention has been drawn to a communiqué purportedly issued by some PDP leaders in the Southwest calling on me, the National Secretary Prof. Adewale Oladipo and the National Auditor, Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju to resign from the National Working Committee.
“According to the communiqué, the resignation was to pave way for the dissolution of the National Working Committee as a fall out of the 2015 general elections.
“However, a very careful examination of the inherent breaches in the procedures adopted in the convening of the meeting as well as the content and tone of its resolution shows an orchestration by a few individuals bent on sowing a seed of discord within the PDP fold in the zone” he said.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
