Come Friday, May 29, 2015 the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), will cease to be the ruling party and become the main opposition party in the state after loosing to the All Progressive Congress, (APC), in the just concluded 2015 general elections.
The elections brought an influx of APC candidates into the nation’s political system starting with the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who defeated incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan, in the polls. They also increased their presence in the senate going from a total of 41 senators to 62 senators while the PDP now only has 45 senators as opposed to 65 they have now. They also swept through the House Assembly having 214 lawmakers as opposed to the PDP’s 125 lawmakers. The same wave swept through the governorship elections as APC won 20 new state while pdp got a token of 9 states.
The leadership of the PDP have decided to set up committees to find out what went wrong and take steps to rectify them. In a meeting held Tuesday, April 21 and Wednesday, April 22, 2015, the National Working Committee, the party’s National Vice Chairmen across all six Geo-political zones in the federation, National Assembly legislators-elect and all governors-elect, the party agreed to set up committees to look into the reasons why the party failed in the elections and proffer solutions so as to help it reinvent itself.
Speaking with the press over the weekend, the outgoing Deputy Leader of the House Leo Ogor said, “As a party, we came together, specifically those elected members that are going to be the face of the party in the National Assembly, with reference to the Green Chamber which is the House of Representatives. One of the cardinal issues that was discussed at the meeting was the ability to look at what happened, why it went this way.
“We decided to set up various committees that will look into the subject matter and some of the challenges. That’s normal in every process. But unfortunately also, we are also aware that there are some groups, who I want to call fifth columnists, that will want to see PDP dead at all cost. They are trying to probably pass through the back door, using some individuals to find the means and ways of disintegrating our great political party.
“We believe that we are still the largest party in Africa and this hour for us as a people and a party isn’t the time to ask for any unnecessary tension or create unnecessary crisis in our party. It isn’t in the interest of our party at this particular time.
“We want to use all the necessary machinery to look at precisely what happened. The thing isn’t an individual issue; we are aware of some of the challenges that will emerge when these people come in and create unnecessary crisis. May I therefore, seize this opportunity to advise and insist that our party must stand united and work together and anybody that is interested in the unity of this party must support the ideology that we are now embarking on.
“We will look into where our faults came from and address them, but this isn’t the time to call for the resignation, or create unnecessary political rivalry within the party. It is therefore, my appeal to every PDP member to stand together with the leadership at this particular time.”
To all party members, Ogor said, “I consider this our hour of challenges. It is important we realize that in every disadvantage, there is an advantage and the only way we can get this advantage is to look at what really happened, not to come and use anybody to create unnecessary crisis.
“So, those asking for the resignation of the leadership should please, know that they aren’t even helping the party; but they are destroying the party. In the process, they could clearly hear what APC has told them: That there is no room for them in their party. So, the only alternative for them is to stay behind and build their party and this is one of the reasons why we sat together yesterday to discuss as a family.
“We will definitely build this party and take it to the realm of amazing grace.”
