In a scathing critique of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s current state, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, a prominent party member, has claimed that the mass exodus of lawmakers and stakeholders from the party is due to its failing ability
to accommodate diverse interests.
“Lawmakers and other stakeholders are decamping from PDP because the symbol of the party, which is an umbrella, is no longer wide enough to cover them,” Ugochinyere stated at a conference titled “Fix PDP To Fix Nigeria” held on Tuesday in Abuja.
Ugochinyere, also a member of the House of Representatives, didn’t mince words as he assessed the PDP’s diminishing role as Nigeria’s main opposition party.
“We are not even up to 10% as an opposition political party,” he lamented, highlighting the party’s inability to effectively challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ugochinyere’s comments come amidst an ongoing leadership crisis within the PDP.
He pointed fingers at internal and external factors contributing to the party’s decline.
The continued presence of Amb Umar Damagum as Acting National Chairman was cited as another source of severe problems for the party.
Ugochinyere criticised the party’s inability to follow its constitution in appointing a new chairman, referring to Articles 45 and 47 of the PDP constitution.
He said, “We are not even up to 10% as an opposition political party. Nigeria used to be the hotbed of African political activism. But suddenly, the PDP could not play that role as an opposition.
“So we need to ask ourselves, why are we not playing that role as an opposition political party? Those things happened before we came in, and they keep happening. So, let’s leave what happened in the past or the mistakes some of our founding fathers made. But you will also agree that they laid enough foundation for us.
“The standard we are operating today is painful, embarrassing and insulting. It is nothing near what our founding fathers had, even though they had their shortfall. I listened to the members of NWC speak passionately about how they inherited the challenges.
“But I would ask him, are you proud of how your own NWC is running now? Are you going to? Some people created these problems for you, and some are still making those problems. Do you think that is a justification? Do you have a sense of duty and responsibility to say, let’s change how these things are happening? Can’t you tell I want this to change?
“The NWC is like a judge; you are not only doing justice but must be seen to be doing justice. If you look at some of the things that have happened, yes, we lost the election, we lost funding, we started surviving from governors or individual stakeholders and so on. However, the biggest problem your own NWC faces today also affects our role as an opposition party.
“We have been so decimated that Peter Obi left the level just a few days and has the same 12 states with us. We should agree that we failed. We ultimately failed. 12 states. If they had taken away from him, he would have had even the highest number of states in that election. So that should tell us that the new generation is moving away from us.
“When I was coming, I saw Fix PDP to Fix Nigeria. Very fantastic. But before you fix PDP, you have to fix everything internally. And that starts with the issue of leadership struggle. We can’t wave it aside. And let me tell you, as long as we don’t resolve these issues, the people out there are just laughing at us.
“Like fundamental constitutional responsibility, Article 45 and 47, a tradition we have maintained over the years. We need help to speak the truth. What is Damagum still doing? And I would like to ask you here now, as the party’s national chairman, go in by that tradition. So let’s leave Wike out of it.
“But then, what are we doing? What are we not doing as a group to rescue the party? So, Articles 47 and 45 showed that when a vacancy occurs, a party NEC picks another person from that zone or area where the former occupants originated.
“And you have become acting chairman by 45. Call a NEC meeting to appoint an acting chairman. Is it difficult for somebody who wants Nigeria to take him seriously? And that inability to do that brought this round of crisis again. And let me say this: you people know what you are doing.
While blaming Atiku for the party’s problems, Abdullahi said that the present NWC inherited them.
He said Atiku succeeded in foisting a worse government on the nation in the person of Muhammadu Buhari, adding, “We inherited the problems we are facing today. We are not in Wike’s pocket. Atiku Abubakar succeeded in imposing the worst government in the person of Buhari on us.”
Narrating how the former Vice President caused problems in the party, Abdullahi said, “Atiku came, leaving that party with all the effort many other people have done. And then he surfaced again and got the ticket.
We all rallied behind the same Atiku and went to that election. There’s no way, on the eve of that election, five governors would threaten this party, and Atiku Abubakr would play that kind of levity and carelessness and say that they can go to hell.
“Aided by an Ayu, who was working for something different from what we are, the problem that this present NWC is contended with Is a problem we inherited.
“We saw it clearly, and some of us came all out and said to Atiku, you are losing it as if we have not learned any lesson from the 2014 convention where five governors walked out of a convention. With five governors walking out of a convention, we say they can go to hell. Ayu did all that he needed to do to ensure that that was sabotaged as an insider,” he said.
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