January 08, (THEWILL) – The Acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Amb. Umar Damagum, has charged social media practitioners and bloggers against peddling falsehoods capable of igniting unrest among party stakeholders.
Damagum gave the charge at the end of a two-day capacity building on Effective Media Awareness and Peace in the Political Arena for Social Media Handlers from Northwest states.
The training was organised by the PDP’s Support group in Birnin Kebbi and facilitated by the platform of Northern Professionals in Politics and Development (NOPDE).
Represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Hon Yusuf Dingyadi, Damagum urged participants to sustain the propagation of party manifestos and visions, saying the PDP is bigger than any individual to destroy
He commended the organisers and thereafter assured supporters and loyalists that there was no vacancy in the party leadership positions.
The National Chairman condemned those aggravating internal differences within the party, especially interested groups that are more inclined to create embers of hatred and division rather than progress, peace and unity in the party.
He, however, urged them to stop as they are breeding disharmony and political instability capable of destroying the image of the party’s founding fathers’ vision.
Damagum also reiterated that the present leadership would continue to tolerate and galvanise the PDP into a party of forgiveness, cohesion and unity rather than injustice and propaganda by carrying everybody along at all levels and would not allow himself or any of the disciplined members into a disreputable position of injustice.
He called on party elites and leaders across the country to strive hard to build a party of unity, discipline and progress, not trying to destroy the good vision and political objectives of the founding fathers.
He urged them not to become tools of character assassination of any individual or propagating falsehoods, hatred and mischiefs against each other that are capable of destroying the party and its image.
According to him, ”Overheating internal crises, leadership disharmony because of particular individual interest is akin to polluting party unity, cohesion and progress which destroy all the good things PDP stands for.
”Our party’s organs, especially NWC under my command are much more interested in providing reasonable solutions to our survival in the leaderships rather than settling our scores or differences with lies, maligned and mischief which are capable of aggravating issues of disunity & hatred in our affairs”, Damagum said.
Earlier, the Head of Media Mobilisation and Political Awareness of the PDP Supporters Group in Nigeria, Dr Suleiman Aliyu-Gafai, said the workshop was organised to strengthen the capacity of social media handlers and streamline their activities toward the party’s cohesion and unity in tandem with founding fathers’ dreams
Dr Gafai described the leadership crisis within the party today as disappointment which negated the founding fathers’ vision of building a platform for unity, cohesion and political development in Nigeria.
According to him, the recent statement of a certain group of people, especially BOT Chairman, Sen. Adolphus Wabara, on supporting party chairmanship from a particular zone was diversionary and a way of inciting disunity which was unwarranted and uncalled for, lacking confidence in someone who is supposed to unite his children on common goals.
Gafai called on party leaders and members especially from the northern part of Nigeria to unite and struggle to make the party a formidable platform that would salvage the country from the draconian rule of the All Progressive Congress (APC) by producing the next president by strengthening unity, forgiveness and discipline.
He stressed that the party’s outstanding performance during the last 2023 elections was always acknowledged as PDP’s Atiku garnered overwhelming votes from the region.
While assuring their support and loyalty to the leadership of the PDP under Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum led NWC, he enjoined social media handlers to sustain their efforts on propagating good party objectives, visions and manifestos as well eschew sentiments along with actions that tarnish the party image.
No fewer than 50 participants were drawn from Katsina, Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states while the event featured presentations, demonstrations of figures and historical facts of PDP and northern Nigeria’s political unity.
Tunde Omolehin is an award-winning Journalist with prose in investigative and storytelling that is connecting the dots between the under-reported communities and policymakers to ensure good governance and accountability.
