BEVERLY HILLS, February 16, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s former Vice President and a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Alex Ekwueme on Wednesday disclosed that he “sometimes weeps” whenever he remembers how the PDP derailed from its original ideology.
Disclosing that the PDP was founded to be a “mass movement for all Nigerians”, he lamented that it was hijacked along the line by some persons who turned the party into their personal estate.
Ekweme spoke while receiving members of the Jerry Gana-led PDP Strategy Review Committee in Enugu, identifying lack of internal democracy in the party that controlled power at the federal level for 16 years as a major reason for the poor showing of the PDP in the 2015 general elections.
He said: “The story of PDP is one that sometimes makes me try to weep each time I remember the party because the founding fathers said that we are going to be in charge for 50 years or more. The idea of the PDP is not just an ordinary party but a mass movement for all Nigerians, just the like the ANC.
“We found it difficult to manage the party as a mass movement; unfortunately, some people who did not know how the party was formed, turned it into a personal estate.
“They wanted to use my state, Anambra, to do re-registration, to exclude some people who did not agree with them. Others (political parties) were attracting new members, they were driving away members. The party (PDP) lacked internal democracy.
“Yar’Adua came and called me and others. We went round and brought back aggrieved members. Yar’Adua died and we didn’t conclude that assignment.
“I am happy that out of the debacle of 2015, there is need for introspection to find out where we went wrong and how to right the wrongs.”
