June 21, (THEWILL) – The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), efforts at kick-starting reconciliation, suffered a setback on Tuesday, with its Presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, his vice, former governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, former Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, former Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuannyi, who were invited to the parley failed to turn up and were not represented.
But a former National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, who was also absent, sent his apologies, explaining that he was outside the country.
Speaking at the event which 183 members were invited, the National Organising Secretary (NOS), Umar Bature, said that the party’s leadership carefully and deliberately called for the meeting to douse the pressure or tension within it, as a result of the aftermath of the 2023 elections.
He pointed out that the gathering was not a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, but one to jump-start a reconciliation process.
“This party believes that Atiku Abubakar won the election, but we are in court and without prejudice to what the court will decide, we will keep it aside. Let me acknowledge that this meeting is not a NEC meeting, but an interactive meeting with the aim to jump-start a reconciliation process.
“Let me give a preview of our performance in the last election. In the state House of Assemblies, we have 342 members. We have 116 members in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, we have 36 members and we have 13 governors. We believe strongly that the ongoing tribunal cases in Kaduna, Nasarawa, Ogun, and Sokoto states will be in our favour”, he said.
Disclosing what was discussed at the meeting, Bature said, “As the Acting National Chairman said, we started these meetings with the ex-officio where we briefed them on our performance in the 2023 election and gave an update on the level of party management. We also discussed the challenges of state chapters. We also looked at the issue of vacant positions within the state chapters and other various organs of the party because of swinging membership. Some people went to other parties and all that. We sought suggestions on how to improve the party.
“We are here today and everyone knows what happened in 2023. We contributed both individually and collectively. If you rise to speak, I beg you to spell out your own role in the 2023 elections, either positive or negative before you jump to accuse someone else either negative or positive.
“Everybody had a role to play. When you rise to speak, please, tell us the role you played. You can accuse anybody here of playing pro or anti-party activities. The aim is when we are through, we will have an idea of what to do with the party before we move to other organs like the national caucus, and NEC for the way forward for the party. I believe there is hope for the party because our membership is still very strong.”
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
