The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), hitherto a big umbrella party in Nigeria, appears to be tottering today. A member of the Board of Trustees (BOT), Chief Ugochukwu Okeke, in this exclusive interview with LAWRENCE NJOKU, admitted that gross indiscipline and policy inconsistency was the party’s undoing during the 2023 general election. He, however, said the situation was being corrected to enable the party to rediscover its winning formula.THAT election was really a challenging one for the party and has remained so. Ordinarily, when you have such an election with a lot of rancour, disagreement, disunity and misunderstanding among the leaders of the party you are bound to fail. That’s what happened to the PDP. We actually lost the election by ourselves. Like you asked, we are already working towards healing the wounds. PDP is a very large party; we are a large family. So, it’s not something I can sit down here and tell you that this or that has been used to correct the anomalies that have been noticed. But I believe that something deep, serious and far reaching is being done across all cadres of the party from the wards, council areas, states to zonal and the national levels. We are trying to bring in people that are truly PDP to take up the mantle of leadership. I strongly believe that if we do that, it will help rebuild the party as a stronger opposition and a party that is going to win elections at all levels in 2027.I don’t totally agree with you on that. But I agree that there are issues that are very obvious in the National Assembly based on the leadership of the PDP. And it goes back to pre-2023 elections. Those factors that made us fail in the election are still playing out there. But like I said earlier, we are still looking deeper to find ways to come to terms and agree on the way forward. After all, we can agree to disagree.The party still remains supreme because all of our leaders who are in political positions are there because they come from the PDP. So, the party is still supreme.It’s obvious it’s the people, not the structures. The persons who control certain people in the structures are the people making the structures weak. For example, you have an issue of someone who wants a successor from a different zone other than where it will come from, then the party tells you this is what to do and you say no. The person takes a negative stand because you feel you are financing the party. That’s why we must go back to our books where this issue of financing the party will no longer be in the hands of a few people. It should be thrown open so that we can truly have a democracy. Democracy as we all know is about the majority. The minority must be heard but the majority will have its way. Unfortunately, in PDP in certain times, the minority have their way.Your assessment may not be completely correct. But I am sure it’s not entirely incorrect. You are aware that we just recently inaugurated our Caretaker Committee, in an effort to restore and reestablish the “power-to-the-people” party.Yes! Because if PDP is not ready to rediscover itself you won’t find someone like me coming on board the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT). It means they have understood the need for experience, energy and the need for the younger generation to be brought on board. I am not that young, but I’m younger than most other board members.
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