By John Alechenu, Abuja
The Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ambassador Umar Damagun has appealed to party members to let bygones be bygones and come up with practical solutions to the challenges bedeviling the party.
He made the appeal in his opening remarks at a meeting of the party’s National Working Committee Select Committee, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Seeking the tone for the meeting which started at 2:16 pm, Damagun said, “This meeting will give us the opportunity to review the outcome of the last general elections and to share ideas about how to strengthen the party to face the challenges ahead.
“We have had a series of meetings with the members of the National Ex officio, state Chairmen, select BoT and members of the National Assembly.
“This is a continuation of that meeting and it was borne out of what has happened during those meetings and we said there was a need for us to call this one.
“Initially the meeting was supposed to be for only the founding fathers of this party and we realized that after almost twenty-something years of the existence of this party, a lot of people have also graduated to be founding fathers.
“From our first Governors of those years, they may not be the real founding fathers, but also they have contributed their own to the party to be recognized as members of this great party and leaders in their own right.”
The party chairman enjoined the party leaders to speak freely because the essence of the meeting was to forge a way forward.
He said, “I want us to be conscious of the fact that while making your contributions we should be mindful of the fact that we are one family.
“Anybody that is in this hall today is here by the virtue of the fact that he /she meant well for this party. I want to enjoin us to contribute in a manner that will not hurt the sensibilities of others. We are one family and so we shall remain.”
We all played a role in our party’s performance- Bature
Speaking in a similar vein, the National Organising Secretary of the party, Umar Bature, while welcoming invited guests to the meeting said, “I welcome all of us to this meeting. It is the first meeting after the general election. We carefully and deliberately called for this meeting to in a way, douse the pressure or tension within the party as a result of the aftermath of the 2023 elections.
“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 an 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, Kaduna and Sokoto States will be in our favour.
“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, National Executive Council NEC, for the way forward for the party. I believe there is hope for the party because our membership is still very strong.
“We are conscious of the issues because we went to Port Harcourt and I am sure, that will come up here. I will explain why we went to Port Harcourt.
“We believe there are people here who will accuse some of our elders of certain roles they played. In my state, somebody suggested that we should suspend a member but I said no.
“ He is free to go anywhere he wants to go. Suspending him means you are acknowledging that he has done something bad to the party. Suspension is not an answer to bad behaviour towards the party.”.
In his remarks, the Acting Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, expressed delight that a large number of those invited turned up for the meeting.
Wabara said, “Frankly speaking, I didn’t expect that we still have this number in our party. I want to congratulate all of us for this having faith in this party. This is what will make us strong to clinch our stolen victory. We should not despair. We are in politics!
“As our acting National Chairman mentioned, they stole our mandate. We hope the tribunal and the courts will give us back our stolen mandate.
“Much as some of us may disagree with the synopsis, because we are still in court, we should mind what we are going to say today so it doesn’t work against us in the court.
“Let us watch how we attack ourselves. There will be time for that. The BOT waits to take some advisory decisions but then this is not the time.”
Source: Vanguard