By Chesa Chesa
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) summoned key stakeholders to a reconciliation meeting at its party headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday following the internal cleavages that arose from the last general elections.
Notably absent at the meeting were the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the group of five Governors (G-5) led by Nyesom Wike of Rivers State who worked with the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the Atiku and the PDP.
The acting National Chairman of the main opposition party, Ambassador Iliya Damagum, presided over a meeting of the stakeholders which reviewed the performance in the 2023 elections and attempted to forge a way forward.
Over 180 party chieftains had been invited to the meeting but the main protagonists in the pre-election fued including Atiku and the G5 were absent.
In his opening remarks, Damagum explained that the meeting would provide an 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.
He revealed that there had been series of meetings with the members of the National Ex-officio, state chairmen, select members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and members of the National Assembly.
The party boss added: “This is a continuation of that meeting and it was borne out of what has happened during those meetings and we said there was 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.”
Damagum had implored participants that that being an interactive session, they should be mindful of their utterances during their contributions in order not to aggravate already frayed nerves.
“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,” he added.
The PDP National Organizing Secretary,
Umar Bature, said the meeting was called to douse the tension arising from the elections.
He also dismissed suggestions to suspend erring members as he noted that such disciplinary measure was not a way to resolve crisis.
Bature, who highlighted the achievements of the party in the last general elections, also expressed confidence that the PDP would gain five more states in the ongoing litigation at the election tribunals.
He explained: “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 believe 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 starting a reconciliation process.
“Let me give a preview of the 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 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 for 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, 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 to 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 a bad behaviour towards the party.”
Also speaking, former president of the senate and Chairman of PDP BoT, Adolphus Wabara, congratulated members for retaining faith in the party, admonishing them to watch their words during the deliberations.
He 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.”
