*Don’t blame other parties, he advises
By Euclid Myke Agunwa
As political crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continues to linger, the Governor of Bayelsa State, Sen. Diri Duoye has stated the party has no reason to blame other parties for its internal wrangling, as the party has the capacity to settle its problems.
The governor, while addressing the press at the inauguration of South South zonal executives, said that the leadership of the party needs to look inwards and deliberately work together, work together, and resolve all their issues instead of pointing accusing fingers on other parties.
He said, “but the main question now becomes if the PDP would serve as a ready and vibrant opposition going forward, we have to look inwards. If you listen to the BOT chairman, we have to, first of all, fix our own problems.
“It’s very easy for you to point these same fingers at people from outside but what is happening within us? And so, the PDP has to sit back and then fix its own internal issues and challenges, that is only when you can stand up to compete with others.
“For me, I want the PDP to be competitive with other political parties. We are indeed the oldest political party in Nigeria so, we have no reason to be accusing outsiders.
“Let us look inwards and fix our challenges and I’m sure by the time we do that, we will be out there to be very competitive. The political will is with the people, the members of the party and we are all members of the party. So, the moment we all come to that resolution, that we need to fix our party, there can be no one person that is bigger than the party. That’s my take”.
In his opening address National Chairman of the party, Amb. Umar Damagum said that challenged party leaders for working against the interest of the party.
He reiterated that the South south zonal congress is yet to be conducted bringing to an end the controversy surrounding the purported south south zonal congress, attended by the minister of Federal Capital Territory Nesom Wike and former governor of Rivers State, Donald Duke that took place in Calabar where Chief Dan Orbih was re-elected as the leader of the zone.
Damagum said: “This is a very important occasion and I think I want to use this opportunity to tell us that there was no election as far as this party is concerned, in the South-South. I have to make this clear, because the tenure of the Zonal Committee has expired and we still have a few weeks or a month or so to do the Zonal Congresses. So we find it necessary to come up with this caretaker committee.
“I also want to use this opportunity to tell Nigerians that this party, the PDP, is still the party to beat. A party that has been tested for 27 years, one of the oldest parties. All these shenanigans you see around, the APC, the others, have not been more than 10 years old and if you’ve grown up to be up to 27 years and still standing, still counting, then there is no guarantee more than that.”
