Bode George
Bode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has stated that if Peter Obi had not resigned from the party ahead of the 2023 presidential elections, they would have emerged victorious.
George added that the PDP leadership must find out why the likes of Obi who left for the Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso who teamed up with the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) took such actions and find a way to rectify the wrongs that led to their defection.
He said the PDP must not sweep its challenges under the carpet if it doesn’t want to end up like some other political parties in the country which are now defunct.
Speaking during a press briefing in Lagos, George advised PDP to start a national reconciliation move and ensure the members of the reconciliation team are loyal and dedicated members who would visit each state of the federation to find out what the problem was and profer acceptable solutions.
“We have to find out why the likes of Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso left the party and deal with the issues. Imagine if Obi had not left, what would have happened? It would have been a walkover for us. No one owns the PDP, so no one can claim ownership. This is not the time for selfish ambitions. We need to save PDP from collapse.
“It is human to make mistakes. When it happens like this, that we got an uppercut in the struggle for Nigeria, yes, the most sensible thing to do is to go back and do an in-depth analysis of what did we do wrong, and what did we do right, and then clean the Augean table and reposition the party for the future.
“There should be no short approach, sweeping everything under the carpet is a foolish way to do it. We must set up a committee that will go around the country, state by state, and make inquiries and understand what happened.
“How were the primaries conducted in each state? Who did what? Otherwise, what I am saying is that the party must conduct a meeting and we must set up a committee of very knowledgeable, loyal, dedicated and committed leaders to visit every state of the federation for their experiences, where they did well, we will know, where they didn’t do well, we will also know. So, they can bring the report and discuss it.
“We must have a solid opposition to put them (All Progressives Congress (APC)) on their toes, and as long as I live, in the next four years, that will be the role we are going to play. If everybody is telling the APC and the president, what you are doing is fantastic, you know, it is the noise makers who are saying what the president is doing is fine that will be the first to condemn the president when he is out of office,” he said.