2019: How PDP will return to the villa – Secondus

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus has disclosed that the party will embark on devolution of power and return power back to the people to enable it win the peoples confidence and return to the villa during the next general elections.

He maintained that the party’s constitution must be supreme and that the days of imposition of candidates or imposition of the wills of a few Abuja politicians on the people has come to an end.

Secondus made these known in the Legacy House, Abuja on Thursday during an interaction with the forum of former PDP Ministers.

He told the former ministers that the party is willing and ready to engage them for grass root membership mobilisation which will be done online, adding that the party needs to tap into their wealth of experience to avoid its mistakes of the past.

He said, “The best way to go from where we found ourselves today is to make sure that we conduct a very transparent elections, be it at the congresses or the primary’s. I want to assure you that the old system of imposition or any other thing that will go contrary to our constitution will be far off from the National Working Committee (NWC) members, we will not go that way.

“We will go strictly and abide by our constitution and our rules. That is the promise of the NWC. Our laws must be obeyed, our rules must be obeyed, we must follow them precepts by precepts in order to restore confidence to our people” Secondus assured.

He told members of the forum that anyone interested in any elective position is free to do so. He maintained that the power structure in the party will be decentralized for better grassroot participation.

“We also intend to devolve power, because over the years, so much powers have been concentrated at the center. And we discovered that the only way to do it is to devolve power to the grassroot. So the people can decide not the people in Abuja or NWC. Let the people at the various constituency’s and states decide who will represent them, it will make the election easy for us.

“You are aware, we are not in government at the center, so the only way is to make sure that the choice of the people are the best. If it is the popular choice of the people, the people will stand by them and elections becomes easy for us to win.

“The NWC is also putting all the necessary strategies together, and we assure that come 2019, that Nigerians will vote for PDP.

“APC has failed woefully. Our nation is in a situation where PDP must save this nation from total collapse, the government of APC has become lame dog after the former President Obasanjo has released a political tsunami and verdict on the government.

“It is time for the PDP to brace up and work together. The former Ministers are factors, men and women of integrity who have worked for this nation. So we charge you to move to your constituencies and reignite the party and assure them that power belong to the people.

“We have opened the party up, no one single person owns this party. No one single individual can direct, it must be collective leadership. That is what is going to give us victory” Secondus maintained.

He stated that the party will soon commence aggressive online membership drive and members of the NWC are ready to abandon the comfort of the Wadata house and get to the states, local government, wards and if possible the units to seek for membership.

In his response, The Chairman of Former Ministers Forum, Kabiru Turaki (SAN) said that the war to PDP bring back to the Presidential Villa has commenced.

He said that the ruling party has wrecked so much havoc on the country and told the party’s leadership to open its doors for the return of real politicians and democrats.

“As you begin your crusade of saving democracy in Nigeria, crusade of saving Nigeria from hunger, from poverty, from insecurity, from hopelessness and joblessness, it should be at the back of your mind that the colossal knowledge, experience and technical know how, at the disposal of the former ministers, is there for you to tap.

“Whenever people criticise PDP, they are not criticising PDP for what it has done or has not done for the party, they are criticizing PDP for what it has done in government. So the best set of people that are positioned to respond to those kind of criticisms would be those who have served in government.

“These are people that have Knowledge of what was done and what has not been done. And these are the people who are aware of why those decisions, some of which have been very painful, had to be taken in the overall interest of Nigeria. So we are there to take up issues, to respond to issues, to talk to the issues so that the proper narratives would be brought before Nigerians.

“We want to assure you that we will give you maximum support, we have heard of your agenda of taking the party back to the people. I want to assure you on behalf of the former Ministers that when you move into the trenches, you will meet us there waiting for you” Turaki stated.

Myke Uzendu, Abuja