Damaging campaigns cost South West PDP chairmanship -Makarfi

The immediate past Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has listed damaging campaigns and lack of consensus among aspirants from the South West zone as part of reasons the zone lost the chairmanship position of the party in the just concluded national convention
in Abuja.

This is even as the newly elected chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, has said that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is running a broken party and a broken government, saying that the agenda of the new executive is to reclaim power from the APC come 2019.

Makarafi who denied the existence of a unity list, insisted that no list was foisted on the delegates.
The former Chairman made these clarifications on Monday in Abuja in a monitored Television Programme.

According to him, the South-West never had a true consensus candidate for the chairmanship position and there were some disparaging campaigns going on among aspirants from the zone.

He said that the “damaging campaigns” negatively affected the chances of the region from occupying the number one position in the party.

He said, “For the South-West, it was at the convention venue that they resolved on a consensus candidate. And even then, another candidate came to the state box and met the leaders and said, look, they never resolved, that he was
still in the race. So, it was a total confusion.

“Somebody signs on behalf of other candidates and said ‘we now have a consensus candidate and please support him’ and another going round and saying ‘no, we don’t have a consensus candidate.

“The whole issue of the South-West was its inability to put itself in order in good time. And then allowing some characters that cannot stand up in terms of credibility to occupy the political and media landscape; all kinds of abuses.

“And we cautioned them that negative campaign by one individual was damaging them as people and members of the PDP and they needed to call that person to order. Still, they never called him to order. And as far as I know, 90 percent of the PDP members that that person comes to will run away.”

But Makarfi did not name the person involved in the negative campaign.

Also commenting on the controversial unity list, Makarfi denied that the so called list damaged the credibility of the convention.

The unity list contained the names of all the aspirants that eventually emerged winners of the election into different offices.

Makarfi maintained that “nobody hoisted anything like unity list on delegates.”
“Nobody had a list going to the polling unit. Every delegate had his ballot paper and at each polling unit, names
of those standing for the election were there. And delegates look at that and made their choices.

“In politics, you also have consensus building. Even before the convention, you had geopolitical zones and states endorsing candidates. So if a zone is endorsing a particular candidate, they must have consulted with their delegates so they must have arrived at that venue with already a decision as to who to vote for.

“Before the convention, people were going round and campaigning and some states, changing their mind. So the issue of any particular list may be an issue of a state or zone who has come to a decision that this is where we were going.”

Seven aspirants from the South West region indicated interest in the office of the party’s national chairman, but just as the convention was about to commence six of the aspirants withdrew leaving behind Prof. Tunde Adeniran to slug it out with Chief Raymond Dokpesi and Prince Uche Secondus.

Adeniran later emerged second in the exercise with 231 votes while Uche Secondus, scored 2000 votes to emerge as the new chairman.

Secondus spoke on Monday in Abuja, during a handover ceremony at the party’s national headquarters.

The new chairman who received his handover notes from the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee assured that the party will not be distracted by the APC propaganda.

Secondus said, “We shall never be distracted by the ruling party, by their false propaganda. We will never be distracted. Nigerians now know the truth that all the APC has been saying in the last two years are mere lies, not only lies but to go out to intimidate Nigerians. Nigerians now know the truth, so we don’t need to be distracted by them.

“We all know and we have witnessed that the APC and their government are broken. They are running a broken government and so we need to rescue our nation from their hands and to rebuild our country,” he added.

Secondus also thanked the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) for a transparent, free and fair convention, adding that the first task of the new National Working Committee (NWC) is to commence a post convention reconciliation of aggrieved party members and aspirants, adding that the NWC has already begun to reconcile while the Reconciliation Committee, led by Governor Seriake Dickson is also reaching out.

He explained that his victory was a divine gift as God is the giver of power. “I am a product of the mercy and miracle of God. At every point in any nation, God chooses who leads. Power comes from God not from man.

“By the special grace of God, elections have come and gone, the people have spoken, I declare to you that there is no victor, no vanquished,” Secondus stated.

He promised to rebuild and reposition the party and to recover its lost glory. He said that the executives shall hit the ground running so as to achieve these goals.

“We are ready to take up this party, put it together and make sure that we are ready for elections in 2019.”

He further said that he has ordered the gates to be thrown open so as to give room for those who left the party for one reason or the other to return.

He stressed that the PDP is the only platform that does not belong to anybody or any group, a party where even the physically challenged vie and get elected into national and state executive.

He also assured the youths that they will be given a special place, telling them that they are the foot soldiers of the party that will carry the message of the rejuvenated PDP down to the grassroots. He ordered that the national women and youth leaders must bring the women and youths together and get them ready for 2019.

Some of the strategies he marshalled out for effective administration include decongesting the powers of the National executives and giving more powers to the zonal and state executives.

He maintained that power will be decentralised, while imposition and impunity will be stamped out of the party.
The National Vice chairman, he said, will also to be empowered just like the local and state chapters, crises will be settled at the state and end at the zonal level. He buttressed that the party will eliminate and provide zero tolerance to corruption, before and after the primaries.

According to him, the new executive has one agenda which is to win elections in 2019.

Meanwhile, the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has clarified the misrepresentation in the statement attributed to him by Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, saying he never underrated the importance of governors in the party’s nomination process.

He, however, explained that what he said in that encounter with journalists in Akure was “and still canvasses is that the APC should not mimic the PDP’s penchant for short-circuiting internal democracy by promoting the idea of an automatic ticket.”

Governor Okorocha had said all the APC Governors had endorsed President Buhari for re-election, thus implying the governors had given the President an automatic ticket for 2019.

Asked to respond to the issue after a meeting with Afenifere Leader, Pa Fasoranti in Akure, Tinubu said such was strange to the party and that President Buhari is a man who believes in due process.
But Okorocha has interpreted that to mean a slight on the party’s governors. Speaking with journalists in the same Akure after he received an honorary doctorate degree at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State on Saturday, OKorocha said his own statement referred to the party’s governors and that Tinubu was crying more than the bereaved.

Clarifying Tinubu’s statement in a press statement last night in Lagos, his Media Adviser, Mr. Tunde Rahman, said: “We note Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha’s statement. It is important that the record of what Asiwaju Tinubu said when approached by journalists during his last visit to Akure is accurate. Thus, I make this statement in the hope of clarifying a misinterpretation that seems to have taken hold in some quarters.

“I was at the interview session. Asiwaju never said anything that could be interpreted as meaning or even implying the governors are irrelevant or insignificant to the party’s nomination process. As a former governor and a leading statesman within the party, such words would never come from him.

“Moreover, Asiwaju is a democrat who believes that the open and democratic processes of the APC, which led to the nomination of President Buhari in the first instance have served the party well and has helped distinguish the APC from the PDP and other parties where fairness and internal democracy are rare commodities.

“Every individual has a right to endorse or support a candidate of his choosing. What Asiwaju said at that encounter and still canvasses is that the APC should not mimic the PDP’s penchant for short-circuiting internal democracy by promoting the idea of an automatic ticket. The exercise of internal democracy and honoring the letter and spirit of party rules can only strengthen the party and enthuse its members.

“APC’s all-inclusive philosophy was not devised today. It had been with the party since its creation.
“It was this spirit, which we believe, attracted fellow progressives and those who genuinely believe in democracy in all of its aspects to the party. Asiwaju includes Governor Okorocha in this group.

“The APC governors are essential and important voices in the party. Asiwaju values and respects each one of them and gives their individual and collective opinions much weight. Yet, in the exercise of our opinions and support for candidates, we all must be guided and never lose clear sight to the democratic ideals that separate the APC from the other parties. We must maintain the integrity of the processes no matter how clear-cut a decision or an outcome may seem to be. With regard to democracy, the process is of equal import as the outcome itself.

“This is the essence of what Asiwaju said that day in Akure. He merely asked the APC members to adhere to the democratic path that thus far has served the party so well. There can be no true dispute with such a sentiment.”

Patrick Okohue, Lagos and Myke Uzendu, Abuja.