George-Ikoli makes final pleas to PDP leaders before gubernatorial primaries

A leading Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirant in Bayelsa State, Anthony George-Ikoli has said that unity remains one of the agendas that must be pushed for in the September 3, 2019 governorship primary in the state in which 20 candidates will vie for the party’s flag.

George-Ikoli, who is a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, in a letter to PDP leaders, clarified his position on the governorship primaries in Kogi and Bayelsa, saying, “I think it is incumbent upon us as loyal party members to take stock of the current situation, strategically assess its potential fallout and devise a methodology of remediation by walking our way back from our intended goal to the current state of affairs.

“A situation where individual contestants are seemingly at loggerheads with the establishment to the extent that name calling in the media becomes the order of the day is certainly an avoidable display of our undergarments in the market square.

“A situation where tapes of internal conversations of party meetings whose purport is an undue skewing of the rules, are leaked into the public domain also adds to the current unsavoriness. 

“There are even now murmurings of injunctive actions to threaten the legality of the nomination process by parties who feel there are manifest incongruities in the process of delegate selection not to mention the threat of spoilers who may want to scuttle the process even when they know they do not have the capacity to go the distance or the ability to provide leadership thereafter.”

 George-Ikoli in the letter added, “My dear fellow party men and women of the Peoples Democratic Party, today I write with quite a heavy heart at the unfolding events leading into our party’s primaries of the 3rd September, 2019. It is my experience that the party primary season in a vibrant democracy and within an effervescent and ebullient political party like ours should be a season of intellectual contestation of ideas, a titanic battle of wits and a colorful cornucopia of contestants trying to outdo one another through the deployment of the best in political philosophy, strategy and tact.

“Sadly, the events leading to the primaries and the undue tension within the party and the state are indeed a cause for concern and urgent remediation.”

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria criticised the All Progressives Congress (APC) for performing below expectation, painting the PDP as the face of development in Nigeria

“Bayelsa and indeed Kogi State in the forthcoming elections must not be the exceptions that buck the current trend of our resurgence, we must work assiduously to deliver victory to our party come November. A PDP leadership in Nigeria despite all its innate idiosyncrasies and shortcomings guarantees an inclusive Nigeria, a PDP leadership guarantees a prosperous Nigeria, it is our duty and responsibility to ensure our party is successful if not for ourselves alone, then for Nigeria.”

George-Ikoli also questioned the loyalty of some of the aspirants.

“Already several statements between some of the key stakeholders and aspirants paints a picture of gloom, doom and falling skies – as if we are not all of the same party striving for the same goal of ensuring that PDP retains its rightful place in Bayelsa politics.” 

He advised the party to further assume its leadership role and work assiduously to calm all frayed nerves.

“The party should go over and beyond the assurances it has already provided of a level playing field to proactive engagement of all the stakeholders with the endgame of ensuring the party is united going into November and victory is secured thereafter,” he said.