… solicits party’s Govs, Senators, Reps assistance generating body
…Damagum inaugurates Establishment committee to recruit DG
By Tunde Opalana
Deputy National Chairman (South) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja in Abuja on Tuesday said of the potentials of the the People’s Democratic Institute (PDI) is fully harnessed, it will be self- sustaining and generate revenue to the coffers of the party.
Arapaja said this in his response after he was inaugurated as chairman of the Establishment Committee saddled with the responsibility of recruiting a Director General for the institute .
Acting National Chairman , Ambassador Umar Damagum inaugurated the committee yesterday at the party secretariat, Abuja.
The People’s Democratic Institute (PDI) which was established in August, 2000, is the intellectual arm of the party and it is responsible for research and training. It became moribund for a few years until last year when a befitting edifice was commissioned in the Asokoro part of Abuja.
Arapaja said the PDI was established to deepen democracy and develop more the capacity of the members of PDP and Nigerians at large.
Going beyond this, the Deputy National Chairman said the institute is a source of revenue for the party if it is well managed.
“This source of revenue can obviously take care of itself, the salaries of the institute and have something to give back to the party itself.
“There is something important we need to discuss with the chairman. It is about the registration of the PDI, so that it has to be independent. It is a platform to reach out to the world, the NGOs and their collaborations. It is good omen for the party and for all Nigerians,” said Arapaja.
He, therefore, made passionate appeal to critical party stakeholders to further aid the institute financially to help it attain it potentials.
He said “as the chairman rightly said, it is the first of its kind in the political annals of this country. PDP being the largest and the best party in this country, it has a lot of value for Nigerians.
“But the only thing I need to add again is to appeal and thank some of our stakeholders who have been doing their best to help with their finance and with all they have and I still appeal to all our governors who are major stakeholders in this party to make sure that they continue to help us.
“Our Senators, House of Reps members, members of the State House of Assembly to make sure that this important institution gets off its feet and they can reap the benefit that is meant for all Nigerians and for PDP.
“After the seed money that has been given to the PDI, it will be able to fend for itself and fend for the party . We have a lot to offer the PDI and we will work together.
He promised that the Establishment committee will do it’s best and will not disappoint the PDP.
We will do our best to make sure that the best is recommended to the NWC. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.
Inaugurating the committee, Ambassador Damagum said, putting the institute back on track is an effort by the NWC so that PDI can help in the development of democracy within the Nigerian context and even beyond.
“This is no doubt our commitment to making this institution the hub where people can do a lot of research and develop our democracy within the country and the party at large,” said Damagum.
Charging the committee members to be forthright in their assignment, the acting chairman said “you are carefully selected as members of this establishment committee because you have distinguished yourselves from where you came from to kickstart the process of bringing someone that can pilot this institution so that it can achieve its goal within the shortest period of time as there is no time for this institution to be strengthen than now.
“I enjoin you to be fair and to give us the best without interference from even from some of here. We will give you a free hand but you should also do it with the fear of God.
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“Whoever you are bringing to this institution should be someone who can stand the test of time and also give the required value for which it was set up.
The chairman of the committee is my deputy (Taofeek Arapaja) and the National Legal Adviser. Ours is to guide you so that in whatever you do, when it comes finally to the NWC, whatever you are people are doing will be guided properly.
On duration, he said “this assignment is time-bound. The chairman knows that we want this assignment concluded as soon as possible so that the institution can kickstart in earnest.”
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