Defectors‘re liars, ingrates – Iwuanyanwu
By Emeka Nze
Abuja
Ahead of 2019, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has commenced talks with seven political parties with a view to expanding the party’s frontiers.
Making this disclosure yesterday was the Chairman of the PDP Strategy Review and Inter- Party Affairs Committee, Professor Jerry Gana, while presenting the committee’s report in Abuja.
Gana said, one of the syndicate groups of the committee, had recommended “to put in place a robust mechanism of inter-party relations so as to encourage the coming together of all genuine and people-oriented democrats on the basis of shared principles and core programmes of national transformation.”
“We are pleased to report that our initial contacts have yielded positive responses from seven people-focused and social democratic parties. In fact, later this evening (yesterday), key leaders and selected delegates from the seven parties will be meeting later today at the invitation of the PDP.
“This is nothing to do with the rumoured mega party but a separate and highly principled initiative of the PDP. Our desire is to have all genuine democrats and friends of the people to flow together and provide a fresh and trustworthy leadership to promote and ensure a people-friendly process of national development,” he said.
Gana further disclosed that his committee had recommended “guidelines for the convening of a national conference of democrats to create a powerful network for the defence of democratic and human rights.”
According to him, this will make PDP become a trustworthy nerve centre for all lovers of democracy and human rights throughout Africa.
Other speakers at the occasion were some founding fathers of the party, like former Minister of Finance, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, who applauded the effort of the PDP leadership to keep the party “alive and well.”
He called on the leadership of the party to ensure that any government it puts in place respects the ordinary citizens of the country, adding that what is contained in the Gana’s committee “is the best thing that can update PDP.”
“I urge you to continue for several reasons. If you want to help the ordinary Nigerian, you must give him a government that respects him. What is in the report is the best thing anybody can do to update PDP.”
Also speaking, a publisher and member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Engr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, described those defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as “ingrates,” saying that after being built and benefiting from the party, they moved to another party.
He said the defectors should vacate the positions they won on the party’s platform, and be made to re-contest election on their new platforms as a test of their popularity.
Iwuanyanwu also described as “liars” those joining APC on the excuse that they were approached, stating that he cannot be approached by anyone as a notable PDP to join any other party.
“Some ungrateful people have abandoned the PDP; we must tell the people to remember who built them. There is no faction in the PDP and anybody leaving the party on excuse of a faction in PDP, he must vacate his office, and re-contest his position as a test of his popularity,” he said.
He said as a founding member of the party, he would not leave the party.
“They (defectors) have benefited from the party and I have not benefited anything. I don’t need anything, not even a position; I have enough money to sustain myself.”
He also frowned at the “illegal” and continued closure of the PDP headquarters, calling on party faithful to expedite action for the party to resume activities from its headquarters.
In his remark, Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who described the report as excellent, stated that the committee was put in place to ensure that the party is active
“We came in not expecting that we are going to occupy this position. You put us there because of the situation of the moment. We discovered that one of the ways is to hold us down and make us inactive. One of the ways to move forward is this committee to help us capture power in 2019,” he said.
Makarfi warned those defecting to the APC on the premise that they were promised tickets to beware, saying the governing party was not known for fulfilling promises.
He called for institutional reforms to ensure that institutions were not compromised in the discharge of their functions, or structured to do the biddings of only the government in power alone, but should be meant to serve the people.
While saying that the committee report would be subjected to thorough analysis by the organs of the party, he suggested that the party chieftains that worked in the Strategic Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee should be brought on board in its repositioning plan.
