Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

‘Adeniran, Gana were part of PDP’s headache’

By Seye Olumide
13 March 2018   |   4:20 am
Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George has flayed erstwhile chieftains of the party, Professors Jerry Gana and Tunde Adeniran for defecting to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Chief Bode George

Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George has flayed erstwhile chieftains of the party, Professors Jerry Gana and Tunde Adeniran for defecting to the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

George, who shared his views with The Guardian on phone yesterday also vowed never to leave the PDP for whatever reasons, saying “I have laboured for the party and would remain loyal to it until it is redeemed and repackaged back to its normal state.”

He accused Gana and Adeniran of being of those whose activities finally dragged the party down saying “they ruined the chances of the repositioning the PDP during at the December 9 National Convention. By now there would have been hope of wrestling power from the disjointed All Progressives Congress (APC) as the country is heading towards another general election.”

According to George, “I don’t trust them because they are not honest in their endeavour. What is the basis for leaving the PDP now and what type of leadership do they and their types, who were jumping from one political party to the other at this level of their age and experience in politics and governance, portraying to the Nigerian masses? They should be asked questions, their intentions must be scrutinized whether they really meant well for Nigerians and Nigeria or they were merely seeking for power for self-aggrandizement?”

George who sought to become the National Chairman of the party in the last convention, wondered whether going to the SDP would solve Nigeria problem, which the APC that comprised politicians across political parties in the country including some strong members of the PDP, who were once governors, lawmakers and even ministers, could not solve in close to three years.

He said, “Instead Nigeria is getting worse politically, economically and socially under the current ruling party. This is to tell you that defection from one party to the other has not solved Nigeria’s problem and would not solve it.”

According to him, “Despite the fact that the Southwest was denied the position of the National Chairman during the last national convention against the principle of zoning and micro zoning, which the founding fathers of the PDP arranged according to the party’s constitution, there is still room to correct our mistakes and forge ahead instead of defecting.

“What is currently destroying the APC was what the Senator Ahmed Makarfi, Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee did at our convention by setting the South-South against the Southwest otherwise by now the party could have been stable to advantage of the weakness, misgovernance and the crisis in the ruling party ahead of the 2019 election.

“Irrespective of that there is still hope, only if our members could forget the past, team up and corporate. Rather than leaving the party, we should address our problems.”

George, who had distanced himself from the party after the convention and had also refused to speak with the media or participate in any activity involving the Lagos chapter, did not give details of the interaction between him and the Governor Henry Seriake Dickson-led PDP National Reconciliation Committee.

He also expressed concern about the state of the nation, saying that the country is currently drifting towards ethno-religious crisis “unless we quickly rise up to address this dangerous trend, Nigeria may become history.”

To him, one of the best methods to stop this dangerous drift is to make the study of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba compulsory in our primary schools so that our children would not feel the heat of religious and ethnic differences like our generation did.”

It would be recalled that Adeniran, one of the Southwest aspirants for the PDP National Chairman position and his ardent supporter from the Northern region, Gana along with their supporters joined the SDP presumably to protest the manner the zone was treated at the convention.

Adeniran and Gana were both members of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) until their exit. The former Education Minister, who refused to identify with the PDP since the convention said he left the party because of impunity and imposition of candidates. He also accused the party of lacking internal democracy.

Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary to the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff faction, Mr. Bernard Mikko told The Guardian that he massive defection of strategic stakeholders from the PDP, particularly Gana and Adeniran was a clear indication that the party has learnt nothing from its culture of impunity that manifested in the 2015 electoral defeat.

He said the nation’s fledging democracy is increasingly maturing to understand and identify those behind every political association beyond rhetoric or nomenclature.

There are insinuation other members of the PDP, including the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who left the APC to rejoin the party may follow join the two professors into the SDP.

0 Comments