By Charles Igbo
Chief Bode George has bemoaned the mistakes and miscalculations and selfishness which cost the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the 2023 Presidential Election.
George, a former National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), concluded that when he addressed the Press in Lagos on Wednesday. He expressed the fears that the Party, which once paraded itself as the largest party in Africa, could go extinct like the All Nigeria Peoples Party ANPP if some steps are not urgently taken by its leadership.
One of such steps, he said, is to embark on a post mortem to find out why a number of its important and influential members left the party. Using the 2023 Presidential Candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi and that of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso as examples, George said the PDP should set up a Committee of trusted and respected and loyal members to travel the length and breadth of the Country, to find out why such people opted out of the PDP.
Chief George said a post mortem is necessary to also pin-point why the Party suffered a technical knock out in the 2023 General Elections.
“Imagine if Obi had not left, what would have happened. It would have been a walk over for us.”, he bemoaned.
He hinted that the fate which became the party was a product of selfishness, and submitted: “No one owns the PDP. So no one can claim ownership. This is not the time for selfish ambitions. We need to save PDP from collapse.
Bode George: “We have to find out why the likes of Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso left the party and deal with the issues. Imagine if Obi had not left, what would have happened? It would have been a walk over for us. No one owns the PDP, so no one can claim ownership. This is not the time for selfish ambitions. We need to save PDP from collapse.
“It is human to make mistakes. When it happens like this, that we got an uppercut in the struggle for Nigeria, yes, the most sensible thing to do is to go back and do an in-depth analysis of what did we do wrong, and what did we do right, and then clean the Augean table and reposition the party for the future.
“There should be no short approach, sweeping everything under the carpet is a foolish way to do it. We must set up a committee that will go around the country, state by state, and make inquiries and understand what happened.
“How were the primaries conducted in each state? Who did what? Otherwise, what I am saying is that the party must conduct a meeting and we must set up a committee of very knowledgeable, loyal, dedicated and committed leaders to visit every state of the federation for their experiences, where they did well, we will know, where they didn’t do well, we will also know. So, they can bring the report and discuss it.
“We must have a solid opposition to put them (All Progressives Congress (APC)) on their toes, and as long as I live, in the next four years, that will be the role we are going to play. If everybody is telling the APC and the president, what you are doing is fantastic, you know, it is the noise makers who are saying what the president is doing is fine that will be the first to condemn the president when he is out of office.
“What I owe President Bola Tinubu now, forget about the differences between us, this nation must grow and when we are in the opposition, we must keep them (the APC government) on their toes for the good of our nation. That is the responsibility that I foresee as an opposition party.
“If there is no strong opposition the APC government will take this country on a journey ride, but when we give them constructive criticism, they will think twice before doing things, they will say before this party comes and slams us, let us consider all options, not a one-sided option.”
Recall that George had said he would leave Nigeria and go into self exile if the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, wins the Presidential Election. Tinubu has since May 29, 2023, been sworn-in as President, and Bode George is still in Nigeria. There has been no mention of going on self-exile since then.
