‘We can’t do without south-west’ — PDP begs aggrieved chairmanship aspirants

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it needs the full support of its members in the south-west to effectively execute its plan to regain political power in 2019.

Seriake Dickson, chairman of the party’s national reconciliation committee (NRC) and governor of Bayelsa state, said this when he led members of his committee to the region on Thursday.

The committee visited the south-west to discuss the issues that arose during the last convention which produced Uche Secondus as chairman.

Dickson’s team met with Gbenga Daniel, former governor of Ogun state, and Rasheed Ladoja, former governor of Oyo.

Daniel and Ladoja were chairmanship aspirants in the election.

Commending Daniel, Dickson said the PDP would need his support and “wise counsel” in the south-west. He also pleaded with Daniel to sustain continuous participation in the affairs of the party.

“We come with greetings from the leadership of the party that you consolidated, the party that you served as governor for eight years,” he said.

“We are here to thank you and to remind you that you are still a pillar of our party, in your state, in the south-west, and across Nigeria. The party is relying on your wise counsel.

“You and your colleagues woke up our party when you went round the entire country to campaign. Our party, the PDP, is a viable political platform.

“We are here to discuss the issues that have arisen as a result of the convention. The party holds you, Ogun state, and the south-west Zone in very high esteem. Moving forward, we rely on your support, guidance of leaders like you to succeed. We look forward to your active robust participation in the affairs òf the PDP going forward.”

In his response, Daniel said it was too late for leaders of the PDP of his status to contemplate leaving the party.

He assured his guests that the PDP in the south-west would do everything to ensure the success of the party in 2019.

Daniel said while it was true that grievous mistakes and wrong assumptions which should have been avoided were made, he was experienced enough to know the nature of the struggle for power, which he said, was not a “tea party”.

He commended Dickson for the maturity and for making the sacrifice to lead the team to the south-west a few days after the convention.

“From bottom of my heart, I really want to thank you for your commendable efforts and for the strength of this powerful delegation; for you to have decided to leave whatever you were doing to embark on this mission of reconciliation after the convention, even within a few days, is something quite commendable,” he said.

“And I want you to be rest assured that we will do everything that is humanly possible to make sure that our party, the PDP, succeeds. There are no doubt that there are issues. Of course, the issues are usually expected when you have this kind of struggle.

“I also know that grievous mistakes have been made, and assumptions that ordinary shouldn’t have happened have happened. But we also are sufficiently experienced to appreciate that the struggle for power is not a tea party. And quite a number of people in the process play anyhow whether fair or foul.”

Earlier, the committee had visited who said the PDP had a great chance to recapture power in all the states and even at the national level.

He assured the committee that the PDP in the south-west would work in harmony in the overall interest of the party.

Ladoja also said the south-west PDP had accepted the outcome of the convention.

According to him, the convention provided the opportunity for the zone to learn its lesson as it has realised that it could speak with one voice.