A fresh crisis is brewing among the members of the Peoples Democratic Party on how to reposition the party.
While a group known as the PDP National Reform Conference, which is headed by a former Minister of
Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, is planning to hold a conference on how to reform the party, the members of the
party’s National Working Committee have said the conference must not hold.
In a statement signed by the PDP National Secretary, Prof.
Wale Oladipo, the NWC said the reform conference must be
postponed in order “to create room for further consultations and exhaustive consideration by critical stakeholders on the report of the PDP post-election Assessment committee, headed by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, which is due for submission this month.”
The reform conference has been slated for October.
However, Gana said his group received its mandate from the national caucus of the party and the party’s Board of
Trustees to hold the conference.
According to Gana, some of the issues to be considered by
the conference include the best ways to “reignite the noble
ideals and good image of the PDP and restore the party’s
core values and principles.”
The committee, he added, would also generate fresh ideas
on “people-oriented programmes for ensuring good
governance, development, human security, social justice,
equity and fairness.”
The conference committee, which also has Chief Raymond
Dokpesi as a member had, on Tuesday, inaugurated various
sub-committees to prepare for the reform conference.
However, members of the NWC stayed away from the
International Conference Centre, Abuja, where the members
of the PDP reform conference committees met.
Twenty-four hours after the committees were inaugurated,
the NWC came up with a statement postponing the reform
conference indefinitely.
Since the PDP lost the general election the NWC had failed to call for the quarterly meeting of the party’s National
Executive Committee.
A member of the party’s NEC, who spoke with our
correspondent on condition of anonymity on Wednesday,
said that the NWC “is apprehensive that they may be sacked
by the NEC over the role they played in the shameful outing
of the party during the election and this informed their
decision to keep the NEC meeting in abeyance.”