An aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin
Okupe, has called on leaders of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, not to elect Ali Modu
Sheriff the party’s chairman.
Mr. Okupe said electing the controversial Borno
politician would mean repeating the mistake the
party made in adopting Goodluck Jonathan as its
presidential candidate in 2015.
The PDP has been plunged into a protracted
internal crisis as Mr. Sheriff, who is its substantive
chairman, insists on contesting for the position at
the national convention scheduled to hold on May
21 in Port-Harcourt.
Mr. Sheriff’s prominent loyalists, including the
party’s national secretary, Wale Oladipo, said the
former Borno State governor, who was appointed
in February, should be allowed to lead the party
into the 2019 elections.
“Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is the right man for the
job,” Mr. Oladipo said in a text message to
PREMIUM TIMES. “He has my absolute support.”
In a post on his Facebook wall on Sunday, the
authorship of which he confirmed to PREMIUM
TIMES, Mr. Okupe, who served Mr. Jonathan as a
senior special assistant on public affairs, said the
leaders of the opposition party are on the verge of
repeating the errors that relegated them from a
16-year political dominance.
“The argument that because the party is weak in
the north if the chairman is zoned to the north it
will strengthen the party in that zone is a puerile
argument,” Mr. Okupe wrote. “It is not supported
by fact or history.”
Citing the historical precedent of two late
politicians, Obafemi Awolowo and Adisa Akinloye,
Mr. Okupe said politicians have their unique
appeals that set them apart from each other,
adding that only a genuine engagement with the
party’s political base could help reverse its
misfortunes.
“When Awolowo was alive, there were great
politicians in the West, but he was of such stature
that if the ruling party then appointed one
national chairman per state in the west it would
have amounted to no political strength or gain
whatsoever. It was this type of sentiment that led
to the zoning of the chairman of the NPN
(National Party of Nigeria) to chief Adisa Akinloye,
no doubt a political Juggernaut, but still could not
produce the desired result,” Mr. Okupe said.
“What we need to strengthen the PDP in the
north is, excellent and stellar performance of PDP
governors in the north and the south, diligent
and committed efforts by local party leadership
and passionate and courageous; genuine and
dutiful; engagement of the leadership of the party
at all levels with the grassroots in the zone.”
Mr. Okupe also reminded PDP leaders of the
failure of Adamu Mu’azu, who resigned as
chairman in May 2015 after presiding over the
party’s biggest electoral disaster in history

“What we need to strengthen the PDP in the
north is, excellent and stellar performance of PDP
governors in the north and the south, diligent
and committed efforts by local party leadership
and passionate and courageous; genuine and
dutiful; engagement of the leadership of the party
at all levels with the grassroots in the zone.”

Frankiss44:
What I hate to hear is when noisemakers like Okupe and FFK that can not even win their polling unit will be spitting rubbish. Whether they like it or not, Sheriff is a force in the north and has a very high electoral value, that's what the pdp needs right now... Unlike those weak chairmen that couldn't even win their unit not to talk of ward in the last election.

Frankiss44:
What I hate to hear is when noisemakers like Okupe and FFK that can not even win their polling unit will be spitting rubbish. Whether they like it or not, Sheriff is a force in the north and has a very high electoral value, that's what the pdp needs right now... Unlike those weak chairmen that couldn't even win their unit not to talk of ward in the last election.

Progressive01:
Watch out- most iPod Yoots would soon remember Okuigbe is a Yolobar man.

Frankiss44:
What I hate to hear is when noisemakers like Okupe and FFK that can not even win their polling unit will be spitting rubbish. Whether they like it or not, Sheriff is a force in the north and has a very high electoral value, that's what the pdp needs right now... Unlike those weak chairmen that couldn't even win their unit not to talk of ward in the last election.

hajhud:
Did Sharif win his polling unit?

Sunnycliff:
Greedy Politicians everywhere! PDP should better bury their individual hatchets and come out stronger else 2019 will be their final destruction if they still maintain this internal acrimony!