PDP CRISIS !

Impunity, imposition and North's quest for power
cost PDP presidency — Babatope
Source : Vanguard
A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Ebenezer Babatope,
yesterday, in Benin City, declared that the zoning
arrangement of the party, jettisoned after the death
of President Umaru Yar'Adua, led to the defeat of the
party in the last presidential election.
He said, therefore, that for the PDP to stand a chance
in regaining the presidency in 2019, the party may
have to pick its presidential candidate from the
North, adding that, apart from impunity and
arbitrariness, imposition, allegedly exhibited by the
PDP "bureaucracy ahead of the elections, the PDP did
not resolve the agitation by northern leaders that the
presidency should be ceded to the area due to the
sudden death of Yar'Adua until the problem
consumed the party and made way for the defeat in
the 2015 presidential election".
Babatope, who urged the PDP to imbibe internal
democracy and allow the younger generation to take
over the leadership, said, however, that the
insinuation that President Muhammadu Buhari may
not run in 2019 due to his age " may become a major
problem that may trigger a dangerous split in the
party's arrangement for 2019, and therefore we must
be ready for 2019″.
The PDP leader spoke, yesterday, while delivering a
lecture entitled: "Nigeria's 16 Years of Democratic
Experiment-Which Way Forward?, organized by Edo
State New Dawn, a group under the PDP in the state.
The event was attended by members of the party
mainly from Edo South, led by the leader of the
group and former Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator
Rowland Owie; High Chief Raymond Dokpesi,
chairman of the occasion; Dr Isimeme and Chief
Samson Esemuede. Others are PDP governorship
aspirant, Chief Solomon Edebiri; Hon.Ifaluyi Isibor
and many others.
"Facts remain, however, that we (party elders) made
mistakes in the preparations of our party for the
elections. For example, it was wrong for our party's
Board of Trustees not have met when we were
engulfed with the party campaigns for the elections.
Our party played into the waiting hands of the
opposition with this kind of situation,"Babatope
stated.
"Any of the political parties in Nigeria that attempts
to bring impunity to our system or that attempts to
push off the effective voice of the people in the
determination of its presidential candidate will kiss
the political dust and sentence itself to total failure
and collapse".
In his welcome address, the leader of the New Dawn,
Owie, said: "We are asking the 8th National Assembly
to urgently commence the amendment of the
Constitution which they have done twice to give
autonomy to local government councils but
unfortunately some House of Assembly that are
rubber stamp turned it down because if you don't
have autonomy of the local government, Nigeria can't
develop the rural area.
"In the next line of amendment, any House of
Assembly in Nigeria that votes against autonomy of
the local government, the Nigeria Labour Congress,
the ALGON, the market women and men should take
possession of the Assembly, they wouldn't sit until
they support the autonomy of local government
because enough is enough of destroying that arm".
On his part, Dokpesi, who explained that the New
Dawn in Edo was meant to rebuild the PDP
collectively, said members were determined to
"reconstruct this party and bring it back to power in
Edo in 2016 and at the federal level in 2019".
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