…Charges PDP Leaders To Self-Search
Former Deputy National Chairman, South, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olabode George has said that what he and his party owe President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is constructive criticism, so as whip the President and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in line in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.
This was just as he also admonished the leadership of his party, the PDP, to look inwards to examine what went wrong with the party, leading to its abysmal performance in the last general elections.
George, a former military governor of old Ondo State, stated these while addressing the press in his office in Ikoyi, Lagos, insisting that irrespective of the difference between him and the President, what is paramount to him and his party is to whip the President and his party into line, adding, “This is necessary so that Nigeria can be moved forward.”
He added, “I want to appeal to you, it is not a matter of joining his party, we must have a solid opposition to put the ruling party on its toes; and as long as I live, in the next four years, that will be the role we are going to play, and it is good for them, because if everybody is telling the APC and the President, ‘what you are doing is fantastic sir,’ you know the noise makers there, who are saying what the president is doing is fine, they will be the first to condemn the President when he is out of office.
“The President is not a young man, he knows whether people are polishing him and pretending that he is the best fellow. He should watch his back.
“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 the APC government on its 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 jolly ride, but when we give them constructive criticism, they will think twice before doing things, they will say ‘before this party come and slam us, let us consider all options, not a one sided option’.”
The Atona Oodua also charged PDP leaders to make frantic efforts to ensure that the party did not go into oblivion like the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP; insisting that there is the need to set up a committee of loyal and dedicated members of the party, who would embark on a nationwide visit to each state of the federation to find out what the problem was.
The retired Naval officer explained that any attempt to sweep the myriad of problems in the party under the carpet will spell doom for it, even as he also warned that this is not the right time for anybody to be scheming for position in the party, but the time to proffer solution to the challenges facing the party first.
He said, “It is human, it is not a passion 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 indepth analysis of what we did wrong, and what we did right, and then clean the Aurgean stable and reposition the party for the future.
“There should be no short cut, sweeping everything under the carpet is a foolish way to it.
“We must set up a committee that will go round the country, move state by state, and make enquiry about what their experiences were; what happened? Finances, the political aspect. How was the primaries conducted in each state?Who did what? Or 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.”
