A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has hinted on one of the reasons the former ruling party was booted out of power.
Babatope, while speaking in Benin City, Saturday, affirmed that the zoning arrangement of the party, spurned 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 was allegedly exhibited by the PDP The party chieftain called on members of the PDP to imbibe internal democracy and allow the younger generation to take over the helms leadership.
He, however, said 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 the New Dawn, a group under the PDP in Edo State.
“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 to 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”, he added.
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”.
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.
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