The acting National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum on Saturday called for synergy among various stakeholders in order to revamp the lead opposition party in the country.
Ambassador Damagum who gave the charge during the one-day Retreat for Elected Officials of the party, which took place in Bauchi, affirrmed that “Peoples Democratic Party is in a difficult place at the moment”, since 2015 when the party lost the presidency.
To this end, he underscored the “need for a conscious effort to restore the vision of the founding fathers of the Party.
“We need to restore the confidence of our teeming supporters in our ability to manage the challenges of the country and deliver them from the bad governance of the APC federal government.”
“As aptly outlined in the preamble to our party constitution (2017 as amended), we have the responsibility to consciously mobilize like-minded Nigerians under the leadership of the Party to build a nation responsive to the aspirations of its people, able to satisfy the just hopes and aspirations of the black peoples of the world and to gain the confidence of other nations. But to achieve this we must put our house in order.
“As we speak, indiscipline is wrecking our party, poor funding is crippling activities and lack of unity is putting us asunder. This is not the time to apportion blames. It can be said that we are all to blame. Indeed, there is enough blame to go round.
“The challenge is to fashion out a way forward. We must resolve to revamp our party. We must pull out the chestnut from the fire.
“This is not going to be an easy task because the rot is deep. Internal wrangling is crippling many state chapters. Many of our leaders are not accommodating. Because we’ve been out of power for long our people are languishing for lack of patronage. Many are buffeted and demoralized. If the party must survive there is need for everyone to be involved,” the acting PDP Chairman stressed.
While reiterating the resolve of his leadership towards revamping the Party, he disclosed that his Team has “so far intensified consultative meetings, stopped indiscriminate disciplinary actions, to establish proper disciplinary committee and re-constituted a reconciliation committee to commence thorough reconciliation.
“The NWC has requested for situational reports from all state chapters to assess our past performance. We plan to consult and involve all strata of the party in evolving pragmatic decisions to address the major challenges of indiscipline, unity and inadequate finance.
“The NWC also plans to embark on the revalidation of membership, strategic membership drive for youths to include fresh blood, review of party constitution and establishment manual, tour of state chapters to sensitize and rebuild the confidence of our teeming members.”
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