A member of the National Reconciliation Committee of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Otunba Segun Showunmi, has warned that the fence-mending efforts may lead to a worse outcome if the party’s leaders do not adopt “honest, genuine, and commonsensical approaches to issues.”
Showunmi, a former governorship aspirant in Ogun State and a member of the 25-man committee chaired by Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a former Governor of Osun State, expressed these concerns in a statement titled “PDP Reconciliation Committee, My Reflections.”
In the statement, the party stalwart cautioned, “As we embark on this new effort, we must not waste each other’s time, for if we do not desire honest, genuine, and commonsensical approaches to our issues, we will achieve a worse outcome.”
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Showunmi pointed out that the PDP’s defeat in the 2023 elections was a self-inflicted injury that could have been prevented, but it was allowed to happen because some leaders “refused to allow the party to be supreme in all circumstances.”
He noted that the party had previously embarked on a similar reconciliation path before the 2023 elections, with a committee chaired by former Senate President Bukola Saraki.
According to Showunmi, Saraki’s committee produced a painstaking report and the agreements reached were “fair and equitable.”
He questioned, “One is bound to ask what more must be given for the 2023 general elections, which left the party more divided than at any time in its history.”
Showunmi further emphasized, “There is no messiah anywhere, and as such, all must purge themselves of any messiah complex they may have, for it is incontrovertible that our reasons for losing in 2015 stemmed from indiscipline and a lack of far-reaching reflections on what is in the party’s interest.”
He added that the party’s failure in 2023 was a “self-inflicted injury” that could have been avoided if party leaders had allowed the party to be supreme in all circumstances.
In his address to the party during its new reconciliation efforts, Showunmi stressed, “We must at the onset speak to ourselves and be ready for compromises, apologies where necessary, and some punishment where it is unavoidable.”
He concluded with a song, “PDP is marching on, PDP is marching on, the gate of destabilization will not prevail, for PDP is marching on.”
He urged party members to prepare their issues for the reconciliation team to hear and to make far-reaching recommendations, stating, “Everyone must sweep the dirty floor from where they are standing.
100% of Zero is worthless. A New Party Must Emerge from the Old.”
