Former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, has made it clear that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cannot die in spite of the deepening divisions amongst its top leaders across the country.
Wabara who spoke to news men in Abuja, on Thursday said that the party has sufficient internal mechanisms to deal with its issues as has been demonstrated time and time again.
The former Senate President who said that the current challenges will not be different said that the main demand of almost all of the party’s factions was for the former Chairman, Ali Sheriff to step aside and that since that has been achieved, most of them have commenced reconciliatory meetings.
According to him, members of the party are determined to reinvent and reposition it to attain greatness again.
He said that the insistence that the right things should be done gave rise to factions such as; the PDP Rescue Group which he belongs to and the Prof. Jerry Gana-led Concerned PDP Stakeholders Forum.
“First of all, the PDP is just like a Beatle. A beatle they generally say never dies.There is nothing that can kill PDP, no matter the factions, no matter the factional politics going on there now. I think for the problems, I don’t want to apportion blames. We have come out of it now.
“So we are looking forward to see how we can bring the factions together. We pray that this does not repeat itself again. PDP is not owned by any individual or group of people or organization. PDP is very national in nature.
“Since we lost the Presidency, it would appear that the 12 Governors that we have are in charge; but in the future, the Governors should reach out and consult widely before they take certain decisions.”
The former Senate President said that contrary to claims in some quarters that Sheriff’s emergence as National Chairman was by consensus: “some of us kicked against that decision and wisely too, not because of any personal problems with the person in question; but because of our knowledge of that person.”
He said that the decision to throw up the former Borno State governor as National Chairman was in itself a very bad decision which is largely responsible for the crisis that threatened the party’s existence.
Speaking on the role the party’s BoT is expected to play in resolving the crisis, Wabara said: “the BoT has a very vital role to play and I think it has already started playing that role to galvanise the factions, get them together and then move the party forward.
“Senator Jubril Walid, the BoT Chairman and of course, Ambassador Ojo Maduekwe will use their wealth of experience and wisdom to really get the warring parties together, including the Governors.”
He appealed to Governors on the party’s platform to in the interest of the survival of the party give up some of their authority to the BoT to enable it bring all sides together. [myad]
