From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Dr Salihu Moh Lukman, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deserves commendation for conducting a successful National Convention last weekend.
Lukman however claimed, in the statement he issued titled, ‘Opposition politics and campaign for new Nigeria, that it was possible because the party is in opposition.
He further quipped that apart from consolidating on the successful composition of a new national leadership, the opposition party should avoid culture of arrogance and impunity.
“With the successful conclusion of the PDP National Convention, credit must be given to leaders and members of the party for being able to manage the process and elect a new leadership for the party,” he wrote in the statement.
“Those who are not members of the party should urge the newly elected PDP leaders to build on the new atmosphere to start a new beginning for the party based on honesty, respect for one another and above all recognising that politics is all about negotiations and agreement.
“Every negotiation should produce agreement based on majority decisions. Of course, people are free to disagree with decisions of the majority. But such disagreements should respect the rights of the majority to direct how parties, society and nation should be governed.
“When disagreement turn to rebellion, it is either that those who disagree are not democrats, or they lack the capacity to negotiate and through negotiations win support of majority, or they are very desperate to have their says and ways in dictating how organisations and wider Nigerian society should be governed. It may also be a combination of all the above.
“Ordinarily, the successful conclusion of the PDP National Convention should only be celebrated by PDP members. However, given the important role the party has played in orienting politics in Nigeria for 16 years between 1999 and 2015, during which Nigerian politics was made to be opposed to negotiations, it is important to acknowledge that the Convention is about the first time, since 1999 perhaps, that there is some semblance of negotiations to produce leaders of the party.
“Whether in the end, the new leaders will be allowed by the power blocs within the PDP to facilitate negotiations, is completely a different matter. By the way, the fact that the party can elect a young person, below 30 years as National Youth Leader means that PDP leaders have recognised that the old culture of arrogance and impunity must be avoided if they are to win the support of Nigerians, which is very positive.
“This is itself a confirmation that once processes are managed democratically; the right results would be achieved. Every Nigerian should wish PDP, its leaders and party members well. Nigerians should hope that PDP leaders will build on the successes of the National Convention to re-orient their politics based on honesty and respect for one another. Being honest should be about taking responsibility,” he quipped.
Speaking further, the PGF DG enumerated factors that made it possible, stressing: “From all indications, PDP leaders have only moderated themselves and submitted to processes of internal negotiations up to the National Convention because they are out of power at Federal level. It can be predicted that had PDP been the ruling party in the country, the approach would have been different.
“Probably, as was the case with all previous PDP leaders, new leaders would have emerged without any negotiation and the National Convention would have been reduced to window dressing ritual, legitimising the instructions of a serving PDP President.
“Perhaps, everything leading to the PDP National Convention happened because there is no serving PDP President acting as the leader of the party. Good enough, being out of power, PDP leaders had to respect democratic process, which raises the hope of especially PDP members that the party is being reformed.
“The worrisome issue is that notwithstanding some of the departures from the old abrasive PDP, just as Nigerians would want to wish PDP well, it must be pointed out that many of the speeches of PDP leaders at the Convention demonstrated lack of commitment to take responsibility. This is largely because, as far as PDP leaders are concerned, all the problems facing Nigeria today is the creation of APC.
“Almost all the speeches of PDP leaders during the Convention were about winning election in 2023 and returning to power. Sadly, there is no indication, at any point during the Convention, showing how the party intend to solve Nigeria’s challenges. Not even a reference by any PDP leader during the Convention to any provision of the party’s manifesto, which must have gathered dust in the cabinet of INEC.
“Perhaps, apart from the few founding members of the party, almost all the delegates to the National Convention have never seen the manifesto of the PDP.
“Above all, how does PDP intend to govern Nigeria differently, if Nigerians are to elect them back to power? As much as it is rational for PDP leaders to campaign against the APC and its leaders, being a party that acknowledges its mistakes in 2015, PDP leaders should understand that mobilising Nigerians to vote them should take its bearing from how they want to govern the country differently from the way they did between 1999 and 2015. Anything short of that will be dishonest,” he wrote in the statement.