•Party tackles Buhari over 2019

Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja, with online reports

Former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe, said the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has crossed from being a political party of pride to that of shame.

In an open letter to the party’s National Chairman, Uche Secondus, yesterday, Orubebe said the PDP is suffering from a post-traumatic stress disorder and would need sustainable ideas to bounce back to reckoning.

He said the party is now under the control of certain individuals who are exhibiting “dangerous levels of undemocratic behaviours. PDP is still lost in depression and the platform has crossed the bridge from pride to shame.

“We have gone from a party of pride to a party of shame and gradually receding into the abyss of political reality. For the simple reason that the nation is witnessing calls for the rise of a ‘Third Force,’ we are fast becoming a shadow of ourselves.

“The party is gradually coming under the control of certain individuals who are exhibiting dangerous levels of undemocratic behaviours. One of the biggest challenges that the PDP faces is balancing its needs for funding with established egalitarian values and internal systems.

“If the party continues to be held hostage by few major donors, it will continue to find it difficult to instill the values that will endear us Nigerians.

“We must take our appeal to Nigerians and through our reforms, let the party truly become a people-funded party. Small donations from millions of Nigerians will go a long way in the party’s financial requirements and will create the necessary atmosphere for true ownership among members of the party.”

He added that the necessary reforms should be put in place before “it is too late.”

Orubebe caused a stir when he attempted to disrupt collation of results of the 2015 presidential election at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

He had accused Prof. Attahiru Jega, then chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, of bias against the PDP.

But, the party’s leadership chose to remain silent over Orubebe’s open letter.

In a telephone chat with Daily Sun, yesterday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, declined comments on the letter and insisted that Orubebe is still a party man.

Meanwhile, the PDP has said  President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot stay in power beyond May 29, 2019, as Nigerians have rejected them.

Ologbondiyan said President Buhari knows he has failed, hence he is no longer confident on issues relating to the 2019 polls.

It noted that reasons adduced  by Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, on why the president cannot declare his re-election bid, yet, confirms his apprehension about the 2019 presidential poll. Adesina had told journalists at the weekend that the president would not declare his re-election bid now, to avoid his opponents sabotaging the country.

The PDP  added that Buhari would not be concerned about opponents if he had done well  in the past three years.