•Faulty primaries led to party’s downfall –Nwuche
From Chris Anucha, Port Harcourt, Emmanuel Uzor, Abakaliki and Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and his Ebonyi State counterpart, Dave Umahi have declared that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will reclaim power from the All Progressive Congress (APC) come 2019.
Governor Wike expressed the optimism in Port Harcourt yesterday, while addressing delegates at the PDP State Congress, held at the Obi Wali Cultural Centre, Port Harcourt.
He said: “The PDP will return to the seat of power at the Federal level by 2019. This congress is part of the process of repositioning the party.”
The governor said his administration had lived up to the expectations of the people, in the area of execution of pro-people projects and programmes.
“This administration will showcase our superlative performance in the last one year, between May 23 and May 29. The people will know first-hand, the quality projects we have executed,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, Governor Umahi of Ebonyi State reiterated that PDP is undergoing restructuring that would enable it recapture power at the centre in the 2019 general elections even as he said the state government would inject N3billion into the state’s economy in the months of May and June to boost job creation.
“Between May and June, we will be injecting about N3 billion into the system for people to benefit from job opportunities, especially the youths and women”.
Meanwhile, former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudom Nwuche, has identified consistent faulty primaries caused by lack of internal democracy as the basis for the downfall of PDP during previous general elections.
He disclosed this yesterday when he spoke at this month’s edition of Research Seminar Series organised by the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), held in Ibadan.
The lecture, entitled: ‘Party Primaries and the Quest for Accountability in Governance in Nigeria,’ was delivered by Dr. Hyacinth Iwu of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko in Ondo State.
Nwuche said: “Faulty primaries, imposition of candidates and lack of free and fair primaries were the crux that led to the electoral loss of PDP” urging other parties “to draw a lesson from the mistakes of PDP to ensure that the primaries they conduct are free and fair.”
Nwuche, who has defected from PDP to All Progressives Congress (APC) added: “Party primaries are the bedrock of democracy. It is where the leadership are selected. In computer parlance, it is ‘garbage in, garbage out,’ meaning, if you don’t get the primaries right, you can’t get the governance right.
“A country is only as good as those that lead it. If you don’t have your best leading you, you can’t go far as a country; you can only make slow progress.”