Newly-elected National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has told President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that they have until May 2019 to enjoy power at the centre.
Secondus, at the Eagle Square Abuja national convention, emerged leader of the opposition party that lost power in 2015 on the back of general discontentment and allegations of widespread corruption.
He said in his victory speech that a re-invigorated PDP would reclaim power from the ruling APC, which, the new PDP’s National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, described as already “jittery.”
Secondus defeated other contestants, including former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran and Chairman, Daar Communications, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi at the PDP national convention held on Saturday in Abuja. His victory, however, angered a few party loyalists in the Southwest, who had insisted it was the turn of the region to produce the national chairman.
But the new chairman described the mandate given to him at the Abuja convention as “clear” and a directive “to return the party to power in 2019.”
According to him, the task has to be immediate, to save Nigeria from disintegration. “We are all witnesses to how the unity of this country has been shaken to its very foundation under the watch of the rudderless and clueless APC.
“We, therefore, have a gigantic task of retrieving this country from APC’s clear lack of direction and confusion starting with the Presidency,” he said.
Secondus said steps would be taken to avoid repeating previous mistakes, and promised internal democracy in the PDP under his leadership. “No more imposition, no more impunity. Every member of this party can from this moment, consider him or herself an equal shareholder in our common destiny,” he assured.
He urged Nigerians, who left the party to “come back home.”
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2017 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
