The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday said it was commiserating with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that the party was currently on the throes of death.
The PDP said Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, former Edo State governor, was coming in as its national chairman to bury it.
Speaking in an interview, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP’s Publicity Secretary, said the statement credited to Oshiomhole that he would ensure the collapse of PDP if he became the national chairman of APC was unfortunate.
Ologbondiyan said Comrade Oshiomhole was trying to play God.
He advised Oshiomhole to submit himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to clear himself of charges of alleged corruption levelled against him before aspiring to lead the APC which, according to him, was seriously fragmented.
“The PDP will want Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to know that he is an undertaker in APC. He has come with a mission, which is to bury APC, and that is very unfortunate for the party.
“Even if APC that is currently on the throes of death manages to survive, Oshiomhole will need to go and submit to EFCC and defend the corruption allegations against him before he can speak to Nigerians about leading a party that has become so discredited that its members are running away to PDP,” he said.
Also speaking on the party’s national convention slated for tomorrow, Ologbondiyan said he doubted the party’s ability to conduct a rancour-free convention like the one PDP had in December 2017.
He said the APC was a soulless mob with members working at variance with one another.
“APC is not a political party. In PDP here, we usually address them as a soulless mob, and that is what they are.
“That is why up till today, it cannot rise beyond the fragmentation upon which it came into existence. We all can name leaders who are the owners of the APC.
“Can anybody name the owners of PDP? No. The PDP has been in existence for almost 20 years.
“We are in 2018, our formation started in 1998, and in the development pattern of a man, you must start as a toddler, then you grow into adolescence and a full grown man.
“The way APC is structured today, it cannot grow beyond the toddler stage because it has refused to be cohesive.
“It has no leaders that are determined to structure the party and grow it.
“It will always remain a mob and that is why you discover that one group is speaking in the direction of A, another will be speaking in the direction of B, yet another will be speaking in the direction of C.
“This is because the party is built around individuals and not the people, who are the owners of Nigeria.
“They are a sharp contrast to the PDP, a party that is owned by the people of Nigeria,” he said.
But Comrade Oshiomhole had said on Thursday that if elected as the APC’s national chairman, he would use his position and experience as a former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to resolve the lingering conflict between the executive and legislative arm of government.
Oshiomhole, who admitted that the APC had not really done well in managing the conflict between the presidency and National Assembly, said his experience as a labour leader would come handy to bring both arms of government together to be on the same page for the benefit of Nigerians.
He said: “The founders of our presidential system rightly settled for separation of powers and the parliament is the symbol of democracy.
“It is, therefore, not unexpected that the parliament may have a position of an issue that may be different from that of the executive.
“That is why in all democracy, the word, lobby, comes in. The process of persuading each other is about communication, persuasion, negotiation, and that is what we see in America.
“But I think again that we have not been too successful as a party in intervening to build viable bridges between the executive and the legislature, using the instrument of the party.
“When there is party decision, everybody abides by it and you need this to happen by holding meetings.
“The truth is that even when we resolve matters today it does not mean that another one will not rear its head tomorrow.
“Therefore, the capacity to intervene has to be constant. It is not once and for all, it is a process and unless you have the capacity to deal with the issues as they arise, you should not have been there to lead the party.
“And I have done all of that when I was president of the NLC. We had nationwide support because through dialogue, we find solutions at the Labour house and everybody has that sense of ownership.
“So, we can bridge the gap between the executive and the legislature and bring the full benefit of our majority in the parliament as well as our control in the executive.
“I am clear what the tasks are and all of these can be fixed.”
In a related development, Clement Ebri, an aspirant for the position of National Chairman of the APC, has submitted his letter of withdrawal from the race to Governor Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State, who is the Chairman of the Convention Committee.
A credible source in the party, however, said the letter would be read on Saturday at the convention ground.
Following the withdrawal of another aspirant, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, on Wednesday, it was reported that Ebri was set to announce his withdrawal from the race.
With his withdrawal, Oshiomhole remains the only aspirant for the chairmanship position.
Source: today.ng
