- Laments having only 2 govs standing
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State says despite having only two governors left standing in the crisis-ridden Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he is not bothered and there is no cause for alarm.
Governor Makinde spoke against the backdrop of the latest development where Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State announced his resignation from the PDP on Monday, leaving him and Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State as the only remaining PDP governors.
In a voice that obviously bemoaned his colleagues defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Makinde told members of the Expanded meeting of the Board of Trustees (BoT) in Abuja on Tuesday that what is happening in the party is a challenging period for PDP leaders and members and also a challenging “period for democracy in Nigeria.”
Makinde admitted communicating and engaging with people that should know “who have been involved in the political evolution of this country. And none of them have seen a political landscape like what we are witnessing today. I can only say, we are only two remaining, but we are not bothered.”
According to him, “When the story of this period is told, when the story of democracy in Nigeria is told, they will find us on the side of the people. So please, I can only say that this period will also go away. It will pass away. So whatever role we want to play as individuals and collectively as a party, we must be conscious of what history is going to record against or for us for this period.”
Also addressing the gathering, former Senate President Adolphus Wabara hammered on the need to urgently find solution to current happenings within the PDP, noting that the BoT considers the recent Appeal Court judgment as an order for the party to begin afresh.
Wabara, who served as the 10th president of the Nigerian Senate from 2003 to 2005, said: “The court judgment is an order for the party to begin again. We are more, we respect the law. So this is an opportunity for us to begin again. And that’s why we are all here.”
While maintaining that the meeting was not for speech making, Senator Wabara said it is a time that Party stakeholders “have to be very serious and deliberate with the decisions we are going to arrive at as we’ve always done with the Board, we obey the Constitution. We must work in accordance with the Constitution. And you can never go wrong if you abide by the Constitution and the rule of law.
“We should be very brief with our thoughts. Once we get the briefing of this expanded process meeting, the Board will meet to take its decision.”
Acknowledging that current events and happenings are being engineered by fifth columnists “to edge us out” of the 2027 general elections and more importantly the nation’s political space, the former Senate President however assured that “we will find our way, if we have an open mind.”
“We should, in these meetings, keep an open mind and see how we can get ourselves back on track”, Senator Wabara pleaded with the PDP stakeholders
