Plateau PDP Decries ‘Hostile Environment For Opposition Politics’

CHAMBERLAIN ODEY (JOS)
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau State has decried what it described as ‘opposition politics in a hostile environment”, in apparent reference to the hard tackles inflicted on its survival chances by the ruling All Progressives Congress government led by Governor Lalong.
In a well attended retreat organised by a renaissance group within the
state PDP known as the PDP Patriots, the party leaders were unanimous
in their observation that the political atmosphere in the state is totalitarian and barely conducive for alternative platforms to thrive
and give the people a considerable latitude of choices and options
upon which to actualise their aspirations.
Guest Speaker on the occasion, which held in Pankshin, headquarters of
the Central Senatorial district of the state, Professor Shedrach Best,
urged the people to be resilient in the face of the pervasive intolerance and hardship, and use the ugly situation to bring about the desired change in the next general elections.
Professor Best, who was Secretary to the State Government in the
immediate past dispensation, commended all PDP faithful for
persevering thus far, maintaining that the present government in the
state has got nothing to offer other than hardship and bad governance,
noting that it is only the PDP that can guarantee the people a
government that will meet popular yearnings and agitations.
Best also noted that Plateau State people now know better, and hopes
the subsisting hostile environment intolerant of alternatives and
opportunities has further sensitized the people to what they need, and
the twin realization that the solution to the hardship, deprivation,
and want they experiencing lies with them, and only the people will
liberate themselves come 2019.
Speaking on the occasion, state chairman of the party, Hon Damishi
Sango, who was elated by the huge turnout of supporters and party
faithful, said he was taken aback by the enormous mobilisation that
made the event a huge success, adding that the occasion was put
together by a strand of the party, the PDP Patriots. He wondered how uncontrollable the crowd would have been if it were an event packaged and executed by the Party itself.
Sango expressed delight that the PDP has remained the party to beat in
Plateau state, maintaining that the number of people who abandoned
their daily business in the subsisting hardship to attend the event in
spite of the short notice is an indication that the people are ready
and actually waiting to “change the change”.
Member representing Mangu/Bokkos federal constituency, Hon Solomon Mareng, told reporters at the occasion that the APC government at all levels has proven that the party does not hold any hope for the aspirations of the people, saying the failures of the APC has
increased the yearnings of the people to return the PDP to power,
adding that all the hardship, inflation, squalor and general
hopelessness have buoyed the rating of the PDP and enhanced its
standing ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Former executive chairman of Shendam Local Government Council,
Nicholas Kemi Nshe, utterly discountenanced the political claims of
the APC, dismissing its status and likening it to “an association”
that is time-bound. Citing rising inflation, collapse of the naira in
the international exchange system, and sundry economic distortions,
Kemi slammed the APC as a group without a workable programme,
promising that the PDP will continue to beat the APC in Shendam local
government area in subsequent elections.
Chairman of the PDP Patriots, organisers of the retreat, Hon Titus
Alams, who is also immediate past Speaker of the State House of
Assembly, said his group has since be working and keeping a tab on
members and the party structures to keep the system serviced and
steaming ahead of 2019, warning however that the group does not and
will not delve into the indulgence of adopting any gubernatorial
candidate, especially as the new spirit in the party is to allow
internal democracy to flourish and torpedo a culture of impunity and
imposition.
Other dignitaries at the occasion included Senator Jeremiah Useni,
Senator Victor Lar, Professor Dakum Shown, PDP National Assembly
members, State House of Assembly members, former local government
councils’ chairmen, former commissioners, former special advisers,
special assistants, and aspirants for various offices in the dawning
dispensation, with one message resonating among and amongst: “the PDP voted in the APC in Plateau, and only the PDP can vote out the APC in Plateau”.