In view of the 2019 general elections, an aspirant for the national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Barrister Mohammed Kabir Usman, has disclosed that plans have been finalized for former PDP members in the National Assembly to return to the party by 2018.
According to him, “PDP members in the National Assembly who left the party before and after the 2015 general elections have been fully reached and are set to return to the fold immediately after the December, 9 National Convention.”
He added that PDP will assume majority control of the two chambers of the National Assembly before the end of the second quarter of next year.
Usman, who has been endorsed by the North Central PDP for the position of the PDP spokesman ahead of the convention, also revealed that a number of former and serving governors who initially left the PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC) are also being consulted to pave way for their return to the party.
“We have been very active and involved in a lot of issues in the party. In the last seven to eight months, we have been making contacts with quite a number of people in the National Assembly and a number of serving and former governors, who were with us in the PDP before they left for the APC.”
All they are waiting for today is a free and fair national convention and once we are able to do that, they are back to the party, because the APC is not a credible platform and its gimmicks have been exposed.
“At the level of the North Central where I have served for eight years as a zonal legal adviser, quite a number of them now in the APC were in PDP and we have been in contact with them. I can assure you that more than 80 percent of our National Assembly members from the North Central are practically set to return to the PDP.
“So across Nigeria, we have done a lot of consultations and negotiations. Mark what I am telling you today, before the end of second quarter of next year, that is, 2018, the National Assembly is going to be controlled by the PDP” he stated.
Usman, who expressed confidence of the PDP to return to power in 2019, said the issues that led to the exodus have been addressed, adding that the nation will “witness an unprecedented political realignments that will return certain states as well as control of the National Assembly to the PDP.”
The former PDP Zonal Legal Adviser (North Central) also dispelled anxieties ahead of PDP’s National convention stating that the party will get it right despite the current disagreements.
“I can assure you that with our internal conflict resolution mechanisms, the PDP will resolve all issues ahead relating to the national convention. We are determined to get it right because the entire nation now looks up to the PDP for direction and liberation from the clutches of APC misrule”, he said.
Lamenting that the APC has only succeeded in wrecking the country with impunity while subjecting the citizens to untold hardship and fear, Usman urged Nigerians not to despair as the “PDP is now re-engineered to take over power in 2019 and return the nation to the path of prosperity, freedom and political stability.”
He also criticized the current war against corruption by the APC government, saying it is targeted to stifle the opposition. “The APC administration is not fighting corruption. What we have today are selective persecution and media trials aimed to intimidate and stifle opposition. That by every intent and purpose is not war against corruption”, he said.
He however assured that he has already worked out a template that will enable him “vigorously engage and ultimately strip the APC in all directions” while effectively propagating the ideals and positives of the PDP, immediately he assumes office as the National Publicity Secretary.
LEADERSHIP.