The Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee has been given a four-month tenure extension to enable it conduct a proper national convention to elect a new National Working Committee by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The new NWC is expected to be in place by December, according to the consensus of delegates to the non-elective national convention which took place in Abuja on Saturday.
It was the first by the party since the Supreme Court proclaimed Senator Makarfi as the authentic leader of the party.
Makarfi, addressing the gathering yesterday said the party still has much to offer Nigeria and will outperform the All Progressives Congress (APC) if given the opportunity to rule again.
Immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan who also addressed the forum dismissed suggestions that the national economy would have collapsed if the PDP had remained in power at the centre.
Makarfi promised that PDP, if given another chance in 2019, would introduce a students’ loan scheme to alleviate the suffering of students and their parents.
“There will be no hunger because there will be plenty to eat. There may be plenty in the market but you have zero cash in your pocket. Under PDP, there will be cash in your pocket because you have earned the cash”, Makarfi said.
He prayed for quick recovery for ailing President Muhammadu Buhari, saying the PDP would be looking forward to defeating him in the 2019 presidential election.
Said he, “We mean well for our President. We will continue to pray for his full recovery. We want him to be fit and on seat when we will defeat the APC government come 2019.
“We will continue to pray for him but that doesn’t mean we will go to sleep. We will work hard to replace the APC government come 2019 God willing.”
Jonathan said policies initiated by his administration were rewarding to the people and attractive to many other countries across the globe.
“We had a strong team that was managing the economy of the country. If we say that we rekindled hope in our people and gained international goodwill, it is because we pursued a number of policies, programmes that were not only readily rewarding to our people, but also attractive to many other countries across the globe,” he said.
“When I read the papers and people always want to deride PDP, it is difficult to beat the PDP. No one can beat us. I can remember that right from the days of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Yar’Adua through to the Jonathan days, we have done well. Nobody should intimidate you.
“We provided focused leadership through sectoral and institutional reforms which impacted positively on the fundamentals for growth, especially in the last four years of our stay in power.
“The effect was that we tamed inflation at a single digit, maintained price stability, built the economy to become the largest economy in Africa with a GDP of more than half a trillion Dollars and the number one foreign direct investment destination in Africa”
The convention dissolved the PDP executive councils in Anambra, Adamawa, Borno, Kebbi, Kwara, Osun, Ogun and Lagos where previous congresses to elect leaders for the chapters ended in disagreements.
A caretaker committee to run the affairs of the Anambra chapter where two parallel executives existed, was set up, with one of the factional chairmen, Ken Emeakayi suspended for one month.
The chairman of the convention planning committee, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, declared that with yesterday’s successful convention, the PDP has returned with a bang.
Okowa said: “We are rebounding back. We must realize that there is a champion in each and every one of us in the party, and that a collective leadership and partnership, resolved to do things right is all that we need to build the strength to recapture power.
“We cannot shy away from the fact that there are lessons to be learnt also.
With our defeat at the presidential election, the loss of many states at the governorship election, and the slide into minority in the National Assembly came the sobering lesson that the PDP had become a victim of its own success.”
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
