Akwa Ibom State Governor and Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Udom Emmanuel, says the crisis in the party has festered because some people do not act in ways that agree with the things they say. Emmanuel, who stated this during an interactive session on national television, said the time had come for members to talk the talk and walk the walk.
The governor believes the disagreements in the main opposition party can be solved. But he insisted that aggrieved members could not be ignored if the party wanted to win next year’s presidential election.
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In another development, the PDP presidential campaign organisation reacted to a statement by Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, describing him as a liar, who turns truth on its head.
Speaking during an interaction on national television, Emmanuel maintained that the PDP crisis was “not high mountains that are so difficult to climb”. He said the problem festered because some people could not keep their words.
According to him, Wike and other “dissenting voices” within the party have the right to express their views, which would not be ignored, because “This is a family business.”
Emmanuel said, “Nyesom Wike is my brother, you all know that.
“One thing I discovered about politics and life: people should try to do what they say they will do; that is the cause of some of the problems. If I say I will do B, if A happens, let me keep to that. If I say I will do B if C happens, let me also keep to that.”
He explained, “It is not about mentioning people’s names; everybody has a right to express his views the way he wants. PDP is a family. I can assure you we will resolve it.”
Emmanuel, who reiterated that Wike’s dissatisfaction would not be ignored, also explained why he was not part of the meeting called by the Rivers State governor and his associates to announce their withdrawal from the party’s campaigns.
The Akwa Ibom State governor stated, “Don’t worry about that now. We sensationalise matters a whole lot. What we try to do is that we try to box individuals into our lifestyle, it cannot work like that. We are all adults. We know what is good for us; we know what is right for us.
“So, allow people to air their views but don’t also ignore people. We cannot ignore anybody if we must win elections in 2023. We cannot ignore anybody, we need to go back and carry everybody along. We are not going to ignore any dissenting voice.
“You don’t ignore issues and believe the issue will go away. This is one thing we will not ignore. We will take it head-on and resolve it.”
Meanwhile, the PDP presidential campaign, in a statement, said while Mohammed was making a barren attempt to catalogue perceived achievements of the current All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, he did the unbelievable by claiming that the policy documents and proposals espoused by Atiku Abubakar were the version of the economic blueprint of APC.
Describing this as “a tsunami of a lie”, the campaign council, added, “To begin with, it has been openly acknowledged that this current administration came into power without a single sheet of paper of what could be called a policy document.
“Nigerians are aware that in both 2015 and 2019, it took the APC six months and three months, respectively, to constitute a cabinet. Perhaps, the minister might be interested in telling Nigerians if it is also part of the APC manifesto to foot drag in forming a government.
“It is on record that the first economic recession that the country experienced in 2016, which happens to be our worst economic decline in 30 years, happened primarily because the APC administration applied what can be called a catch-up strategy to the early signals of the recession.”
The council said that was why till this day, Nigerians were more agreeable to the fact that the tenure of the APC had been nothing but a sheer waste of time, all thanks to the catch-up economic strategy of the ruling party that left the people more malnourished, sick and disillusioned.
According to the council, “The poor records of the APC in the areas of economic management, jobs creation, education, security and in virtually all spheres of our national life is the reason there is a lot of anxiety about the 2023 general election.
“Indeed, it needs to be stressed that next year’s election will be a referendum on the APC and it is not in doubt that the ruling party in Nigeria will present a global case-study of how a political party can lose popular goodwill within a short period of time.
“Nigerians are rallied in their frustration in the APC and the promise of a better future that our presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, holds for the country after his victory in the 2023 presidential election.”
Chuks Okocha
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