By Dirisu Yakubu & Bashir Bello – Vanguard Newspaper
[dropcap]K[/dropcap]ATSINA—Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Chairmanship aspirant, Chief Bode George, said on Sunday that the resignation of the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, from the All Progressives Congress, APC, was not the end, saying many more APC chieftains were on their way to the PDP.Similarly, National Publicity Secretary aspirant of the party, Mohammed Kabir Usman, said former and serving APC governors, as well as federal lawmakers who left the PDP for one reason or the other, were also ready to return to the party.
Bode George, who spoke while fielding questions from newsmen in Katsina, Katsina State, also warned the party against shortchanging anybody, noting that the party belonged to Nigerians.
“The fact is, I told them that not only him (Atiku), there are still many more who are founding fathers that are preparing to come back to PDP. When your house is leaking, do you abandon it and go become a tenant?
“You will repair and stay in the house because you are a landlord. Because once you are a tenant anywhere, the landlord can kick you out anytime.
‘’So, he is trying to come back home, the home they all built, the home which they were the foundation fathers of. Don’t jump from frying pan to fire. There are still so many that will come. Let them come.”
‘APC, party of strange bed fellows’
“APC is a contraption, what you call a congregation of strange bed fellows, unlike PDP. PDP is a solid party with a very deep taproot in the heart of this country. I have traversed everywhere, in every nook and cranny of this country, you will find this party. Not like this one (APC). And it bears the full emblem and colours of Nigeria,” said George.
He said the party was at a crossroad and shouldn’t fail in the December 9 party convention towards wrestling power from the ruling APC in 2019. He likened the party to a ship in distress on the high sea and needed to be stabilized and then launch an attack.
“I liken it to a ship on sea; if a ship is in distress, do you go and look for untested hands, somebody who has never worked in any management level of the party?
‘’You need a tested and trusted hand. You need that experience to take that ship on stage. First, stabilize the ship and then you can launch your attack.
‘’We must get it right; every Nigerian, the electorate are waiting and watching. We must do what is just, fair and equitable. If we fail on December 9th, God knows what will happen to the party. God gives you a second chance and we must not blow it.
“That is why people should not try and appropriate the party in the hands of a few. The people of these country own the party and that is the mental discussion in minds of those people who established the party.
‘’Every Nigerian must have that semblance of being a member and proud to be a member, not a group of people. It was not meant for that. And that is why this convention is very very important. We must get it right. Don’t shortchange anybody,” Bode George cautioned.
Meanwhile, National Publicity Secretary aspirant of the party, Mohammed Kabir Usman, said, weekend, that former and serving APC governors as well as federal lawmakers, who left the PDP for one reason or the other, were on their way back to the party.
Usman made this known in an interaction with journalists in Abuja, saying a number of former and serving governors who initially left the PDP for the All Progressives Congress, APC, had been consulted to pave way for their return to the party.
Usman, who had been endorsed by the North Central geo-political zone for the office of the spokesperson of the party, said: “We have been very active and involved in a lot of issues in the party.”
Some Govs, lawmakers returning to PDP—Usman
“In the past 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 APC is not a credible platform and its gimmicks have been exposed.
“At the level of the North Central zone 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 per cent 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 the second quarter of next year (2018), the National Assembly is going to be controlled by the PDP.”
On the preparedness of the PDP to return to power in 2019, Usman said the issues that led to the exodus from the party had been addressed, arguing that the country would witness unprecedented political realignments that would return certain states as well as control of the National Assembly to the PDP.
The former PDP Zonal Legal Adviser (North Central) also dispelled insinuations of tensions ahead of the party’s national convention, saying regardless of disagreements, PDP would get the convention right.
“I can assure you that with our internal conflict resolution mechanisms, the PDP will resolve all issues 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.
“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 said.
