BY MYKE UZENDU, ABUJA
A frontline aspirant for the office of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Segun Sowunmi has said that an overhaul of the entire National Working Committee (NWC) and not just the office of the national chairman will bring more excitement and new energy into the party.
Recall that many stakeholders have expressed concerns over the inaction and cold opposition as well as crisis that have reared its head in the main opposition party.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) had at its 98th meeting, resolved to shelve discussions on the office of the National Chairman till August. The Acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagum was thereby allowed to continue to run the affairs of the party till the next NEC.
In an exclusive chat with The New National Star, Sowunmi commended the efforts of the members of the NWC in holding the party together since the sack of its former National Chairman, Sen Iyorchia Ayu.
However, he is of the opinion that only a rejig of the entire NWC will bring new ideas and energy in the party.
He said, “My own point of view is that because we are in opposition and we have many thing to take care of, I would have preferred that we give ourselves the great opportunity to re-fix the entire NWC. We can’t make it seem as if it is only one human being that is the challenge.
“The NWC is made up of 12 members of even more. If there is some lethargy or lack of excitement, it cannot be fixed with only the chairman. You need to get other members to be recruited, some of them to be repositioned, some of them to be readjusted to make the party more active and responsive to its responsibilities.
“Those of them at the NWC should scale up a beat more to make it more exciting, make members much more hopeful and take the challenges of the party to the country. They can put more energy into taking on the ruling party because we are not in the same party with them and we cannot be seeing things in their own point of view”.
The former governorship candidate of the party in Ogun state said that the present crop of NWC has done their best in discharging their responsibilities.
“I don’t believe that the party is not well administered. The party is administered as well as it could be administered given that it is in opposition. When you are in opposition, people are eager, they are tired of being in opposition, they want to be part of the ruling party, people are making calculations that will be in their personal best interest and all of that is what is affecting the mood of the people of the party.
“But the NWC has been able to do the kind of thing that is expected of them. If party members engage themselves with what affects them at their own local level without bothering themselves with what they cannot influence, the party will be better off” he said.
The former spokesperson the PDP Presidential Campaign Council reaffirmed his loyalty to the party.
According to him, “To be loyal to a political party means to comment on issues and to persevere”.
He excused the party from the general hardship and economic meltdown in the country. He said that the party is trying to reposition itself in the midst of challenges. He told encouraged party members to have hope that whatever situation in the party will definitely have an end.
“If there is a national frustration in the country, it is not occasioned by PDP, whatever we think is wrong with the party today, will also wear out its own life, the era will pass.
“Because the PDP is trying to run well as a political party, it has to go through its legal challenges and it is better to have it this way than to have a disintegrated party” he said.