From: Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi has said that the party’s return to power in the 2019 general election will be like a tsunami.
However, Makarfi urged members of the party to pray for President Muhammadu Buhari, so that he will recover and return office soon.
He said although the PDP is desirous of taking over power in 2019, it wants to do so under an orderly atmosphere.
The PDP leader, who is also a former governor of Kaduna State, stated this in Abuja yesterday at the public presentation of the report of the Strategy Review and Inter-party Committee.
The ceremony was attended by members of the National Caretaker Committee, Board of Trustee (BoT) members and party leaders across the country.
The 115 man committee was inaugurated by the caretaker committee in November last year to fashion out ways to repositon the party and explore possible collaboration with other political parties ahead of the 2019 general election.
Makarfi said although the party has faced serious challenges in recent times, it is determined to regain power in the country.
According to him, “We have been facing a lot of challenges. One of the ways they have evolved to hold down and destroy opposition in the country is to use the court to tie us down. But we refused to be tied down. We want to keep the party moving. PDP return shall be a great tsunami. We are not going to sleep,” he said.
The PDP leader admitted that the party made mistakes in the past, noting that one of such mistakes was imposition of candidates during elections and taking things for granted.
Makarfi,who lauded the report, stated that it has laid the path for the recovery of the PDP. He, however, stated that the report will be presented to the various organs of the party for ratification.
The former Kaduna governor said all hands must be on deck to repositon the PDP, adding that governors elected on the party’s platform, its former ministers,former governors and all members of the party have a role to play to move the party forward.
“We had made mistakes and we apologise. They report has laid the party to recovery. One of mistakes was taking things for granted. Taking people for granted and imposition. Even I must have imposed and I apologise. After imposition, what did we achieve from it?,” he queried.
Makarfi, while stating that institutions in the country were been bastardised, warned that ” Nigerians cannot continue to be patient forever. It is either we do the right or the right thing will be done to us. ”
He promised that if the PDP regains power, it work towards the reformation of institutions in the country.While noting that the various institutions presently serve the interest of those in office and not Nigerians, Makarfi said “we must free them from selfish control”.
Speaking earlier,the chairman of the committee, Professor Jerry Gana said some of the key recommendations of the report include strict adherence to the principles of zoning and rotation of political offices, use of direct primaries to select candidates for election and entrenching internal democracy.
Gana added that several political parties are already talking with the PDP, with a view to collaborating with it in future elections.
” We are pleased to report that our initial contacts have yielded positive responses from seven people -focused and social democratic parties…This has nothing to do with the rumoured mega party, but a separate and highly principled initiative of the PDP,” he said.
Former Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma also lauded the report. He said the committee report is the best thing anybody can do to upgrade the PDP.