PDP Nec-elect Charged On Party Ideology And Internal Democracy
Ebonyi State's leading gubernatorial aspirant in the on-coming 2023 elections and Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Reformatory Institutions, Rt. Hon. Anayo Edwin-Nwonu, has congratulated the PDP National Chairman-elect, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, and other members-elect of PDP National Executive Council over their victories in the 2021 PDP National Convention held in Abuja on Saturday, 30th October, 2021.
Speaking to journalists at Eagle Square after the results of the convention were announced by the Returning Officer of the 2021 PDP National Convention, Gov. Umaru Fintiri, excited Edwin-Nwonu who represents Ezza North/Ishielu Federal Constituency said, "I am happy and excited over the peaceful conduct of the 2021 PDP National Convention. I congratulate the entire PDP family across Nigeria and the entire globe".
The federal legislator who had, in a monitored FRCN Network studios interview on the morning of the convention, extolled the candidacy of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, congratulated the PDP national chairman-elect and other members of the National Executive Council and charged them to uphold the lofty ideals upon which the Peoples Democratic Party was built; and to ensure internal democracy in their administration of the party saying that it was lack of internal democracy in the build-up to the 2013 PDP National Convention that created the crises which the APC exploited to put the country into her present sorry state.
In the words of the federal law-maker, "On behalf of my constituents of Ezza North/Ishielu Federal Constituency and my teeming supporters in Ebonyi State, I hereby heartily congratulate the PDP National Chairman-elect, His Excellency, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, whose pedigree and patriotic antecedents I have sufficiently avowed.
"While congratulating Sen. Ayu and the elected members of PDP NEC, I charge them in all they do, to uphold the great ideologies upon which the Peoples Democratic Party was founded. My joy is that PDP National Chairman-elect is both a founding member of the great PDP; and a product of the harmony in the reformed PDP. He is therefore in a better position uphold the ideologies of our great party and complete its repositioning to enable it achieve its intention to rescue our country from misrule and make it great again. To achieve this, internal party democracy is very important; and I pray that when the new PDP leadership under Senator Iyorchia Ayu takes over come December 2021, it should have this in mind in all its dealings", he concluded.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which was formed in 1998 ruled Nigeria for 16 years beginning from May 29, 1999. After the 2011 general elections which PDP won, violations of principles of internal democracy in the management of the affairs of the PDP led to internal bickerings. These culminated in protests during the 2013 PDP National Convention held on August 31, 2913 at the Eagle Square, Abuja, wherein some party stalwarts and their supporters walked out of the convention and formed the splinter group or faction known then as the new Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, which later fused into the then burgeoning political alliances which metamorphosed into All Progressives Congress, APC. That development was the bane of the PDP which ousted it from the presidency as well as from several State Government Houses across Nigeria and reduced the PDP to its present status of opposition party which it has retained for six years and may still retain till 2023. The current rebranding and reinvigoration of the party are all geared toward the party's avowed intention to democratically reclaim the Nigerian presidency in the 2023 general elections and thereby "Rescue and Develop" Nigeria.