The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has carpeted the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for continuing to foist people without integrity on the nation as it urged the party to respect the agreement it reached with its own erstwhile members of national executive committee.
It said the party must now address its integrity issues before holding its convention.
The conference said in statement issued by its Secretary General, Willy Ezugwu that the double standard of the PDP is fast corrupting the political landscape and that it is a key factor for the inability of public office holders to fulfill their electoral promises.
The statement said “the total lack of integrity exhibited by the PDP in asking some members of its National Executive Committee (NEC) to resign to open the way for their being properly elected only for the party to disown them falls short of what is expected of an organization that produces some of the people who lead the nation.
“While the natural tendency is to dismiss this development as an internal affair of the PDP, we must all not collectively lose sight of the fact that the PDP top shots will eventually treat Nigeria and Nigerians worse than they treat themselves. With the number of seats and executive positions the PDP controls, it is inexplicable that the future of Nigeria is now tied to the conduct of the PDP so it is crucial that Nigerians do not shy away from asking the party to do the right thing.
“The party asked its officials that earlier emerged via affirmation to resign and be elected at another convention only for it to start edging them out even though they met their end of the bargain by voluntarily resigning. This has the grave implication of setting a bad precedence for ‘gentleman agreement’ in this country. This is in addition to the fact that the PDP has by this action confirmed that it has no capacity to keep promises to Nigerians since it cannot stick to agreements reached with its own members.” CNPP said.
According to the statement, those who call the shots in the PDP still have time to retrace their steps and not act in ways that insult and aggrieve Nigerians especially now that it has emerged that the reason for these actions is desperation to install loyalists of President Goodluck Jonathan to hijack the party.
The group said the party has the right to install whosoever it wishes but has no right to drag governance and by extension Nigerians into the show of shame and brazen attempt at power grab in Rivers state since it is now known that the change in the leadership of the PDP was meant to oust those perceived to have been nominated by the state governor, Rotimi Amaechi. It urged other political parties to resist the temptation of following in the steps of the PDP as this will not bode well for the nation and the fortunes of such parties at the polls.
CNPP urged the PDP to honour its agreement to the former members of its NEC while also seeking an immediate solution to the impasse between President Jonathan’s loyalists and Rotimi Amaechi since it is apparent that this is the root cause of the present round of distractions in the land.