A former Zonal Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ayo Fadaka, has claimed that politicians use and dump the Labour Party (LP).
The Director of Operations, Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, Sina Fagbenro-Bryon, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, claimed that the PDP does not listen to the people and has refused to learn from its past.
But Fadaka, who also featured on the programme, dismissed the claims.
“I don’t know whatever experience he had in PDP and to say the party does not learn is not true. When I was speaking not long ago I told you that our constitution at the time was in a format, there is a change and something informed that change. You see, a political party is endemic, that is to say, it must reinvent and redevelop itself from time to time. So, I don’t know what my dear brother Fagbenro is saying there. Does he even think that he is in a political party? I don’t think so,” Fadaka said.
He added that: “Political parties that are preparing for this election have candidates for every position out there. As far as I know, a political party is beyond the name a party bears. There is a very big structure that must flow, to borrow Buhari’s curious quotation, top to bottom. The party must flow from the very top down there; does Labour Party have anything anywhere else?
“Labour Party came into prominence when my oga (boss) and friend Dr Mimiko used it to become governor and since then it has become a party that people use when they think they have to prove a point politically they take, they use and they dump thereafter. For me the Labour Party is coming into this election just to have fun, it’s not going to make any effect, it can be that conclusive immediately even before the election,” Fadaka noted.
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But while responding to the claims, Sina Fagbenro-Bryon dismissed the use and dump tag and said it is rather the politicians in PDP and the All Progressives Congress (APC) who use and dump each other.
“It is rather ridiculous that Mr Fadaka should talk about Labour Party as use and dump when his principal the presidential candidate of the PDP has been dumping and using PDP itself and APC. Between PDP and APC they have been using and dumping and using themselves so he shouldn’t insinuate that with Labour Party, Labour Party is an emerging party.”
In terms of party structure, Fagbenro-Bryon admitted that his party has fewer contestants vying for elective positions, but said that its presidential flagbearer Peter Obi has added a lot of momentum to the party.
The Labour Party chieftain said, “Mr Fadaka don’t realise that these days things move from bottom to top and that is where you have development, development has to move from bottom up. Yes, it is true that Labour Party has about 40 per cent in terms of those contesting for positions and that is because we quite agree Labour Party is a young party, it is emerging and without a doubt, Peter Obi has put in a lot of oomph behind Labour Party.
“However the conduct of the Labour Party over time is indicative of the fact that it is a party that is probably most aligned with the ideology that any other party because it sticks to social democratic ideology if you know what I mean.
“So, this whole idea or concept that my brother Mr Fadaka is trying to push is the concept that tries to promote that they are young, they can never grow, you don’t give emerging thoughts and alternative ideas a chance.”
