The Post-Election Review Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party submitted its report on Wednesday with a recommendation that the party should pick its presidential candidate in the 2019 election from the North. It also recommended the adoption of direct primary in the election of all candidates for future polls.
These were some of the recommendations of the post-election review committee of the PDP which was submitted to the PDP national leadership on Wednesday.
The committee which was inaugurated in May 5 this year, was chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, with a nine-point terms of reference to find out what went wrong and forge a trajectory of the way going forward.
Following the death of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, PDP had jettisoned its zoning formula in 2011 in order to allow former President Goodluck Jonathan contest. The party had zoned the presidency to the North after former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner, has served for 8 years.
The acting national chairman chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus while responding to the recommendations said “we agree that the presidential candidate of our party will come from the North. “The party must go back to its roots and principle of its founding fathers. This action will make the party move forward inclusively.”
He stressed that the party will treat all the recommendations “step by step” adding that the report will pass through all the organs the party from the caucus, Board of Trustees (BoT) and the National Executive Committee (NEC) for final approval.
He further vowed that the party under his leadership will see to the implementation of the recommendations of the committee. The acting chairman however said the NWC will begin to implement, as quickly as possible, areas of the recommendations that concern them.
He boasted that the PDP senators are performing and in control of the senate. He further lampooned the failure of Buhari to appoint minister as promised before the end of September, accusing the president of planning to run the country alone.
The committee chairman, Ike Ekweremadu speaking earlier said the committee has “recommended to the party to strictly apply the zoning principle at all levels. In particular, since the last President of PDP extraction came from the southern part of Nigeria, it is recommended that PDP’s presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections should come from the northern part of the country.
“This is in accordance with the popular views expressed in the submissions to the Committee. This will also assuage any ill feelings in the North over any perceived breach of the Party’s zoning principle. “In line with the recommendations, we have also drawn a roadmap towards the 2019 general elections and future electoral success.”
“We have made extensive recommendations, the core of which is to end impunity, uphold justice, entrench internal democracy, enhance Party administration, promote transparency and accountability, and return the Party to its true owners- the people- in accordance with our Party slogan and founding principles.
“To this end, we have, among many key recommendations, proposed a nationwide biometric membership registration to align our party records with modern technology and further boost the integrity of our membership records as a precursor to other reforms we have recommended.
“It is recommended that the Party should henceforth be self-funding, relying on membership registrations and enforcement of dues and levies as its primary sources of income at all levels in line with the PDP Constitution. “This is with a view to ending the prevailing situation where those who pay the piper dictate the tune.
“We have also recommended that the role of Party leader, which has no basis in the constitution of the PDP, should henceforth be discontinued at all levels. This is to strengthen the structure of the Party at all levels.
“Furthermore, it is recommended that the Party adopt direct primary as the sole means of electing PDP candidates for any election at all levels. “The use of delegates has been grossly compromised and abused, and should therefore be discontinued forthwith to return true ownership of the Party to the people.
He however lamented that this is not the first time such recommendations are made to the party noting that “virtually all the reports and idea are never implemented but left to gather dust.” He however charged that the gains of electoral system under PDP shouldn’t be reversed.
Some of those present at the event include; acting national chairman of PDP BoT, Halliru Bello; Raymond Dopkesi; Hajiya Zainab Maina; Abba Moro; Prof Tunde Adeniran; Sen Hope Uzodimma; Shuaibu Oyedokun; Tanimu Turaki; Sen. Theodore Orji; Ibrahim Shekarau.
Others are Dr Jimi Agbaje; Maina Waziri; Sen Florence Ita-Giwa; Sen. Jeremiah Useni; Prof Jerry Gana; Sen. Ibrahim Mantu; Mao Ohabunwa, Sen. Nnaji; Sen. Andy Uba; Sen. Sunny Ugboji; Sen. Emmanuel Bwacha; Sen. Stella Omu and Onyema Ugochukwu.
