A former governorship aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo state, Honourable Banji Okunomo has joined his voice to the call for the resignation of the Party’s National chairman, senator Iyorchia Ayu.
Okunomo, who is a lawyer and former publicity secretary of the party in Ondo state, while speaking with Nigerian cable news online, said the national chairman should resign his position in the spirit of equity, justice and fairness.
Below are his words unedited:
The National chairman of the Party (PDP) is narrowly thinking that governor Wike is acting on his own. He has forgotten that there are many ‘wikes’ across the thirty-six states of Nigeria, within the Party. Politics is about marriage of interest, ability to bring interests together. Ability to reconcile interests and ensure that everybody has a sense of belonging. It is not about selfishness and doing things to satisfy your parochial interest at the expense of others. No politician will allow himself to be deceived after putting a lot of investment in the Party. The subject on which Governor Wike is speaking is the collective interest of the many ‘wikes’ across the states of the country within the PDP. So to think the Governor is acting on his own means the Chairman is threading on the path of failure for the party. I do not expect an experienced politician like Atiku to allow Ayu to use his selfish interest to mortgage his last and only opportunity to become the president of the federal Republic of Nigeria.
They must know that we the middle level politicians are disgusted, disappointed and miffed, and at the appropriate time, we will take our destinies into our hands.
We can not continue with the way the Party is being run, PDP is not tied to the destiny of Ayu. Ayu Should quit! There was an understanding generally agreed upon by leaders of the party, that upon the emergence of the presidential candidate from a particular zone, the chairmanship would switch to the other zone (either north or south). And that was the reason Ayu disallowed the zoning of the Presidential candidacy of the PDP to Southern Nigeria, after eight unbroken years of the northern rein in the Presidency of Nigeria. Is it sensible,reasonable and justifiable for anybody to think that the PDP is an affair of a Region? The Chairman of the Party’s Board of Trustees is from the North, the National Chairman himself is from the North, the Party’s Candidate from the North, and you think everybody should keep quiet about such overt inequalities. Let me commend the boldness, courage, sagacity and the leadership prowess of Governor Wike for standing for the people and speaking out against these injustices and forces of iniquity. We, the middle level politicians of the Party are watching the unravelling events, and I dare say without any modicum of fear that, in no distant time, we shall come out and express ourselves.
And finally, let them learn from what happened in Ondo state, as a former gubernatorial aspirant, I can remember that when we ran the Party Primary here, and a candidate emerged from the zone not favoured, through the manipulations of some external forces. When the candidate wanted to control and have everything in the party to himself, the party lost the election.
So all these act of grandstanding and unnecessary show of power can only end in a doom for the Party. And because some of us still have the interest of the party at heart, we are calling on the National chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu to resign with immediate effect, and allow the Party chairmanship to shift to the southern zone, particularly the southwest.
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