By Kolawole Ojebisi
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Deputy National Chairman (Southwest) of the party, Chief Olabode George, has insisted that the meeting scheduled for Monday, June 30th will be held regardless of the conflicting positions of key members of the opposition party concerning it.
George said the party does not necessarily have to call it National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting as initially planned to avoid being caught in a legal trap as stated in electoral act 2002 and the guidelines by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He dismissed the opinion that the crisis rocking the party which he described as “self-inflicted” is insoluble, stressing that it stemmed from internal decisions and personal ambitions rather than structural failure.
The elderstateman spoke while featuring on Arise Television’s ‘Morning Show’ on Thursday.
“I have been in this party since 1998. We have had crisis. There is no political organisation or any organisation, whether political or otherwise, that will not have crisis. And this is self-inflicted crisis. That’s what I’m saying. The people put their interest before the corporate interest of the party.”
“I am pleading with all of them, those who still love this party, to please come down. We will meet on Monday. Call it whatever name you want to call it. And we will resolve our crisis. We will resolve it by Monday.” George said.
He continued, “When you have crisis within the party, like we have now, or between the legislative arm, the executive arm, and the party, it is the responsibility of the elders, the custodian of the liabilities and the assets of the party to weigh in. What I had done, and I will be quite explicit, is this. You know, there are two arguments about the meeting for Monday.
“The chairman said there will be no NEC meeting and stated there will be caucus meeting. Because according to him, you needed 21 days notice to the INEC. Now, the other members of the working committee said it was a postponement of NEC to the 30th of June. And that both the electoral act of 2022 and the INEC regulatory guidelines for political parties are right here.
“And now everybody is interpreting it in different manners. But I will read it for the benefit of the listening public. And let me tell you, there is no organisation anywhere in the world you will not have crisis. But your ability to close your doors, tell yourself some home truths, and reassess the areas of friction will be a measure of your competence to the public. I don’t see this as a breaking point. It’s a lesson. It’s a deep lesson for us.”
The protracted crisis of the PDP worsened yesterday following the announcement of the postponement of the party’s 100th NEC meeting scheduled for June 30th by the former ruling party’s acting national chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum.
Damagum also announced at the press conference the reinstatement of Samuel Anyanwu as the party’s national secretary, describing the decision as “difficult but widely accepted by key stakeholders”.
However, hours after the announcement, some key members of the National Working Committee of the party, eleven in number, issued a statement to fault and void Damagum’s decisions.
