Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not disintegrate in spite of its current travails, especially leadership tussle.
Fayose stated this while speaking with newsmen at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on Friday.
He said that the fact that there was so much in-fighting for interest among PDP members was an indication that the party was still strong.
“The fact that everybody wants to be relevant in the party shows that the party is strong. If there is no future for PDP, there would be no such struggle,” Fayose said.
He said that politics and governance involved crisis management as there was always fight for interests.
“Have you seen a party that is not in crisis when it comes to interest and leveraging of interests? Politics is about interests.
“Are you saying that you will call somebody in the village to come and take a position? That era is gone.
“You have to struggle; you have to make efforts and show that you actually need that position,” he said.
The governor said that before now, a lot of the people in positions in the party were unwilling characters, “but now willing characters are coming out that is why you see the struggle that much.
“As a result, a lot of people will be displaced or feel displaced. A lot of people are feeling displayed but it is not displacement as it were”.
On “Concern PDP Stakeholders summit” held in Abuja on Thursday, he said that there was need for the elders in the party to give room for the young generation in party politics.
Fayose described the elders as wonderful people but said “we won’t say they should go but they should take a back seat’’.
“I have no apology over that statement, and I am saying it again that if I am struggling for a position with my son, it is ridiculous.
“New generation should take over this party and build it. Anything you are doing and your children do not have insight into it will perish.
“Since this party started we have always referred to the elder, but are we saying that we should continue to say the younger generation should go to blazes?” he asked.
Fayose said that in spite of the differences in the party, there was need for PDP members to settle the squabbles internally.
“We will have differences; it is normal in politics but washing your dirty linen in public is bad. Let the young men take over in Nigeria,” he said.
He pointed out that most of the people running to court to get injunction against the PDP did not have followers.
“If you are leading as elders and we lost election, then something is wrong; most of the people who were Jonathan’s advisers were elders and we lost election.
“In most of the advanced democracies, if you lose election, it is just decent for you to allow other people to try, especially young people.
“I was governor at 42. You need a lot of energy to be a leader, not when they are giving you Panadol to be strong. Age is a disease on its own,” he said.
On the call for the postponement of the party national convention, Fayose said that convention would hold as proposed.
“You can wish anything but God’s plan for the PDP is that the May 21 convention cannot be stopped,” he said.
Meanwhile, the party has suspended its South-West zonal congress scheduled for May 14, in line with the order of a Federal High Court in Lagos.
The National Secretary of the party, Prof. Adewale Oladipo, stated this while addressing newsmen on Friday in Abuja.
Oladipo said that the South-West re-elected Zonal Secretary of PDP, Chief Gbenga Otemolu, had approached the court urging it to stop the congress, arguing that the current executives in the zone were yet to complete their tenure.
He said that Otemolu went to court on behalf of his colleagues, insisting that they were elected in 2014, and that their four-year tenure as specified in the party’s Constitution, would end in 2018.
“We are in receipt of an order from the Federal High Court in Lagos which had ordered us to put a stop to the exercise, pending when the case filed is heard and resolved.
“As a law-abiding political party, we have been served this order.
“I, as the National Secretary of the party, and Alhaji Adewole Adeyanju, the National Auditor, who are the two representatives of the zone, want to tell you that the party has decided to abide by the order.
He added that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was also a defendant in the suit, as the commission was empowered by the law to supervise such congress.
Oladipo however said that the order would not affect the party’s National Convention scheduled for May 21.
He explained that national delegates for the national convention were already elected during the party ward, Local Government and states congresses already concluded in most states.
