A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and former national vice chairman (South South), Emmanuel Ogidi, has said that PDP doesn’t know how to be an opposition party.
He said this during a chat with Arise TV regarding the “poor performance” of the party in the recently concluded Senate minority leadership tussle.
The battle for the Senate Minority Leadership ended on Tuesday with the emergence of the PDP’s Senator, Simon Davou Mwadkwon, representing Plateau North Senatorial District, as the Minority Leader.
Mwadkwon was considered less popular than Senators Aminu Tambuwal, Abdul Ningi and Adamu Aliero, who were believed to be in the camp of the candidate of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The Senate President in announcing the minority leadership positions said: “The majority of members of the Senate Minority Caucus of the Senate made up of seven political parties have come up with their leadership.
“They are Senator Simon Davou Mwadkwon as the Minority Leader; Senator Lere Oyewumi (PDP, Osun West) Deputy Minority Leader; Senator Darlington Nwokocha (LP, Abia Central) as the Minority Whip; and Senator Rufai Hanga (NNPP, Kano Central), as the Deputy Minority Whip.”
So with the PDP being the largest minority party in the Senate having 36 senators, many people have been describing the leadership of the party as weak, while also accusing the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) of failing to unite their members so they could have their way in the Senate minority leadership.
There have also been allegations of anti-party activities and misconducts by some members of the party.
Reacting to the development, Ogidi said while the party is currently weakened, the attention of the NWC has been in the case they are having against President Tinubu’s victory at the tribunal.
“If you look at it, we have 36 senators – almost one-third of the House. APC has done well. They tried to break our ranks. And this is possible because of our man in Rivers who sold out. He has tried consistently to destroy the party. Yes, it’s true that we have weakness in PDP. We don’t know how to play opposition. That is why APC that specializes in playing the opposition was able to thrive against us.
“Those erring members will need the party at all times. They will always want to come back to the party. The party has its stick. Yes, it’s weakened now, but we are still in the court. All our attention now has been in the court. So it’s a distraction right now if you asked me. The big picture we are after is the court.
“The party is supreme. We are going to restructure it. Because whether they it or not, they are party men and I believe they’ll listen to us. We are looking at the big picture. 90 per cent of our attention at the moment is geared towards the court. And in the last meeting we had two weeks ago, these issues were brought up and we said, look, we are going to set up a committee to look into this. Those that will be punished will be punished. “
