PDP National Convention And The Choice Between The Future Of The Party And Prince Uche Secondus

It is less than a month before the all-important elective National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is scheduled to hold on Saturday, November 9 to Sunday November 10, 2017 at the Eagle Square, Abuja. News from the National Secretariat of the party suggests that party leaders are already putting finishing touches for a successful and hitch free National Convention.

However, some stakeholders of the party and other opinion leaders in the country are not comfortable with the list of members of Committees setup by the Senator Ahmed Makarfi led National Caretaker Committee to select the 3-man ad-hoc delegates that would elect National Delegates for the National Convention.

The fears of the stakeholders of the party is that, majority of the Committee Chairmen are close associates of the Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike. The stakeholders are also of the view that, most of these Chairmen are citizens of Rivers state and may be deliberately selected to influence the outcome of the delegate election. That is to say that, if the delegates so elected are only loyal to Governor Wike, it would therefore mean that the convention is automatically tilted to favour Prince Uche Secondus.

Party elders and supporters nationwide have described the development as unfortunate and are calling for the National Caretaker Committee of the party to take appropriate action to dissuade these fears before the National Convention.

One of the party leaders from the Northwest Zone, who prefer to remain anonymous, has advised the Senator Makarfi led National Caretaker Committee to do everything possible to create a level playing field for all Aspirants contesting for various offices in the party. He called on the National Chairman and his colleagues to write their names in gold by handing over to credible Working Committee members through a transparent process. 

Prince Uche Secondus is the former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP and later became the Acting National Chairman when Dr. Adamu Muazu resigned in 2015. It will be recalled that Prince Secondus’ tenure as the Acting Chairman of the party was marred with corruption and massive looting of the party’s treasury. He is one of the National Chairmanship Aspirants of the PDP in the forthcoming National Convention in December 2017.