A group of concerned stakeholders under the aegis of the Conference of Professionals in Peoples Democratic Party has called for urgent intervention to rescue the party from what they describe as imminent collapse.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, the Protem National Coordinator of the group, Obinna Nwachukwu, said the decision to appeal for an all-inclusive intervention followed an extensive review of the party’s current state of affairs.
Nwachukwu emphasised that after assessing the situation, the group concluded that it was time for all PDP leaders, stakeholders, members, and supporters across the country to rally together and prevent the party from disintegration.
“As professionals and patriotic members of the PDP, we can no longer continue to fold our arms while some professed members of our party, most of whom are known agents, including those who had taken up positions in the All Progressives Congress administration, are brazenly engaged in actions and utterances capable of crippling the PDP and enabling the APC foist a one-party state on our nation,” he said.
“These individuals are attempting to set themselves above the party, barefacedly denigrating all organs of the PDP, stoking disagreements in our structures, instituting damaging litigations, procuring injurious judicial pronouncements while boisterously making caustic and inciting utterances which breed confusion, undercut the fabrics of our great party and tend to destroy its capacity to contest elections.
“Today, our party is dangerously hemorrhaging and being weakened from carrying out its role as a viable opposition party which Nigerians are relying on to rescue our nation from the predatory grip of the APC.”
The CPDP called for immediate and decisive action to protect, preserve, and defend the PDP and democracy from further onslaught by the APC. One of the primary demands of the group is that all PDP members who have accepted appointments in the APC-led federal government, particularly the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, should immediately resign their positions or be expelled from the PDP.
“To start with, the conference, hereby, demands that all professed members of the PDP who had taken up appointments at any level in the APC administration, with particular reference to the former governor of Rivers State and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, to immediately resign their positions in the APC government or be expelled from the PDP,” Nwachukwu stated.
“The conference finds it incongruous and unexplainable that an individual who claims to be a leading member of the PDP as an opposition party, is at the same time serving as a top cabinet minister in the APC administration; propagating, promoting, and defending the policies and programmes of the ruling party, professing loyalty to the APC administration and even openly endorsing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for re-election in 2027 against the ambition, objective, and aspiration of the PDP.
“The position of the FCT minister portrays our party as sharing in the failed APC administration, thereby emboldening other party members towards anti-party activities.”
The CPDP insisted that the PDP and APC remain two distinct political entities with irreconcilable ideologies and, therefore, urged Wike to make a clear decision on where he stands.
“It is instructive to state that the PDP and the APC, in outlook, philosophy, and operational policies, represent two distinct parallel lines that cannot meet; the PDP being a people-based political party, while the APC remains a repressive anti-people contraption designed to serve the benefit of a few.
“It is, therefore, incumbent on the FCT minister to choose between the PDP and the APC administration.”
The group also called on the PDP National Working Committee to convene the much-anticipated National Executive Committee meeting on March 13, 2025, as previously scheduled.
“The conference also demands that the National Working Committee of the PDP immediately sets the path for reinvigorating the party by ensuring that it convenes the much-anticipated National Executive Committee meeting already scheduled for Thursday, March 13, 2025.
“This will give party members the much-desired sense of direction on issues confronting the party. As professionals, we urge all PDP members to set aside personal, group, or sectional interests and put the party’s constitution, governing principles, core values, and the interest of Nigerians above every other consideration.”
Nwachukwu reaffirmed the CPDP’s commitment to the unity, stability, and success of the PDP, urging members to stay true to the party’s founding values.
“The core values of our great party, as established by the founding fathers, are those of absolute patriotism and total allegiance to the supremacy of the party as embodied in its statutory organs and elected leaders.
“Finally, the conference assures of its unalloyed commitment to the unity, stability, and success of our party as we join forces to reposition the PDP as a major opposition party poised to take back power from the failed APC administration in 2027.”
