Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has called for the resignation of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Iyorchia Ayu at the ongoing stakeholders meeting with the South-West PDP leaders and the presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Ibadan.
Makinde while speaking at the meeting noted that Ayu’s resignation at this critical time is imperative for the PDP in the southern part of the country to feel included in the top hierarchy of PDP.
The Governor noted that if PDP is trying to pass a message of unification of the country, restructuring the county and a government of national unity, it must first be seen in the PDP moving towards the election, hence the need for Ayu’s resignation.
Here is the governor’s full speech at the meeting: “There is a saying that if two siblings meet to talk in private, if they come out smiling and hugging each other, the likelihood is that they’ve not spoken the truth to themselves. However, if they come out frowning at one another, then they must have told each other the real and important truth. What we will do here is to speak the truth to ourselves.
“We have spoken, others have spoken here. We’ve spoken about the positive sides of things. But, we do have some challenges in our party. We have issues to address. But, one good thing is that we have the capacity to address these issues. I’ve seen people abuse me on social media saying this thing is about Wike or Seyi Makinde or Ortom or Ikpeazu or Ugwuanyi. The truth is that we do not have any issue either with our party or with our candidate. If there are challenges, we must bring them to the table so that we can address those challenges and that is to ensure that our journey is smooth and we can get to our destination. This is not about individuals.
“Integrity and honour must be a part of our national psyche. We’ve spoken about movement, the youths and what they are looking for. Our people are in a state of hopelessness. That is what 8 years of APC has brought upon us. It is the reality. But we are supposed to give hope to our people. We want them to listen to us to hear our message to them.
“For us to be able to do that, our party must show the people that we are united and in the position to do better than APC
“Our party, when we launched our new logo, we said we want to rescue Nigeria. Our candidate is the unifier. He will unify Nigeria. We want to restructure Nigeria. I’ve listened to our candidate both publicly and privately and I’ve had interactions with him. Privately you said to me that in 1999, you won the election at the national level but you wanted others to come in and you moved to almost a government of national unity. You invited individuals from other political parties to join the national government.
“Our party is talking about unifying this country. We are talking about government of national unity. Because 8 years of APC has left of badly divided.
Well, the issue is, we must practice what we preach.
“If we want to unify Nigeria, we must unify PDP first. If we want a government of national unity, the faces in PDP must reflect national unity. If we want to restructure Nigeria, we must have the willingness to do what is right to bring inclusivity into PDP. Do we have the capacity? Do we have the candidate with the capacity? The answer is a resounding YES.
“So, the message from the southwest region is that there are few things that you can do for us post-election. Once the election is won, there are things from you that you can do for us. But, before the election, the South-West PDP wants a situation where your message to Nigerians can resonate and the only way that can happen is if everything that PDP stands for in terms of unifying the country, restructuring the country, looking towards a government of national unity, that must be reflected in PDP moving towards the election.
“So, Your Excellency sir, the South-West PDP is asking that the National Working Committee of PDP should be restructured such that what you have in the face of Nigerians right now which is our candidate is from the North East. The PDP National Chairman is from the North Central. What was floated a few days back where they said that my brother Governor Aminu Tambuwal is the DG of the campaign, he is from the North West. Maybe that has happened, maybe it has not happened, but he has the quality and the capacity to be the DG of this campaign, there is no doubt about that. But, we must resolve the issue of what we have in the face of Nigerians by asking the National Chairman to step down so that the PDP in the southern part of the country will feel included in the top hierarchy of PDP.
“That is the message!”
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