National chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, has bemoaned the culture of ‘using and dumping’ of members in the party, saying that the trend had reached ‘fraticidal’ proportions and must stop.

Mu’azu, whose position has come under intense threat following the losses suffered by his party in the last general elections, said the party cannot be changing chairmen and National Working Committee, NWC, members every year and expect to have cohesion, which is a vital ingredient of winning.

According to him, “A good example occurred when we changed five senate presidents in eight years and produced calamity in the process, but for eight years we have had one senate president and produced harmony between the presidency and parliament.

“Great lessons to be learned from the outcome of the 2015 elections are many and I have already mentioned this in earlier interactions with the media. Lessons of candidate imposition, deepening of internal democracy in our party and other obvious lessons we need to learn for future guidance. It is so important for us to learn from what has happened. We must note that when the going gets tough, only the tough like the PDP can get going,” he said.

The PDP boss went on to describe the gale of defections that has plagued his party as ‘the most stupid thing’ noting that it does not bother him.

He however faulted the refusal of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to welcome new defectors, noting that, “It shows signs of how they will run the country from May 29 2015. It shows how they will not regard non APC Nigerians as part of their responsibility, which will be a shame.”

Mu’azu consequently called for the reinvention of the party, saying: “The result of the 2015 presidential election is the elixir the party needs to reinvent itself and retake power in 2019 instead of wasting time and energy mudslinging and blame gaming over the party’s failed bid to win a fifth consecutive presidential election victory.

“Stories spreading like wild fire in the social media about schisms in our great party can only energise the incoming administration of the APC, and their wish list that include the burial of the PDP. But we can shock them with our usual resilience and ability to turn the tables particularly as they are already developing a tottering ineptitude in their transition progression to power,” he said.

Mu’azu continued, “Our game plan is to provide a virile opposition to the new government, which we have already graciously given a lifeline by conceding defeat and avoiding a calamitous battle in the courts. The international community has noted this great act of statesmanship on our part and we shall continue in this mode to show our commitment towards entrenching democracy in our country.

“It is therefore time for our great party to reinvent ourselves, show great maturity and map out a strategy that will return us to power in 2019. Despite losing our dominance in the National Assembly, our party has the largest number of experienced legislators in both chambers and will surely be calling the shots there. We will, however, help to reduce the imminent issue of learning process occasioned by the horde of inexperienced APC members in both houses because of national interest.

“It is also time to end the spate of in-fighting and blame games currently dominating the political discourse among our membership and the leadership. It will do no one any good. The present leadership has until next year to run their course. The party will then decide how to deal with the zoning of the next
leadership and strategies for winning the 2019 elections,” he
noted.