Ahead of the forthcoming National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, a group within the party, the PDP New Era, has started wooing the immediate past Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, to contest for the National Chairmanship of the party.
The PDP zoning committee has already zoned the position of National Chairman and 20 others to the Southern part of the country.
The New Era group, which addressed a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, pointed out that after wide and extensive consultations among the various stakeholders within the PDP, the consensus of opinion was that Daniel is the right person for the position of the National Chairman.
The Secretary of the group, Obute Benji, who is from the South-East and who read its speech, stated that going by his antecedents, the former Ogun State Governor parades all the leadership qualities required to fix the PDP “at this critical time”.
According to the New Era Group, the leadership the PDP needs, as of now, should be of uncompromising integrity, dynamic and sagacious, far sighted and focused with towering capacity of a team builder and player.
According to the group: “Against this backdrop, we members of PDP New Era had embarked on broad based consultations among party stakeholders, men and women, old and young, leaders and followers on the right person to lead our party to greatness again.
“In all our consultations, one name kept resonating. That name is His Excellency, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, former Governor of Ogun State.”
The group added that it was a consensus that since the position of the National Chairman is expected to be filled by the Southern part of the country at the coming National Convention, Daniel is the right personality for the position of the National Chairman.
“Going by his antecedents, OGD (Otunba Gbenga Daniel) parades all the leadership qualities required to fix our party at this critical time.
“The leadership our party needs should be of uncompromising integrity, dynamic and sagacious, far sighted and focused with towering capacity of a team builder and player, open and courageous. All these OGD amply and naturally possesses.
“We are therefore joining other stakeholders in asking Otunba Gbenga Daniel, popularly called OGD, to throw his hat in the ring for the race for the National Chairmanship of our great party.”
Asked whether Daniel has agreed to heed to the group’s call to run for the position, another member of the New Era, Hon. Albert Asipa, explained that they have already contacted him (Daniel) and that he promised to respond to the call soon.
Hon Asipa assured concretely that OGD will not be a reluctant candidate for the office of the National Chairman of PDP.
The PDP New Era pointed out that it was greatly disturbed by the sudden turn of events that have brought the once strong and virile PDP down to its lowest ebb.
According to the group: “This no doubt calls for soul searching among the generality of our members.
“We believe that political parties, as any human institution, is susceptible to rising and falling, more so with the high level of intrigues that define politics everywhere.
“Though painful, there should be no crime in it that we are passing through our current travails. To us, it should be an opportunity to rebuild the party and make it great again.
“It is however instructive to note that at the heart of the crisis that currently ravages our party is leadership contest.
“There is therefore the urgent and incontrovertible need to fix the leadership crisis in PDP if the party must be set on the path of regeneration and greatness again.”
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