PDP can still rule for 60 years —IBB

FORMER military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, on Sunday, outlined how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could regain power and consolidate as governing party for an unbroken period of 60 years.

He spoke at his Uphill residence in Minna, the Niger state capital, when members of the Committee on Strategy and Inter-Party Affairs, led by a founding elder of PDP, Professor Jerry Gana went to submit to him  a copy of the committee’s report.

General Babangida said the PDP remained the only party with a legendary following and acceptance “from the top to the bottom” across the country, despite the protracted leadership crisis in the party at the national level.

He said the main stakeholders must assiduously work to put its house in order as the PDP structures remained intact across the length and breadth of the country.

He noted that the presence of the party was continuously being felt throughout the country notwithstanding the raging power tussle at the national level.

“PDP can rule for 60 years if they put their house in order. I am happy the house is being put in order. PDP is the only party that has been accepted from top to down. Its presence is being felt and will continue to be felt throughout the country.You need to work on getting up back again and find a solution to your problems,”he said.

For more than one year, two camps within the party have been at daggers-drawn over the national leadership of the PDP, characterised by a rash of litigations.

Some of the legal matters contributed to aborting the planned national convention of the party to elect a new set of national officers that could constitute new national executive.

But the power struggle took a new twist when a Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State delivered a judgment recognising the leader of a faction of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the substantive national chairman.

The peace initiative by former President Goodluck Jonathan to break the seeming logjam in the party suffered a setback last week with the two factions remaining adamant over their stance.

IBB, however, said the option open to the party was to seek an amicable solution to the power tussle so that the PDP could not only return to power but also consolidate for six decades as some of its founding fathers once boasted.

He said by virtue of being foundation members, he along with Lt-Gen Theophilous Yakubu Danjuma, former President  Olusegun  Obasanjo, General Aliyu Mohammed  Gusau  and others constituted the military wing of the party.

“We were the military wing of PDP, we took a lot of interest in the party. When I say we,I  mean my boss, General T.Y. Danjuma, OBJ, General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau  and others.

“I thank God we came up with the concept that PDP should rule for 60 years,” IBB said.

Reiterating his strong belief in a two-party system, which his regime foisted on the country during his regime, the former leader insisted that the arrangement “is still the best option for Nigeria,” because “it gives the people a choice.”

Earlier, Professor Gana explained that the report of his committee was on how to re-strategise and   mobilie the PDP   to become vibrant again in all parts of the country.

He said the PDP was poised to “take over government from those who do not have a clue about how to govern the nation,” asserting that the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government had failed woefully, as the primary purpose of government was the security and welfare of the citizens.

“Everywhere you go in Nigeria now, situations are hard, as the prices of food items are high. They have promised so much than they can deliver,” the former minister of information said.

He pleaded with Babangida to assist in prevailing on the APC government to “stop harassing, intimidating and stampeding the opposition.”

Other members of the delegation included a former governor of Niger State, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu; ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi; former Minister of Education, Professor  Tunde Adeniran, and the founder of DAAR Communicationss, Chief  Raymond Dokpesi.