PDP needs level headed, faction-less chairman ―Akin-Deko

IF the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is going to get out of the doldrums, it has to elect a chairman who is level-headed, faction-less and without any corruption baggage.

This was said by Chief Akintayo Akin-Deko while declaring his interest in the party’s chairmanship in Ibadan on Wednesday.

According to Akin-Deko, “PDP needs rebranding and it starts with getting a good chairman. We must make a clean break from our past. The chairman we need now is one who does not have any corruption issue. The chairman we need now is one who is level-headed and does not belong to any faction. If we get the right national chairman for the party, I am sure that PDP will rise again.”

While declaring his intention to run for the position, Akin-Deko said, “Having prayed diligently over the contest for the PDP national chairmanship slated for December 9, 2017, and having reviewed the encouraging comments of key PDP leaders and Yoruba elders that I have so far consulted, I am pleased to announce that I will also be contesting the position of PDP national chairman to lead our party to a new dawn and beyond.”

Akin-Deko, who is a founding member of the party who has never left it at any point, said he possesses what it will take to put PDP back to its winning ways.

“I am the chairman that the PDP needs at the moment. I am level headed, I do not belong to any faction and I have no corruption case against me. I am the kind of chairman that can rebuild the party,” he said.

He also assured that he would return the party to the founding fathers if he emerged the new chairman.

“The founding fathers feel alienated from the party; there is a need to bring them back into the party because their wisdom is unquantifiable. There is also a need to bring others who are outside in to build a stronger party,” he said.

According to him, “PDP, under the right leadership still remains the party to beat. But it is not a matter of which of the ex-this or ex-that currently in the national chairmanship race that matters but which one of us can best reconcile the many factions in the PDP, convince former members to return and new ones to join, and inspire our activists, women and our youths to work together.”