The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday commenced the first leg of its planned dialogue and reconciliatory talks with a meeting with former governors and their deputies.
The meeting, which was called at the instance of the National Chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, provided an opportunity for former leaders of the party in the states to formally interface with the National Chairman, and other National Working Committee (NWC) members on some of the perceived ills in the party.
Sheriff said the purpose for calling for the meeting was to involve all the elected leaders of the PDP since 1999 in the re-building of the party.
Sheriff promised to carry both the serving and former governors along in running the affairs of the party, describing them as leaders in their own right.
Former governor of Benue State, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, who spoke in an interview after the meeting, said the national chairman briefed them on the coming congresses and national One former governor each was chosen to speak on behalf of the six geopolitical zones during the meeting which lasted till late evening Wednesday.
The former state chief executives and their deputies lamented their neglect by their successors and accused them of abandoning those who contributed to the successes of the party.
However, the former National Chairman of the party and former governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, as well as former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio were among the former governors absent at the meeting.
Former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu, who spoke on behalf of former governors and deputies from the South-east, said things had got to the extent that their successors no longer invite them to party meetings. Egwu who recalled the role of the former governors in the formation of PDP, noted that Senator Sheriff was the first National Chairman to recognise former state chief executives under PDP.
“It appears that PDP has woken up from their slumber. The meeting has shown that PDP has not forgotten those that formed party. We believe in the party; this is the only party that has the soul of Nigeria. We have learnt from our defeat, the space is wide enough for everybody.
“We started with five governors in the South-east, now we have three. We have remained steadfast. In 2019 we will make sure that that the two states are won by PDP,” Egwu added.
On his part, former Niger State governor, Abdulkadir Kure challenged the national chairman and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) to work for the good of the party.
“G-34 would not have succeeded if the first set of governors did not support the party. Power belongs to Almighty God. We were arrogant; somebody said we were going to rule for 60 years, we stopped at 16 years.
“I hope with the emergence of Sheriff, there will be change in the party.There is a group called G-84. You should be careful with this group because they always have a way of getting what they want in the party,” he told the chairman.
Some of the former governors and deputies who attended the meeting include, Theodore Orji (Abia), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Iyiola Omisore (Osun deputy) Gbenga Daniel (Ogun), Ramlan Yero (Kaduna), Ibrahim Shakaru (Kano), Sam Egwu (Ebonyi), Achike Udenwa (Imo), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Abdulkadir Kure (Niger), Ikedi Ohakim (Imo), Okechukwu Itanyi (Enugu deputy), Bala James Ngilari (Adamawa), Umaru Fintiri (Adamawa), Idris Wada (Kogi), etc.
