The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday inaugurated a 53-member committee to rebrand and refocus the party for the 2019 general elections.
The committee, headed by media mogul, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, is charged with the responsibility of organising stakeholders’ conference with participants from the six geopolitical zones.
The conference was earlier put on hold to allow the party leadership to receive the report of its post-election assessment committee headed by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.
Speaking at the inauguration of the committee at the party’s Abuja secretariat, the Acting National Chairman, Chief Uche Secondus, said the move was aimed at checkmating the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Secondus said the conference became imperative because events in the last six months of the APC administration have raised fears that the gains of democracy achieved by the PDP were seriously under threat.
“This national conference is meant to fashion out strategy that would help PDP sustain democratic ideals while in opposition, hence the choice of the conference theme, ‘PDP and the sustenance of democratic ideals in Nigeria.”
The party chair explained that the idea behind the conference was derived from the party’s constitution, noting that the objective was to ensure reconciliation, mobilization.
He added that it is also meant to educate critical stakeholders of the party on the reform programmes being pursued by the party leadership.
Secondus reiterated the determination of the PDP to put forward its best hands in an effort to ensure the sustenance of the gains of democracy, which he said were recorded by the party in the 16 years it held power at the centre.
“The conference can be used to re-engineer the ideals, core values and principles of the PDP as bequeathed to us by our founding fathers,” he said.
Other members of the committee include Senator Ben Obi, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, Senator Ken Nnamani, Senator Ahmed Markrafi, Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, Senators Joy Emordi, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, among others
