An Edo PDP Chieftain and former aide to president Goodluck Jonathan, Comrade Jude Imagwe, MON has expressed reservations about the fortunes of the party under a dispensation of what he calls the silence of the party’s voice, and its vanishing image.
In an open letter to the Chairman, Board of trustees of the party titled, “When Yesterday is better than today, I worry about Tomorrow”,
Imagwe said the PDP appears to have lost its voice on national issues, people-oriented concerns, while its opposition vibrancy appears to have gone into mandatory isolation.
The letter Read:
The Chairman and Members of Board of Trustee (BoT)
People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
When Yesterday is better than today, I worry about Tomorrow
My respected trustee leaders. My BoT chairman sir and other distinguished members of the party trustee. My Concern has compelled me to write this letter and communicate through this medium. Since 1999, I have been a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, an allegiance I still hold sacred.
Recent events in the party have necessitated the writing of these letters. When the former is now considered as better than the present one with genuine intension needs to fear tomorrow a case of the former NWC and the Present NWC.
Until today, the party has maintained a steady increase in terms of public acceptance and visual presence, even in states where it is in opposition. I can’t say it loudly enough since the New NWC began. I won’t say it’s a problem for the entire NWC; rather, it appears to me a leadership issue.
The party’s voice has been silenced, and the image that should be prominent has vanished. Fourteen (14) years ago PDP ruled 31 states. The party began 2019 with 14 states, but after the Zamfara state supreme court decision, we increased to 15, and in 2020, when the Governor of Edo state joined the party, the PDP gained control of 16 states. However, the case is not same today, the party is back to 13 that is not yet guaranteed with so many uncertainties hanging in the balance.
Today, we can clearly map the states of the party that are not engulfed in one form or another of crisis. The party’s attitude toward resolving this issue is concerning.
We may have elected a prominent candidate for the party and a combination of a vice, but when you have a good product with bad marketers, the product struggles to find its way into the market for acceptance.
You better have a bad product and good marketers so that the marketers can sell the product to citizens, who will then buy based on the market’s narratives, as in the case of APC and General Buhari in 2014/2015.
I have yet to receive an explanation from our current National Working Committee as to why the PDP did not campaign in Ekiti in the recently concluded Ekiti elections. I also have yet to understand why the party’s leadership has not visited Owo in Ondo state to sympathize with the community following the heinous attack on the church on Pentecost Sunday during the church service.
My concern is not limited to our state governors but has now been extended to our National Assembly members. In the last two weeks, our numbers in the National Assembly have decreased. Sir, I am concerned.
Since the conduct of our primaries, which now appears to be the current NWC’s highest responsibility and to which they now appear to have carried out one of the most difficult tasks and as such to them they have achieved the highest goal, the party has been struggling to find its place in society. The Party’s Leadership appears to have abandoned the visibility of the party in the hands of our Candidates.
This is when the party’s voice and image are most needed; we have zero voice on national issues, zero on driving people-oriented concerns, and our opposition vibrancy appears to have been attacked by COVID, which has placed us in mandatory isolation.
Our candidates should be driving the processes of governance delivery through strategic policy conversation as is presently what the candidates are doing, while the party should drive and market our flag bearers at all levels. However, the situation is different right now as relate to the National Leadership of the party.
Sir, my BoT Chairman, I am concerned about tomorrow. I hope we can address this fear positively as soon as possible. When yesterday now seems better than today, my fear is tomorrow.
Thank you
Comrade Jude Imagwe MON