KOGI ASSEMBLY: APC may be a threat to PDP, if……. – Rt. Hon Olafemi. LEGISREPORTS NG – SEQUEL to the successful registration of All Progressives Congress, APC, by the Independent National Electoeal Commission, INEC, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has been advised to urgently put its house in order through a workable internal mechanism to enable it sustain its dominance on the political scene. A chieftain of the PDP and former Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Clarence Olafemi, gave the advice while speaking with LEGISREPORTS in Lokoja. He feared that if internal crises rocking the party at both national and state levels were not resolved within a short period, the APC might be a threat. Hon Olafemi who traced PDP’s intra-party squabbles to about three years ago declared: ”To be blunt, nothing but to be blunt, the PDP got it wrong about three years ago when the leadership of the party was changed like cloth and the party was commercialised. Globally, any ruling party has challenges of credibility more than the opposition. But the PDP should have internal crisis management mechanism to overcome such challenges.” Describing the registration of APC as a healthy development, the former Speaker noted: ”The entity called Nigeria is one. Fifty political parties can go to the same market (the electorate) and canvass for votes. The PDP controls about 60 per cent of votes nationally and it can increase the record or sustain the tempo. But there is a hot weather blowing on the PDP which I advise it should have an internal crisis management mechanism to contain it in order to retain its leadership position.” On the party’s national reconciliation committee headed by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Dickson Seriake, Hon Olafemi flayed his choice as an arbiter in a sensitive matter like that, arguing that, ”how can an accused be a judge in his own case? The Governor has crisis in his state. The ruling party should have given that responsibility to a neutral person.” Speaking on local government autonomy, Chief Olafemi lent his voice in support of the position of the House of Representatives which voted in favour of fiscal autonomy for the third tier of government. ”The House of Representatives is closer to the people than the Senate. The Senate knows the truth on the matter,” he berated. He posited that since both the federal and state governments enjoy autonomy, what is good for the goose is also good for the gander, stressing that local governments are better placed to transform the grassroots. This report was prepared by our reporter in Kogi State
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 16:42:56 +0000
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