2015 already in PDP’s pocket – Mantu SEPTEMBER 13, 2013 BY JOHN ALECHENU, ABUJA Inspite of the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, a former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, on Thursday, said the party would form government in 2015. Mantu said this during the inauguration of the 44-member Elders Committee of the Goodluck Support Group, in Abuja. He expressed confidence that the party had time to address its current internal problems. The former lawmaker, however, said the PDP should be conscious of the fact that the opposition was becoming better organised. Mantu said, “Seeing the quality of people that are here, there is no doubt in my mind that 2015 is already in the pocket of the PDP. “All of us here are very, very keen on seeing that the PDP performs very well in 2015 and we are very aware that for the first time, we are having an opposition that could be an alternative to the PDP. “Some of us have been looking for serious opposition because once there is one , you will then begin to look at the kind of criticisms they are giving.” Another chieftain of the PDP, Chief Bode George, said the current crisis in the party was normal. He recalled that in 2002/2003 the then President Olusegun Obasanjo faced a stiffer opposition from more governors than what President Goodluck Jonathan was currently facing. George said, “During that time, I was at a meeting where 22 governors pointedly told Baba (Obasanjo) at that time that he was not marketable. “They told him to his face, that he was not marketable and that they would not stand with him. “With the maturity of the party, with the quality of people in this party (PDP), we managed it because the interest of Nigeria is bigger than the personal interest of any individual.” According to him, there was no basis to compare Nigeria’s democracy with what obtains in older democracies like the United States. He said, “People feel that when it comes to election time, the polity is heated. It is normal; how old is democratic practice in Nigeria now? A 15 or 16 year old is a teenager, what do you expect of a teenager? “Comparing a teenager with somebody who has spent 200 years practising democracy is not right.” Earlier, Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, said the elders committee was set up as an advisory body. Gulak, who is also the National Coordinator of the GSG, lamented that there were Nigerians who still held the notion that nobody could aspire to be anything in the nation without passing through them. Gulak said such people must not be allowed to continue to display such an attitude because power belongs to God and He gives it to whomsoever He wills. He charged the newly inaugurated committee to come out with a blueprint to chart the next course of action for the group. Members of the committee include a former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, ex-Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, Chief Solomon Lar, and Maj.-Gen. Patrick Aziza. Others are Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, Prof. Jibril Aminu, Arch Bishop Thomas Okpor and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Patricia Etteh. nigeria2015.org
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 11:58:00 +0000
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