Nnamani may emerge PDP BoT chair

FORMER Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, may emerge the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the board holds an emergency meeting today.

The parley, slated to hold at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, is coming four days after the judgment of an Abuja High Court sacking the Acting National Chairman, Uche Secondus.

With the ruling, PDP now exists without a chairmen of the National Working Committee (NWC) and BoT. The former BoT chairman, Tony Anenih, resigned weeks after the defeat of PDP in this year’s presidential election.

A PDP stalwart told Daily Sun that three chieftains of the party have their eyes on the BoT chair, but said Nnamani looks more likely to clinch it.

“We have called a meeting to intervene in some developments in the party in the last few days. We may also use the opportunity to hold an election to fill the vacant BoT chairmanship position.

“Some of our members have indicated interest in the position, but I think we may give it to the former Senate President, Ken Nnamani. The reason is that we want to bring credible Nigerians on board to help restore the confidence of Nigerians in the party”, the source said.

It is the second time Nnamani would be linked to the office. In 2011, he was one of the front runners for the position. Former Senate Leader and current High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr Dalhatu Tafida, served as his campaign director. However, former President Goodluck Jonathan intervened and handed the position to Chief Anenih.

Nnamani recently spoke on steps the embattled party must take to reinvent itself. In a paper he was scheduled to deliver at a recent PDP Rebrand Forum held in Abuja, charged members to stop the blame game over the party’s loss of last election. Instead, Nnamani advised that they should take a bold step towards reinventing itself by avoiding mistakes that eroded the trust the electorate had in the party.

He said: “Many of the people who are very pained that we lost the presidential election have needlessly been blaming ourselves. This blame game should not continue. We lost the election because we deserved to lose. We had run out of policy gas. We worked hard to lose the election.”

Nnamani said: “Now it is time for renewal and renewal requires strategic thinking and bold actions. Many years ago, I worked with some of my colleagues in the PDP and we foresaw this moment. We predicted that the PDP needed to keep faith with its cardinal principles and values to sustain its leadership of Nigerian politics. How I wished our other colleagues listened to us in those days. We would have averted the disaster of the 2015 electoral defeat. Some of those who contributed immensely to the PDP electoral defeat shouted us down and refused to hear our voice of wisdom. This is past now. There is no time for recrimination and self-adulation. It is time for clarity and effective action.

“It is time for genuine embrace of internal democracy. The new PDP should become the symbol of internal democracy. Our rebranding should first start with a real commitment to internal democracy. I suggest that before we go further on this journey let all those who desire to lead PDP in formal or informal positions of authority publicly declare a new code of conduct. The heart of this code of conduct will be an oath to always promote and protect internal democracy.

“Beyond the code, the new PDP must put in its constitution expulsion for any party official at all levels who deliberately subverts the process of internal democracy. Impunity must end now. Impunity does not end with mere words or declarations. It includes clear sanctions for violation of core tenets of party systems.

It is common knowledge that we lost many states to the APC because we deliberately re- fused to conduct primaries that allow our party members to vote for the candidate of their choice. If we have been less reckless in management of party politics we would have gained at least four more states and perhaps won the presidential election. But we shot ourselves on the foot,” he said.

The sun