After leading PDP to loss, Jonathan suggests how party can beat APC

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has offered suggestions as to how the opposition PDP can reclaim the power it lost to the ruling APC in 2015.

The former president is optimistic that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will reclaim the seat of presidency, which the party lost to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), when he (Jonathan) ran as incumbent president and candidate of the PDP.

The former president said that for the PDP to reclaim the seat it grabbed and kept for 16 years, it must get its act together, and avoid imposition.

He also approved the party going into alliance with other viable political parties to achieve that aim.

He said, “The PDP is still the biggest and the strongest party. Irrespective of what happened in the 2015 general elections. Yes, we lost the presidential election but that doesn’t diminish us. Every other party still knows that the PDP is a leading party.

“Losing the Presidency is something temporary. We should be able to get that position back as long as we are able to get our act together. I am happy that you people are working towards that.”

The former president stated this when he received a delegation of the PDP Strategy Review and Inter-party Committee, led by a former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, which visited him at his private residence in Abuja.

According to Jonathan, the use of statutory delegates for the party’s primaries to check imposition of candidates must be adhered to.

The committee set up by PDP National Working Committee-led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi was mandated to come up with strategies on how the party can bounce back.

At the meeting with Jonathan, the committee presented him with its report and briefed him that they are already engaging in alliance talks with some other political parties.

Jonathan, who approved the alliance talks, encouraged the committee members assuring them the party will bounce back if they only adhere to what is right for it to do.

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Reacting to an earlier statement by Gana, that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had become a tool in the hands of the APC Jonathan said: “I am among the persons who believe that for a nation to grow, the institutions must be very strong, just like you mentioned about INEC. There is no way a nation will grow with weak institutions because everything about politics is about the people, not about the individuals.

“And as long as you are interested in the people, you are interested in the growth of the society, the development of the nation, the only thing that will make the impossible possible is that the institutions must be strong.

“You see, as powerful as America is, look at President Donald Trump’s decision and the court say no, you can’t do this and of course they have to shoot it down to move forward. That is the strength of an institution. That is the only way individuals could be regulated so that you can grow.”

The committee also visited former national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and a former chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih.

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