It’s not over for PDP in Nigeria – Chieftain

Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, a Lagos PDP chieftain and former member, Atiku Abubakar 2023 presidential campaign council, says there is still hope for the main opposition party in Nigeria.

Pearse, a former PDP national chairmanship aspirant and gubernatorial candidate in Lagos state, told our reporter on Thursday that things were not as bad as they were being made to look in the party.

He said: “PDP is not done yet. It is not over for PDP in Nigeria. When you look at the national landscape, PDP still remains very strong number two at the National Assembly.

“APC has about 20 governors, we have about 14 governors while other parties have two.

“If we go to the national assembly, we are very strong number two with maybe 38 per cent to 40 per cent of members.”

Pearse, however, said the PDP’s strength in Lagos state is a different issue, as Labour Party had displaced PDP to emerge a distant number two to the ruling APC.

“We have lost a lot of ground in Lagos,” he said.

Pearse, however, said the fortune of PDP would revive once the party completed her mid-term congress for the emergence of substantive national leadership.

“Part of our problems now is that we don’t have a substantive national chairman. We really don’t have a party leader, that is the problem.

“Once we get a substantive national chairman in our mid-term congress, the party will move forward,” he said.

He urged the party to be more aggressive in constructive criticisms of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Pearse said that though the PDP’s national secretariat was doing a bit of this, all the state chapters of the party should be doing same and be more aggressive about it to give live to the main opposition party.

“We must be speaking on behalf of the people. It is the opportunity to make the party look good.

“All the flaws of the incumbent, we can expose and tell the people what the party will do if given the opportunity to represent them.

“We should just keep hope alive, keep getting ready and planning toward the 2027 general elections,” he said.