PDP Senators Back Party’s National Chairman from North

By Ugo Aliogo

Senators on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the upper chamber of the National Assembly have thrown their weight behind zoning the position of the National Chairman of the party to the North.

Consequently, they said the  present National Chairman, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, should be allowed to remain in office as he has  shown capacity to steer the ship of the party towards a successful outing in 2019. 

The senators who spoke in Abuja through Senator Hope Uzodimma (Imo West) said their position was for fairness and continuity as the last holder of the position, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu did not complete his tenure before he resigned. 

Uzodimma said what the PDP needs at this time of its declining popularity was a person like “Sheriff, an astute politician with a vast experience in grassroots politics, tenacity, resilience and the financial muscle to  assist the party in its repositioning drive, working with stakeholders.”

“What is important in PDP now is a collective rescue mission with all hands on deck towards the actualisation and rejuvenation of the party to regain its lost glory of national importance and dominance,” he added.

Uzodimma who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, said that since the emergence of the new PDP National Chairman, the party has been focused and  winning its re-run elections. Besides, he said:  “Sheriff has been uniting all factions in the party and has entrenched an open door policy where all party members have an unfettered access to him to handle all party issues.”

The party stalwart stated that the onerous task of preparing the party for the task ahead rests mainly on the leadership, especially the national chairman, adding that Modu Sheriff must, therefore, be supported to bring everybody together through holistic and pragmatic reconciliation and mobilisation of party members across the country.

“It is only through a clean, clear and steadfast spirit of unity and oneness that the task ahead can be successful, hence the need to support the new chairman in this regard’, he stated.

Asked if the decision of the PDP to zone the presidential candidate to the North would affect the position of Sheriff as the National Chairman, Uzodimma said “it will not because the next two years will be used to revive and re-position PDP, thereafter, a mid-term convention will produce the National Executive Council that will take the party to elections during which a presidential candidate from the North will emerge.

“Our interest is for the PDP to win elections, so merit should be the driving criteria for the party’s decision-making,” he said.