National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Adamu Mu’azu
has restated that there will be no automatic ticket for office holders
in 2015.
He said this on Wednesday in Abuja when Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of
Delta led a delegation of the party’s stakeholders in the state on a
courtesy call on him.
He decried a situation where some politicians claimed to be on ground
because of their closeness to some persons in the party’s headquarters
without getting acquainted with those at the grassroots.
“It will not work; the people are looking at you. Those of you, who
will sit on the governor’s lap, or on my lap, will not succeed.
“You have to campaign, you have to tell the people what our party is doing,’’ Mu’azu said.
“We know our party has lost some grounds, we must assess ourselves, we must mark ourselves and we must be truthful to ourselves.
“We must be sincere to ourselves nationwide and find out what is wrong,’’ he said.
Mu’azu, however, maintained that with the absolute cooperation,
collaboration and prayers of party members, PDP would regain its lost
ground in record time.
He promised that the party, under his leadership would continue to
strengthen and deepen democracy and the rule of law in the party.
Earlier, Chief Edwin Clark, a PDP chieftain, described the defection
of some PDP members to the opposition as an uneventful exercise.
He expressed hope that those who recently defected to the opposition would return to the party`s fold soon.
“I know that where they have gone to, when the fire becomes hot
there, they will come back to you to say can we come back. When they do,
admit them,’’ Clark said.
Uduaghan said the visit was to congratulate Mu`azu on his emergence
as the national chairman of the party, and to pledge the loyalty and
support of the people of Delta to him.
He said the people of Delta would give total support to President
Goodluck Jonathan, adding that PDP in Delta was “united, in charge and
on ground’’.
This, he said, was so because the people of the state had seen reason to embrace the party.
The governor said that though the party had challenges in the past,
the emergence of Mu`azu as its national chairman had made great impact
on its rebuilding.
He also said that Delta was solidly behind President Goodluck
Jonathan, and called on all Nigerians to continue to support him in
spite of the challenges facing the country.
Uduaghan added that the state government had made impact with its three-point agenda in all aspects of the state economy.
He said that though the state was an oil producing state, it was looking beyond oil as major sustenance of its economy.
The state government, he said, had commenced diversification of its
resources to other areas such as agriculture to realise its objective.
“We have adopted a programme called “Delta Beyond Oil’’. What this
means is that we are using the little money we are getting from oil to
develop all areas of the economy.
“This is so, so that even if the oil is not there tomorrow, the
economy will still be bombing. We are concentrating on agriculture,
culture and tourism and even solid minerals.’’
The governor also said that because most of the projects being
embarked upon by the state government were long term project, the
government concentrated on microcredit scheme to deal with immediate
needs.
Uduaghan was accompanied on the visit by the state PDP stakeholders,
House of Representatives members, local government chairmen and
commissioners.
