November 07, (THEWILL) – Former Deputy National Chairman and Board of Trustees (BoT) member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has said that what he and his party owe President Bola Tinubu’s administration is constructive criticism, so as to whip the President and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC ), in line.
He also advised the leadership of his party, the PDP, to look inward and examine what went wrong with the party that made it perform below average in the last general elections.
George made this known during a press conference in his Ikoyi, Lagos Office on Tuesday.
George said irrespective of the difference between him and President Tinubu, what is paramount to him and his party is to whip the President and his party into line, saying that is necessary so that Nigeria can move forward.
He said, “I want to appeal to you. It is not a matter of joining his party. We must have a solid opposition to put them, the APC members on their toes. And as long as I live, in the next four years, that will be the role we are going to play, and it is good for them (APC members), because if everybody is telling the APC and the President ‘What you are doing is fantastic’, he may skip off.
“You know the noisemakers are there who are saying what the President is doing is fine, they will be the first to condemn the President when he is out of office.
“The President is not a young man, he knows when people are pushing him and pretending that he is the best fellow. He should watch his back.
“What I owe President Bola Tinubu now, forget about the differences between us, this nation must grow, and when we are in the opposition, we must keep them (the APC government) on their toes for the good of our nation, that is the responsibility that I foresee as an opposition party.
“If there is no strong opposition, the APC government will take this country on a journey, but when we give them constructive criticism, they will think twice before doing things. They will say before this party comes and slams us, let us consider all options, not a one-sided option.”
He also stated that frantic effort should be made by the PDP leaders to ensure that the party did not go into oblivion like the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP).
He said there was a need to set up a committee of loyal and dedicated members of the party that would visit each state of the federation to find out what the problem was, adding that any attempt to sweep the problem in the party under the carpet would spell doom for it.
George also warned that this is not the right time for anybody to be scheming for a position in the party, saying there must be solutions to the challenges facing the party first.
“It is human to make mistakes. When it happens like this, that we got an uppercut in the struggle for Nigeria, the most sensible thing to do is to go back and do an in-depth analysis of what went wrong and then clean the Augean stable and reposition the party for the future.
“There should be no short approach, sweeping everything under the carpet is a foolish way to act. We must set up a committee that will go round the country, move state by state, and make an inquiry about their experiences and what happened.”
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
