The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, has inaugurated a global campaign for the reform of the party.
This is with the aim of repositioning the party for positive values in the minds of Nigerians home and abroad.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Lagos, the chairman, alongside some members of the National Executive Council of the party, unveiled a new campaign theme tagged: Restoring True Values.
The campaign, according to Nwodo, aims to improve the awareness and acceptance of the party as a pan-Nigerian brand. He implored party members to embrace the new positioning statement that would engender equal opportunity for all.
“In my acceptance speech on June 17 2010, I bemoaned a situation where the party has been handed over to ‘godfathers’ who, with reckless abandon, impose candidates with questionable character and no leadership qualities whatever and clear the way for them to run for elections under our party flag.
“Such people elected under our party banner have consistently brought public odium on our great party to the chagrin of our party members and the nation at large. I also stated that the process of choosing our candidates must once again be subjected to internal democracy, to the dictates of our party constitution and the extant rules,” he declared.
Nwodo said that he and fellow members of the party’s National Working Committee had “been at working hard to create a better image for the party and all its members. We sought to restore the image of our party, because the image of our dear party, the largest political party in Africa, has been grossly eroded due to strife, imposition of candidates, godfatherism, money bag politics, injustice, and lack of understanding of our party manifesto.”
He stated that the party leadership believed that “internal democracy could not only be the exclusive right of a few. It has to include the right of every PDP card-carrying member. We have to create a level playing ground for all.
“There should be equality before the law in accordance with the highest law of the Party - our constitution, which mandates us to build a non-racial, non-sexist and a prosperous political party.”
He urged journalists to assist the party in achieving its objectives by letting Nigerians know the true situation of things in the PDP.
He said Nigerians needed to be “informed and educated, we cannot achieve this without your co-operation. The reason is simple; as the ruling party, if we get it right, Nigeria will get it right. You are an important stakeholder in all of these.”
According to him, “Let me reiterate once again, the days of imposition of candidates by the PDP, hoping to foist such leaders on the people of Nigeria are over and over forever. Our members aspiring to carry our banner in future elections must start now to market themselves and canvass their programmes aggressively to our party members and the Nigerian electorate.”
According to the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Rufai Ahmed, the new reform programme will run as an integrated marketing communications campaign that will exploit all medium of mass communication and social media.
“The essence is to pass the message across to our members all over the world and to change the wrong perception people have of the party. The world’s socio-political environment is changing for good and we can’t afford to continue in the primordial ways of doing things. The time for change is now,” he added.
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201011191412712
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