The primary elections have come and gone. Winners have emerged, and the Party says, no losers because all contestants belong to the same big PDP family that won. It is a victory for all. “No victor, no vanquished” to borrow the words of Yakubu Gowon.
In the process leading to the latest contest, it was normal for many people to have disagreed on many issues, especially zoning and the determination by some to retain positions that the zoning arrangement gave to others. It’s all about politics.
It is also normal for those who won the tickets to rejoice while those who did not, will try to upturn the results in their favour through any legally possible means. It’s all part of the process of determining who gets what, when and why; an apt description of politics as the power to authoritatively allocate scarce resources in any polity.
Across the country, hopes were raised and dashed, brothers disagreed, fathers turned against sons, communities against one another. People are switching Parties to realise personal ambitions. These are normal and they always happen, especially at times like this. To some it looks like the heavens will fall and the cacophony is deafening and forebodes the collapse of our great party. Not at all. It will all come and pass and we will come out of it stronger.
In this despondency, sparks of light that promise to illuminate the entire landscape have emerged in the horizon and providing lessons that say all hope is not lost after all. These sparks brighten the prospects of a true reconciliation with those that are aggrieved in one way or the other.
Last week, our dear sister, Lady Love Ezemma did the noblest thing by congratulating her opponent, Rt. Hon Ifeanyi Uchendu who clinched the ticket of our great Party to contest for the Arochukwu/Ohafia federal constituency in the House of Representatives.
And in Enugu State, Distinguished Senator Ike Ekweremmadu, former Deputy Senate President, congratulated the winner of the Enugu PDP gubernatorial primary, Mr. Peter Mba and called on every member of the PDP in Enugu to support and work towards his emergence as the next governor of Enugu State.
Minutes after the National Convention of our great Party that produced Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as our Party’s flag bearer in the 2023 presidential election, all the presidential aspirants walked up in solidarity with him to the podium to give his acceptance speech. Days after his emergence, felicitations continue to pour in from different quarters, including presidential aspirants from the ruling opposition Party. That is the politics devoid of rancour and bitterness that all noble men and women should emulate.
As we march ahead to the great battle of 2023, let us begin to reconcile ourselves to the realities of life and the expectations of the moment. Only one person can win at a time. But everybody wins when a Party wins.
There are great lessons to learn from several World Leaders who tried several times and failed but did not stop trying until they won. That one did not win in this election, does not mean that all hope is lost. An example that comes to mind immediately is our own President Buhari who contested the Presidency for three times and lost but did not lose hope only to try the fourth time and won.
Stories are told about how one of the greatest American Statesmen, Abraham Lincoln, tried several times and lost, among several other failures in his life but went ahead to clinch the American Presidency which enabled him to redirect the American nation to a growth trajectory.
The greatest task that faces our great Party PDP in Abia today is the task of reconciliation which truthfully has already begun. A Reconciliation Committee has been set up and efforts are in high gear to reconcile every aggrieved member into our big family and to bring back our members who have left and those at the verge of leaving. We will try our best.
Of the truth, let us be mindful in our expectations that everyone who has left will come back. Many of our strong members today came from the opposition Parties while many of the strong members in the opposition Parties came from our Party. The results of personal calculations of how interests and affiliations pay back will determine how far we can go in persuading aggrieved members to return or remain in our Party.
All told, let us all be reminded that the Party is supreme and is working to protect our collective interests. No one would be allowed to destroy the Party simply because the present arrangement did not favour him even when the person did not bathe an eyelid in protest when it favoured him.
We call on all members of our great Party, the PDP, to join hands with the State leadership of the Party to build the Abia of our collective dream. With our common efforts, PDP can become the default Party in Abia, big enough to accommodate everyone.
PDP- Power to the People!
Signed:
Hon. Elder Amah Abraham.
State Vice Chairman
(Acting State Publicity Secretary)
