A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Bode George, has urged gladiators in the party to drop their personal ambitions and have a roundtable discussion on issues in the party.
Speaking last Sunday on the topic: “National Reconciliation and Discipline in the PDP,” anchored by Femi Akande, George said internal crisis was not peculiar to the PDP.
The former deputy national chairman (south) of PDP said, “I know we have internal crisis in our party, it’s normal. There’s no organisation anywhere in the world that you will not have some disagreement. I am pleading with all sides, they should calm their nerves.
“We can get back to the table and discuss at length. All participants should drop their personal ambitions. Hatred, pettiness and jealousy is normal all over the world. We can disagree without being disagreeable.”
He advised against being too ambitious, adding that when one gets to certain age and class, the best thing to do would be to handover to younger generations.
“There is a new concept now in politics called President Joe Biden political strategy, when you get to a certain age and a certain class, you handover to the younger generation to continue because of your country. No individual can be larger or bigger than a nation and if you have that as your concept, nobody can be in power forever.
“History will judge. Our leaders since 1998 conceptualised the idea of looking at our past and projecting a workable political platform. No matter how the history of this country is written, you can never forget Papa Alex Ekueme.
“He was the chief convener of different political groups. He called Chief Bola Ige from the South West, Alex Nwobodo from his side, Papa Solomon Lar and so many others we call the G14. They sat back and assessed and carried out analysis.”
Making reference to why the first Republic and Shehu Shagari government failed, George asked, “Why the first Republic failed at the first instance, why did the Shagari government fail, the military government kept coming in and out, how can we prevent the coming back of the military in government.”
