Dr. Emeka C. Kalu, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and the Director-General of Atikulated Agenda Worldwide, a major platform that campaigned for the Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi presidential ticket, has urged the party’s leadership to begin now to prepare seriously for the 2023 general elections.
According to him, with the all the issues surrounding the 2019 general elections, there was need for the PDP leadership at all levels to rein in their horses and go back to the drawing board to plan ahead for the next general elections, emphasising that the great task ahead called for unity of purpose to ensure a resounding electoral victory in 2023.
Dr. Kalu, whose statement was issued from his Abuja office and signed by Comrade Amas Kalu, his media and publicity aide, stated that if the PDP leaders had held their cards to their chests, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would not have had a field day by allegedly rigging the 2019 elections in broad day light.
He blamed the party’s leadership for allowing disunity to rob them of the 2019 polls, “because they forgot the exigencies of harnessing their act and working like a team,”, even as he recalled what he termed “the outright sell-out of the PDP senators that cost them Senate Presidency.”
Kalu, however, promised to expose those he said, were the “complicit actors in the act of shame on the eve of the election that ushered in Ahmed Lawan at the Senate President.”
He added: “After witnessing the display of shame and sell of conscience by the PDP senators, I concluded that the PDP leadership needed to do much more to bring unity among the party members.
“I observed to my chagrin and disadvantage of the party that the members of PDP were all loyal to self, they placed personal interest above party loyalty because that is the only explanation why almost all of them received bribe at the dying minute and voted against their own party member. It was a big shame.”
Kalu cited the manner of desertion so far exhibited by most PDP member towards Alhaji Abubakar Atiku’s efforts at retrieving his mandate at the tribunal, lamenting that the party members abandoned ship, even before the election was over.
He stressed: “I am a party man. I have always emphasised on loyalty to party. You don’t become loyal by jumping from one party to another at the slightest sign of challenge.
“Even before the election was over, some people abandoned ship and left Atiku alone, thinking it was over, and I was asking myself, were these people actually with us in the true sense of the word ‘US’? How can a supposed friend quickly abandon you at the slightest sign of challenge? I see this as one of the bane of our success as a party and a trend that should be checked intoto.”
Kalu advised that if PDP would return to power as a great party it was, “they must learn how to put their acts together and work like a team, because, the task ahead is enormous. I call on the party to keep hope alive because I believe that Atiku/PDP will still come out victorious at the ongoing tribunal.
“PDP is a great party to reckon with any time any day. Our success lies in our ability to unite as the great party we are while shunning self interest and putting the interest of the party first.
“We should never lose focus as a result of the antics of the power grabbers because victory is ours. It is our responsibility to retrieve the mandate of the people from plunderers and harness it against 2023. If we don’t pull ourselves together now, we may still find ourselves grappling for what rightfully is ours. Let us rebuild PDP on the strong pillars of unity and party loyalty so that 2023 will be a walkover for us.
“Atiku is coming. We must stand by him through thick and thin as a family because that is what we are, a family,” Kalu stressed.
