Speaking in an exclusive interview Nigerian Tribune, Doyin Okupe, who is a former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, has attributed the current crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to “error” which started from the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to Okupe, the error was further aggravated by the Jonathan’s administration, adding that the inability of the former ruling party to address the problem may affect the party in the next general election.
“Only God knows what will happen to the PDP. I am not in the habit of lying even when it comes to public discourse.
“PDP is heavily burdened and much of the burden is self-inflicted. In the last administration, an error was committed. Before we disengaged after we lost the election, we should have straightened the leadership of the party.
“We did not do that and that was a fundamental error. This gave room for all comers and pretenders to the throne; people who have not even learnt the ABC of politics to become leaders in PDP.
“There is a grand error in party administration in the country and I think it started from the Obasanjo administration. Once you are a governor, you become the leader of the party. This is a fallacy,” Okupe said.
While stressing that when PDP came, it brought an abnormal structure, Okupe said, “It is not PDP alone. If one party is sick, all parties in the country will become sick. AD, AC, ACN never went that way before.
“During the Second Republic, the governors were subordinates in the parties. When I was in the NRC and the NEC of the party was going to meet, the governors waited outside for the communiqué of our meeting. But, when the PDP came, it brought this abnormal structure.
“Do you know that when APC came, governors of the party are leaders in their states? That is a joke. It is politics of mercantilism. It is not going to work.
If a governor contest an election and there are five people who slugged it out with him and he gets 35 per cent of the total votes, who made that governor the leader of the remaining 65 per cent?”
Okupe, however warned that the former ruling party was indulging in unnecessary arrogance that will further make it to fail.
“From the time of Jonathan, the party has been extensively mauled, disparaged and destroyed within and outside this country by negative propaganda. And unfortunately, we were not able to sufficiently counter this propaganda.
“When Buhari’s government came, it finally buried the previous government and the party that brought that government to power. It will be impossible, except by the grace of God Almighty alone, to use the brand, PDP to win any election in the country again. PDP is indulging in an unnecessary arrogance that will further make it to fail,” he said.
