Former Acting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Caretaker Committee Chairman Senator Ahmed Makarfi has advised the party not to repeat the mistakes it made in the build-up to the 2015 general elections, if it is to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC ) in 2019 election.
Makarfi linked some of the reasons why the PDP lost the presidency to the use of hate languages against opponents in the build-up to the election.
This, he said, caused dissatisfaction among the party members that came from the section of the country against which the hate speeches were directed.
Makarfi, who is a former Kaduna State governor, spoke in Lagos at the weekend, where he met selected print media reporters.
He said: โThe language used by the PDP handlers was not polite during the campaign. The manner with which some of our members campaigned during the 2015 general elections maligned the opposition candidate. You know a section of the country felt foul languages were being used on them. People, who are members of the party from the region felt let down and they became indifferent.โ
The PDP chieftain said former President Goodluck Jonathanโs campaign handlers sidelined the party structure during the electioneering.
Rather than engage party members across the states, Makarfi said Jonathanโs campaign floated Transformation Agenda of Nigeria (TAN) to run the campaign independent of the party structure.
He said: โAnother reason the party failed was that, our structure from the national down the line was not used for the campaign. Rather, an ad hoc arrangement in the name of TAN was used for the presidential campaign. And TAN was just a body promoted by some people to impress those in power. It was not something structured; but PDP is structured from national to the ward level.
โTo abandon that asset (party structure) and use something superficial, there will naturally be problems, because you discouraged people from participating and people became nonchalant and uninterested. Some governors were not even aware of how campaign was going on. Coordinators were appointed in their states without even knowing. No governor was in the campaign council. The Chairman of PDP Governorsโ Forum was not in the presidential campaign council.โ
Makarfi said he was confident that the PDP would return to power in 2019, saying the โlackluster performanceโ of President Muhammadu Buhari had made it easy for the PDP to return to power and give the country the required leadership.
The PDP leader also said there was no deliberate effort by party leadership to marginalise its members from the Southwest during its national congress last December, saying lack of consensus among the members from the region led to their misfortunes after the congress.
โNobody directed the North to meet and maintained what they had zoned. As the chairman then, I didnโt ask them. It was not in my position to say so and nobody also stopped the South from meeting to agree. Failure to agree was what made the contest to be thrown open. Southwest was divided during the congress; they campaigned against each other. In politics, when you are campaigning against each other, you donโt expect the rest to give you leadership,โ Makarfi said.
