Ekwueme stated this in his house in Enugu when some members of the committee set up by the PDP caretaker committee to re-engineer the party visited him to submit their report to his as one of the founding fathers of the party.
The former vice president said “The story of PDP is the one that some times makes me to weep, the idea of PDP was not that of ordinary political party it was intended to be a mass movement of Nigerian’s, just like African congress in south Africa and we started that way”.
He noted that the parties election was fantastic where the party won in 28 states out of 36 because of its acceptance by the people because it was originally designed to carry every Nigeria along.
“Unfortunately, I would not call names, some people who do not know how the party was formed, what informed its philosophy started to enrol in the party and started to convert it into a personnel estate with out regards to the principles that informed its formation, so gradually we started to lose grounds at that stage, that is the genesis of our degeneration. Cuppled with lack of internal democracy, I am happy that after the challenge of 2015 this committee is trying to find out where we went astray and how we can bring back the party to its glory and I am sure if the report is fully implemented PDP would get back to where it started”
Earlier the leader of the committee and a one time Ambassador Amino Wali who represented the chairman of the review sterling committee of the party said the committee was set up by the national caretaker of the party.
According to him before handing over the report to Ekwueme said, The committee was set up to review all aspects of the party. “so that we can look at those areas that need to be changed or operated, look at the constitution where amendments can be made, look at past mistakes and see what we can be able to do to over come them. Particularly areas of party supremacy, discipline, impunity which ofcourse your excellency you are not new to”.
Raymond Dokpesi a member of the team said that the founding Fathers wanted the party to belong to Nigerians but along the way mistakes were made which resulted that the party lost the election in 2015.
He further noted that the lost of the election opened the eyes of the members of the party to the challenges the party has, hence the setting up of a strategy review committee an inter party relations.
” We have now concluded the work and the committee in its wisdom presented a report, and members of the committee were broken to eleven syndicates that dealt with all aspects including a new manifesto for the PDP, how the party including another committee on good governance and the challenges the party has faced on imposition, lack of internal democracy among others” he said.
The parties new programme Dokpesi said would be oriented towards getting the youths and the women to play more prominent roles.
