Ekweremadu: PDP's Springboard For 2019 Success?
The Peoples Democratic Party was predicted to have lost the plot to find its way back into reckoning after losing out in the 2015 presidential election.
But the recent elections in the National Assembly has shown that the PDP still has a major role to play in determining and shaping the future and stability of President Muhammadu Buhari's administration.
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The way the party clinched the post of the deputy senate president recently is a testament to the fact that the PDP is still on course politically.
The PDP practically took advantage of the infighting that characterised the All Progressives Congress decisions regarding the election of the National Assembly leaders.
Sensing the danger in allowing the PDP hold such a sensitive position, the APC senators last week demanded for the immediate resignation of the deputy senate president, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a ranking PDP senator, who held the same position in the last senate.
The senators, who are supporters of Senator Ahmad Lawan, the APC's candidate for the Senate presidency, insisted that Ekweremadu’s resignation was one of the conditions that would make them recognise Senator Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate.
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But the PDP swiftly responded and practically rebuffed the APC senators, insisting that Ekweremadu's emergence is constitutional and cannot be reversed.
On June 13, Senator Sam Egwu; a member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Dr. Akilu Indabawa; and Chairman of the PDP in Lagos state, Owolabi Olorunoje claimed that the defection of the erring APC members in the National Assembly would amount to paying the APC back in its own coin.
The PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi Jalo, similarly said that its doors were open to Saraki and his supporters, should they decide to leave their party.
Meanwhile, a former minister of works under the Obasanjo's administration, Chief Adeseye Ogunlewe, said the PDP was magnanimous to the APC by conceding the Senate presidency to Saraki, saying a PDP member could have emerged as the senate president.
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Ogunlewe argued that the PDP had 49 senators, while the APC had only eight. According to him, the opposition party was in perfect shape to clinch the top two offices in the Senate.
He said:“The Kwara Senator (Saraki) outsmarted them (PDP Senators). If the PDP wanted to produce the Senate president at that time, the party could have. All that was needed for the PDP to produce the next Senate president was 12 votes.
However, the Deputy Senate Presidency going to the PDP is enough for now. At least, it is alright for the success of Nigeria.”
Ekweremadu’s emergence is widely viewed as a boost for the PDP in their quest to return to power in 2019.
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Saraki recently, rejected attempts by an APC senator to read letters sent by some APC leaders as he quickly ruled him out of order.
Source: Legit.ng
