2027: PDP Due for Complete Overhaul, Says Segun Showunmi
- The main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is primed to see a shift in leadership before the 2027 general elections
- Former Ogun state governorship candidate Dr Segun Showunmi has often made his intentions known to lead the party
- In an exclusive interview with Legit.ng, the pragmatic politician tells our correspondent his plans to transform the party
Legit.ng journalist Segun Adeyemi has over 9 years of experience covering political events, civil societies, courts, and metro
FCT, Abuja - Amid the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that erupted in the build-up to the 2023 general election, Segun Showunmi, one of the party stalwarts in the southwest, believes it is time for an overhauling.
In an exclusive interview with Legit.ng, Showunmi, the PDP chairmanship hopeful, said the party said it was time to restructure the party to its modules and principles.
Source: Twitter
The former Ogun state governorship candidate lamented the party's distorted zoning principles.
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He said:
"The party is due for a complete overhaul of reformation. To do that, the party must first look at itself. Its processes, its constitution, its operational manual, its accounting processes, its framework by which things are done, its discipline, its own culture, and its ideological position. To do that, we need somebody who is wired that way. And I am wired that way.
"The second is that all of the zones in the country have been dormant at some point in time, but that's not the biggest reason.
"Yes, we don't have a zoning arrangement in sync with the party. And our situation is particularly sensitive. Therefore, all other zones, southeast, northcentral, northeast and even south-south if you like, are entitled to say we can produce the kind of candidates or the kind of personality that can solve some of the tipping problems of the country."
He further said that the PDP needed a personality that had stayed true to the party, one with the grit, charisma, and character to lead it away from its ruins.
Showunmi said:
"But more importantly, you need to say what kind of attitude and quality you need in a national chairman. I feel that the person must have been in this party, a part of this party, never left this party, always won the gesture of this party. Cried when this party lost, laughed and smiled when it won, taking party positions in the best way they could.
"Even if it means using their finger to scratch out a big elephant. That kind of grit, that kind of passion, that kind of constancy is needed now. And I have it."
Source: Twitter
Reformation agenda for PDP
When asked about his reformation agenda for his party and the kind of policies he has in his sleeves to help transfigurate the party to its rightful place, the PDP stated that:
"I am not one who will be skewing the field to favour anybody. I believe that for a political party with the slogan of "Power to the People", greater emphasis and effort must be placed on ensuring that the party has a reliable membership registrar that has integrity and a membership registrar that has bankability, bankability; I mean, members must normalize paying their dues. It is a means of raising money for the party so that parties can be removed from the stranglehold of being a platform or only a hiding place for public holders of positions like governors.
"I believe that political parties must figure out how they can robustly increase the effort they put into their reconciliation framework because I have noticed over the years that the parties start having problems even from the smallest little positions that they are allocating at the ward Excos right down to the local government, right down to the senatorial to the state to the zone until you get to the national and then the tip of it, the high point of it."
Showunmi on being PDP's best bet
He, however, emphasised the need for the party to be fixated on being an ideological platform that is sellable to aspiring leaders who are willing to serve the people and not rule them.
Showunmi also noted that he has yet to see one person willing to stylise the party in a chronological formation of being a genuinely democratic party like him.
He said:
"I'm not trying to be arrogant; I do not see anybody who is that passionate and interested in doing these things this way. And the best I see is people who want to take the platform to start furthering the nest of their friends or have to take the platform to continue doing business as usual."
Southeast lawmaker dumps PDP for APC
In another report, the Ebonyi state branch of the PDP suffered a significant blow as one of its prominent members switched allegiance to the ruling party in the region.
Peter Ede, formerly associated with the opposition PDP, has decided to rejoin his former party, citing the ruling party's focus on policies beneficial to the people as his primary motivation.
Additionally, Ede has brought a substantial following from the PDP with him as he returns to the APC.
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Source: Legit.ng
