Dear Kogi PDP Leaders,
I bring you greetings from my little abode and pray this message meets you well.
I do not want to bore you with long epistle of how in shambles Kogi PDP is today and how it was plunged into it by the leadership, so I will say my mind and drop my pen.
We are all aware that the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Party has released a statement dissolving party positions in 9 states who’s tenure ended starting from Monday 12th of July. We are also aware that Kogi PDP at the Ward and LG level was affected, hence, my letter to register my observation and suggest a way forward.
Observations:
Those at the leadership of the Party at all levels has being people we knew since 2002. No new face, no new ideas, no new strategies to win elections. We have recycled them for almost 20 years now and so they have grown weak and overwhelmed by new developments in party politics.
Because most of them were leaders when PDP was at the helm of affairs of the state, they depend on money mostly to make a move to reposition the party. So when this money does not come, they wait. The strategies has plunged the party into abyss as it played out in both the general and governorship election of the state in 2019.
Since the Party lost election in 2019, no single meeting has been held in the state to carry post election analysis of why we lost and how to harness several interest groups to relaunch itself back to the ring. The party can not continue to rely on sympathy to retake power in the state. We did that in 2019.
Recommendations:
Studying the strategies of the party in office today. PDP must launch a similar but more advanced strategies if we must match them in future elections.
Check the Party leadership of APC from top to down in the state today, they are young men who sees the party leadership given to them as an opportunity to prove they can deliver on future leadership. They are mostly first-timers with the energy.
PDP MUST do something similar, inject young mind, young blood and fresh faces into the system. APC in the last election campaigned with the age of PDP leaders saying the party is a party of OLD MEN because we have a seventy something old man leading the party as state Chairman and people of similar age at the divisional and Ward level.
Party must root for this social change by being deliberate in the choices of party leaders this time. I recommend that the position of Secretary at the LG level should be reserved for people below 30 years of age. This will help in the mode of press statements that comes from our divisional secretariat.
Whoever is above 35 years of age should not vie for ward offices from Chairman to the PRO. The ward is where the work is mostly vested, the ward is where the party image is more visible.
And that more polling units has been created now means that we need people with the energy to move around at the helm of affairs. The party must present itself henceforth as ready to handover to the next generation using this opportunity.
Women must be encouraged through party positions using this opportunity. Outside the women leader office, the party should reserve at least two other office for them at both the divisional and Ward level.
Note: That this women must not be above 30 years of age. The only women we have seen in the party leadership for decades now are familiar faces. We must inject new energy to harness the power of our women
I want to use this medium to encourage our young people to seek for party leadership this time. We must not wait around to be called to come take office and we must not be considered as clappers only going forward.
Go out there and take the challenge and we shall mobilise ourselves to support you. Don’t wait, take it!
– Maji Isah writes from Abuja.
