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10 Reasons PDP Will Reclaim Power In 2019 by ogododo: 2:45pm On May 23
By Oraye St. Franklyn If anyone was in doubt about the capacity of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to take over power in 2019, the cohesion and singleness of purpose that characterised the just concluded National Convention of the Party in Port Harcourt, has cleared the doubts with emphatic certainty that it would. The entire country saw a new kind of PDP in Port Harcourt. One that had the interest of the vast majority of its members, and indeed Nigerians, over and above the pressing needs of critical stakeholders within it. In the razzmatazz of the entire political somersaults, credit must be given to the Chairman of the PDP Convention Planning Committee, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State as well as his brother Governors in the Party for the leadership offered and continue to offer in rallying the Party together at this critical moment in its history.The dexterity displayed in the way and manner the Party rallied itself in Port-Harcourt in the split moment it faced its single most dangerous challenge to its regeneration and quest to reclaim its national governmental mandate is second to none in the history of the Party. Here are 10 reasons articulated to prove with a definite certainty that should the PDP sustain its current unifying momentum, it will succeed in changing the dubious change imposed by the APC on Nigerians that has left them in worse conditions than they were over 30 years ago.

1. BATTERED ECONOMY Rather than bettered, the economy inherited by the APC from the PDP, reputed for being Africa’s primus sine paribus at the time of transition, has been so severely battered by poor economic decisions that it has become an issue of amazement, how change can so rapidly extinguish productivity and reverse progress in just a space of a year. Today, job loses have become commonplace as both the private and public sector grapple with sustaining their enterprise. Companies continue to close shops, the Naira is at its worst ever value in history, prices of commodities blaze on consistently in their astronomic adventure and the mass of Nigerians, the very people for whom government cannot afford to fail, are left to grope in the wilderness of misfortune in credit to the inability of the APC led Federal Government to direct the ship of state on a steady course to progress. It is such a messy situation. Although the APC continues to blame the PDP for being responsible for its inability to deliver on its much touted campaign promises of change, no proof has so far been established, in a year of APC’s helm at the thrust of governance, of PDP’s culpability in undermining APC’s success either directly or otherwise, leaving many with the disappointing conclusion that the APC was never primed for governance; a fact enunciated in its new christening by Nigerians as ‘APC: ALL PROMISES CANCELLED’ as the promise of change has become change of promise, without apologies.

2. CORRUPTION Hopes have been dashed, especially in the international community, since the APC took to power and formed its cabinet. The greatest mockery of its strong anti-corruption campaign was the inclusion of clearly compromised and indicted members of the public in its government. Some of those included were former Governors, of whom credible reports in the public domain appear to show as having bankrolled the presidential election of incumbent President Buhari with misappropriated public funds. For many, that was the most remarkable betrayal of the trust reposed in the APC led government and also the most significant move to excuse, promote and reward corruption, thus undermining, or at best limiting, the fight against corruption to perceived detractors of the APC, most of whom are innocent PDP members dreaded for their political sagacity. To this day, not a single investigation has commenced on any of the litany of petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) leading