PDP Crisis: Sowunmi Frowns At Founding Fathers
A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Sowunmi, has expressed displeasure that the party is bleeding and some of the founding fathers who should intervene are just watching.
Sowunmi stated this during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday. According to him, the likes of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan ought to have stepped in and resolved the protracted conflict that plagued the party before the 2023 elections.
Recently, several House of Representatives members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have called for Umar Damagum, the party’s national chairman, to quit because they believe he is loyal to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
They questioned the party leadership’s silence on the political happenings in Rivers State, especially when President Bola Tinubu interfered. Led by Ikenga Ugochinyere, the group of about “60 lawmakers” voiced their concerns.
Sowunmi called the division among the party leadership the “Wike problem,” which he claimed was the cause of the movement for Damagum’s resignation and other internal issues.
Even though the PDP addressed the problems presented by former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike prior to the most recent general elections, the former Ogun governorship candidate bemoaned the fact that the problems still exist a year later.
The PDP chieftain apologised for the fact that the party’s internal strife has persisted past the 2023 presidential election.
Sowunmi stressed that in order to support and solidify the party’s accomplishments, the party’s founding fathers must step in and mediate disputes amongst rival party members.
“A 25-year-old institution is supposed to be one of the legacies that one of the most populous black nations will tell the world that we can also run this thing,” he said.
“I’m disappointed that the founding fathers, the Jonathans of this world, the Obasanjos of this world, and co, I am disappointed that they are looking at the platform that allowed them to lead, I am disappointed that they are looking it bleed.”
