Ibadan-born national chairmanship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prof Taoheed Adedoja has promised to lead the party to victory in the 2019 general elections if given the mandate to steer the ship of the party.
Adedoja who made the remark while fielding questions from journalists at the PDP secretariat in Calabar at the weekend said he has the capacity to oust the opposition All Progressives Congress , APC, if he mans the affairs of the party.
He said with the right attitude and purposeful leadership the PDP can seize power from the APC, stressing that he was on a mission to reclaim the lost glory of the PDP.
He also promised to maintain peace and unity in the party by carrying everyone along in the scheme of things, which according to him, would put paid to the gale of defections of PDP members to opposition parties.
“People are leaving the party for a number of reasons, their lack of satisfaction with what has happened with the PDP in terms of various act of impunity and the imposition of candidates and of course not going by the tenets of dictates of the constitution of the party in terms of what will happen” He said.
Adedoja said that if he emerges, the PDP under his watch will go extra mile to woo its members who left the party out of one grievance or the other back to the party to make the party formidable.
“We are revisiting the membership issue of PDP to ensure that the PDP is re-marketed, repackaged so that members can join the party.
“You cannot do this unless you have a viable energetic leadership that is very creative. Creativity in leadership is what we are going to drive when I become a party chairman.
“A presidential candidate cannot win elections unless there are qualified, competent people, governorship candidates, national assembly and state house of assembly’s candidate’s chairmen of LGAs and House of reps member that can win elections who can to act as a platform for the presidential candidate to win the election.” He said.
The academic Don warned against impunity which cost the PDP victory in the 2015 presidential poll, adding that if the PDP was keen to reclaim her lost glory in 2019 the hierarchy of the party should allow its national party chairman to emerge through a democratically elected process.
“The avenue for a presidential candidate coming from the PDP is to get it right at the national convention, in that way the national chairmanship emerges.
“If the national chairman emerges through a free, fair and democratically elected process I think we are getting it right”
The National Chairmanship candidate maintained he would run affairs of the party differently from what it used to be when he assumes office as party chairman stressing that he would carry along the youths, women, the young and the old to ensure that the party beat the opposition party in 2019 presidential poll
He said, “Our processes will also go to digital age in terms of creativity in the things we are doing and most importantly is to bring fresh ideas to PDP. Am 66years old I became professor at 42 I still have the mind of the youths
“I will work with people who own the party, the youths, and women, working with the people that you trust that will be in position. Leadership is about recognizing the potential resources of the people”.
He said that he will ensure that he changes strategy to fund the party in a manner that too much burden will not be placed on the governors of the states.
“I think what I will want to do differently is changing the funding profile of the party. Whatever we do we compliment the efforts of government. Because we are over brothering the governors, that also have responsibility in the state. If we get it right in terms of financial profile at the national level I don’t think there will be a major problem. Major problem of the party today is financing the party to change”
