… Says PDP not competitive enough to win elections

By Ochuko Akuopha

ASABA – IMMEDIATE past Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Tuesday, said that the defection of the entire structure of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, into to the All Progressives Congress, APC, was not aimed at getting the State into a one-party state as is being insinuated.

The State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, Okowa and other stakeholders of the PDP in the State officially defected to the APC last Monday.

Speaking on Arise Television, Okowa said there were other political parties and said there was likely to be a coalition coming.

He said: “I don’t believe that we are here to get into a one-party State because, people will always have their opinions and that is why as at today, you still have the APC, you still have the PDP, but some of us feels that the PDP is not preparing itself to be competitive enough.

“If we felt and we are sure within ourselves that they are preparing themselves to be competitive enough, we possibly may not have moved, but you still have the Labour Party, you have several other parties.

“The coalition is coming; we don’t know under what party the coalition is going to be birthed, so we believe other parties are coming, so it is not likely that we are going to have a one-party state.

“For us in Delta State, we know what we contribute into the nation’s purse. We have been in opposition for 10 years and if we were sure that we will be competitive enough to be able to as a party, take over governance, probably we would not have given thought to whatever is going on.

“As at today, the APC appears to be working hard to retain power.”

On whether it was all about getting into power and not on ideologies, Okowa said: “There is hardly anything you can say about any party having a particular ideology.

“Unfortunately for us as a nation, we have not moved into the direction of any party becoming ideological. If you watch the various manifestos of the various parties in the last elections, you find that they are almost the same. No party appears to have ideological principles that hold them down.

“We have refused to, as a people, refused to build our parties to have a particular ideology and it appears that parties in Nigeria are only being used as vehicles for elections and that is the true position at the moment.

“There is no ideological style for any of the parties at the moment.”

Okowa also held that the PDP that was birthed in 1998 does not appear to him as the same party that is being ran today.

He said “When you are tired of what is going on and you do not seem to understand what is going on in a place that you call home, then you have to step out and find another home and l think that is what we have done.

“The truth is that the PDP as at today, is not ready to be competitive as it was in the past and cannot be the same vehicle me must continue to go along with “