The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Forum of Former Speakers (FOFSHA) has urged Nigerians to look forward to the return of many politicians who left the party’s fold a few years ago to join other political platforms.
This is as the Forum described the PDP as the most acceptable, widely spread and best organised political party committed to addressing the challenges of the nation.
The body stated this on Friday shortly after a meeting with the PDP minority leadership in the House of Representatives at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.
In attendance were the House Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, Minority Whip, Ali Isa J. C, Chairman of the Forum and a member of the 10th House of Representatives, Inuwa Garba and the Secretary of the Forum, Williams Edor.
Others include Bakitta Bello, Friday Itulah, Kwamoti Laori and Ndanusa Hassan.
Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, Garba described some of the defections to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as illegal, assuring however that those who left the PDP will make a return soon.
He said, “We believe some of these defections are illegal because they are constitutional breach. Some politicians don’t look at what affects their people or the nation. They look at what affects them personally.
“You cannot stop some people from defecting from one political party to the other. Very soon, you will see the gale of defections back to PDP because Nigerians are now better informed and knowledgeable about what is good for them and the nation.
“One person out of a thousand from a constituency may take a decision of leaving the party just to get what he wants but the voters he abandoned in the constituency know what is good for them and what they stand for.”
That said, Garba noted that any politician in the country with a semblance of credibility today was groomed by the PDP at one time or the other.
“Any politician you see as good or credible today was groomed by the PDP, a party that is the most widely spread in Africa, ” he added, stressing that the government in power scuttle the political process of the nation.
“It cannot work. You can do whatever you want to do at a particular time but you cannot do all you want to do all the time,” he stressed philosophically.
At the meeting, the forum urged party members to “Remain steadfast and united in the face of the current daunting challenges bedevilling the nation.”
It also called on party members and leaders at all levels to have faith “In the current efforts being made to make the party stronger and united.”
The PDP recently lost Ned Nwoko and Amos Magaji, a Senator and member of the House respectively, to the APC, fuelling fears among pundits that the opposition might find it difficult to dislodge the ruling party in 2027.
