Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Lagos State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has initiated plans to reconcile all warring members of the party in a bid to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state.
This was according to a chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George, during Tuesday night’s edition of Newsday on Arise TV.
Since the poor performance of the party at the 2023 general elections, growing discordant tunes among stakeholders in the party have lingered on.
Even after a committee was set up by the leadership of the party to reconcile warring and aggrieved members, the party crisis lingered.
Recall that in February 2024, a chieftain of the PDP in Lagos State, Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, attributed the poor outings of the party in recent elections in the state to a lack of unity in the Lagos chapter.
He said the political party had also not been functioning well in the state because its structure had been weakened and had no leader serving as a rallying point in the chapter.
However, after several indoor meetings, some stakeholders of the party last Wednesday held a reconciliatory meeting to put the state chapter of the party in order ahead of the 2027 general election.
At the stakeholders’ meeting, which was held in Ikeja, the party chieftains stressed the need for forgiveness and unity within the party to increase the party’s chances at the forthcoming elections.
Shedding light on the series of efforts made at uniting the party ahead of the 2027 elections, the party stalwart noted that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
He, however, admitted that though there were some pockets of aggrieved members yet to be sorted out, the reconciliatory process was making meaningful headway.
He said, “In any organisation, any political party, you will have a kind of turmoil immediately after you lose an election; but the ability of the party and the managers of the party to get everybody back to a discussion table where we will do an in-depth postmortem analysis of what happened. How did we lose the elections, who were the people who were committed and loyal to the party, who were the other people who didn’t perform, who are the other people who are pretending that they are members of your party when they are working for your opposition?
“This is what we are going through now and I’m very happy that yesterday’s meeting in Ibadan that was chaired by the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, and with all the other leaders from all the states of the Southwest came out to be a brilliant move. It shows that we still have leaders with the ability to rise above the pettiness, the inuendos of those who are struggling to get into positions in the party. You’ve got to work for it.”
Speaking further, George affirmed that efforts at ensuring the party was well-positioned for the 2027 general elections have been so far successful.
He stated, “We have been very successful in trying to move forward, it’s still a long time, 2027, the national meeting we had, the NEC meeting we had, plus the caucus meeting, the Board of Trustees meeting, to me was quite successful. So, we we told ourselves some truths, we are setting up committees for reconciliation, we had started our own in Lagos, and it’s been very highly successful.
“The one we did in Ibadan yesterday ended up on a very high note, very successful and I pray that by the next few months, people will see that unity, because once you are not united and you go to war as a General, you know you’ll be defeated. The same if we are not united to go into an election, we will be perpetually defeated.
“It’s high time, the electorate in Lagos are now fed up, they are looking for an alternative and if they see that we can weave ourselves as an indivisible group, they will now want to see how we can manage ourselves. One thing I will say is that there are discordant voices, a few that are throwing tantrums all over the whole place, those who got the ticket who were candidates, they collected humongous amounts of money, how they managed it and what they did were not quite plausible and the national itself, the managers at the national level they have realized it and they have given us the go-ahead to start mending fences.”
George said at the Ibadan meeting, they were able to close ranks for the leaders in Ondo, and it would be a reflection on state by state.
He added that the leadership of the party was determined to wrest power from the ruling APC in 2027.
“But we are determined that we are going to forge ahead, even if the numbers who are going to remain as members of the party are small. The members of the public can see that yes, these people are managing themselves very well.
“You can see even the party in government. Are they also completely trouble-free? No. Anytime you have any organisation, people will come with different tones and different voices, but the leaders first must respect their constitution and work according to the constitution.
“Yes, people will have interests in one thing or the other, but play the game according to the set rules. Once you do that, then you have no problem,” he said.