Former Deputy National Chairman (Southwest) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has warned that the party is “drifting very badly” and risks further decline if urgent steps are not taken to resolve its internal crisis.
Speaking on the internal disputes during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, George criticised the party’s inability to rise above personal ambitions, warning that failure to conduct a thorough investigation into past conflicts could further weaken the PDP.
He said, “Let’s call a spade a spade. We are drifting very badly. I will remain consistent in my argument, we must go to the beginning of this madness so that it will never repeat itself. If we do not rise above that pettiness, it will expand.
“It looks very highly depressing and very disgusting when you look at the party, a formidable institution, a party that is like an iroko tree in this country being decimated because of personal ambition. It bothers some of us that started right from 1998. Resolving this crisis at the midpoint doesn’t make any political sense.”
He called for the establishment of a proper committee to examine the crisis from its origin, particularly pointing to events surrounding the party’s national convention as the starting point of the division.
“Let us set up a committee. And I’ve made my views known to the BoT. As the board of trustees, the custodian of the laws and the regulations, the liabilities and the assets of the party, we must be able to set up a committee to go into in-depth analysis. What happened? You don’t solve a problem by starting midpoint and thinking you can cover up the other one. All sides of the divide are making us so angry and what we are saying is to avoid a terrible public image of our party. We have to set up a proper committee that would xray the mess that started on that convention day and we’ll sort it out. Anybody who is guilty of any serious offences must be dealt with. If you are a member of an organisation, there are rules and regulations of what you should do, so follow it. If you can’t follow the regulations and you think you can manoeuver A to B for your own sustenance, then we ease you out.
“People have started saying ‘your party is dead,’ we say ‘no the party is not dead.’ We can disagree without being disagreeable. We should be able to rise above this pettiness. What happened in that national convention was the beginning of the crisis and to date, all sides are still very deep in their trenches. It’s not going to help this country and the national interest of the party must be much higher than the personal interest of any individual and no individual can ever be bigger than the party. Let these managers rise above this.”
He also dismissed ongoing blame games directed at the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and other external figures, arguing that the PDP must take responsibility for its internal conflicts and work towards a genuine resolution.
“This is 2025. By the middle of this year, politics will start and we keep blaming APC, Wike. What has that got to do with the price of milk? Throwing tantrums and pushing issues to say the APC is doing this or doing that, we’re just trying to undermine the issue. Let’s get inside and sort ourselves out without mincing words. No individual is higher than the party and it’s not the private enterprise of anybody.”
His remarks come amid ongoing party struggles over the position of the national secretary. In response to the crisis, the PDP’s Board of Trustees (BoT) has appointed former Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki, SAN, to mediate the dispute. However, no timeline has been set for his report, raising concerns about how soon the party can resolve its internal issues.
At the end of its 79th meeting, the BoT urged all party stakeholders to set aside personal and sectional interests in favour of the party’s unity and stability.
With the PDP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for February 2025, George stressed that time is running out for the party to put its house in order. He warned that if the leadership fails to act decisively, the divisions within the party will only deepen, further weakening its prospects ahead of the next election cycle.