Former President Goodluck Jonathan, while receiving members of the Forum of  former speakers of State Houses of Assembly, who visited him in Abuja on Thursday, advised the leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to adopt statutory delegates in the party’s next constitution amendment.

Highlights:

• He stressed that the review was necessary for the internal selection process in states and local governments.
• The former President observed that one of the major challenges facing the PDP was the election of candidates into national and party offices at the highest level.
• According to him, the selection process can hardly be crisis-free, but that crisis would be better managed if the number of statutory delegates could be reviewed up to 70 percent.
• He called for the inclusion of persons who have served at certain levels, including ex-governors, ministers, lawmakers and others in the list of statutory delegates.
• That is the area we have not been able to manage properly that is still creating a problem for us. I believe the next constitutional amendment should advocate for that area to be properly examined.
• The former President advised PDP members not to be intimidated by the anti-corruption war being waged by the present administration.
• There are stories of corruption. I say this will always be there because if you read the statement of the organisers of the first military coup, their statement was attributed to corruption…it is always corruption. It will continue to be but one day we will get out of it. Most nations passed through this stage of life.
• The only thing I plead with you is not to politicise certain basic things. Issues of corruption, yes, it is worrisome. Nobody will encourage it. The society must come up with reform to reduce it if you cannot eliminate it totally. No Society is 100 percent free of some of these vices but the approach you go about it is key.
• He described the PDP as the strongest party in the land, saying the party lost the 2015 elections due to certain reasons.
• People maybe writing left and right, at the appropriate time, some of these things would be properly addressed because of history. There are certain things you don’t write now because it would be misunderstood as if you are playing politics.
• He encouraged members to continue to be loyal to the party, unlike those playing “politics of the stomach” by defecting to other parties.
• Jonathan insisted that the PDP did well during its 16-year- rule, going by the number of reforms the party introduced and implemented.
• Jonathan also said he would soon make public what happened in the 2015 general elections that made the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lose the presidency.

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram