The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Akwa Ibom State Chapter, has allayed fears that those who recently defected from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the party would be relegated to the background, reassuring that all party members would be given equal opportunity and a level-playing ground.
Speaking through its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, in an interaction with journalists in Uyo over the weekend, PDP said it has put in place a solid structure so that no member would be marginalised.
According to Ememobong, “When people leave the PDP, it’s defection, when they return it’s home coming. So when people come back home, it’s easy to locate their rooms.”
On the position of the party on zoning, the Publicity Secretary said that zoning has become sacrosanct in the party because such would reduce political tension and unnecessary expenditure during the 2019 general elections.
He also said the widespread sensitization on zoning has readjusted the mindset of politicians in the state to avoid undue conflicts, adding that the ongoing purchase of nomination forms by members of the party was an indication of respect to the zoning arrangement.
The party spokesman said such peaceful move runs in contrast with other political parties that were allegedly chanting war songs, with the threat to win through violence.
He said as a party determined to win the support of the people through hard work and prove of competence, the PDP, instead of threat and intimidation, has held stakeholders’ meetings in the 329 wards across the state and carried out sensitization in the 10 federal constituencies.
Ememobong said the PDP is currently running over five radio programs, using such platforms to sensitize and give seed funds to aid small and medium scale business owners, in addition to training in various trades and vocations.
“We have been holding series of meetings to prepare the ground to ensure a free, fair, peaceful and credible elections. In the area of touching lives, we are currently running 4-5 programs on radio, sensitising and giving out monies for people to start small businesses, we give out as much as N250-500,000.
“It’s difficult for a person who is benefiting from you not to insist you stay. We are interacting with young professionals, market people, we are carrying out door to door campaigns, we are praying, the governor before declaring went first to God, this government has been made a part of the church. We have done that part that man needed to do. That is why the campaign slogan of the governor for 2019 is ‘Only God’,” he said
“People come into politics without preparing that the answer can either be yes or no, that’s why we keep asking those not favoured by zoning to avoid spending money, some aspirants do not even know how to interact with the electorates. That is why we keep sensitizing our members to avoid this.”
While expressing confidence that the PDP has worked harder than any other political party in the state and therefore stands a huge chance of sweeping the polls, the party spokesperson said, “PDP secretariat has been a beehive of activities within these past weeks, lots of people have indicated interest and actually purchased the forms, our forms are the most reasonable in the political market. For women, it’s just the expression of interest, the nomination form is free, only the incumbent has purchased form for governorship
“PDP is the only political party in this country to attain the age of 20, it was created as a platform where everyone, irrespective of religious or any affiliation can thrive. In the past 20 years, we have provided the fertile ground for democracy to thrive, I’m sure that if the type of party we have at the centre today had been for the past 20 years, there wouldn’t have been democracy. That’s our greatest achievement.”
