Nigerian Leaders Must Make Personal Sacrifices, PDP Tells Jonathan, Other Elected Officials.

PDP Secretary, Olisa Metuh 

 

By SaharaReporters, New York

The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), today called on President Goodluck Jonathan and other elected members of the party to be ready to make personal sacrifices and self-denial.
The party said in an unusual statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, this is what Nigerians expect from them as their leaders.
It also said that underperforming elected officials of the party in public offices would not be allowed to fly the party’s flag in 2015, an unprecedented acknowledgement that some of its officials have failed to live up to public expectation.
“The 2015 re-election ticket for its members would be anchored strongly on credible performance while non–performing appointed officials would be shown the way out as well as be blacklisted,” the statement said.
Issued to mark the party’s 14th anniversary next Friday, the statement called on its members in public offices to go the extra mile in ensuring the “faithful and accelerated translation of its manifesto” in order to meet what it called the “burgeoning expectations” of Nigerians.  
“Our focus on the performance chart of our members in government is a crucial pedestal to achieving our pact with the people whose mandate we have,” it stated.
It further said, “Those who have been lukewarm; those on the borders of average must wake to the reality that the re-awakened destiny of our party, the pact which gave us mass appeal, is leaving them behind. The choice is to shape in or ship out.”
This is the first time the party has ever placed the indivisibility of the party on the line or “demanded” performance of its elected officials.
Analysts told SaharaReporters in response that the recent Edo State elections gubernatorial contest, in which the PDP was electorally buried in every community statewide by the respected performance of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, may have generated panic in the national rhetoric of the party.
“The PDP is clearly beginning to feel the heat, to recognize that it can no longer take the people for granted at the polls, especially where rigging is limited,” one of them said.  “The question is whether it is too late, especially at the centre, to which the party’s “demand” for performance ought to resonate clearly.”
Another political analyst said the PDP was simply playing games, and is neither capable of change nor interested in it.
“This is not a party capable of change unless it is taught a historic lesson by voters in a free and open burial as in the case of Edo State,” he said, asking, “Do you think the patient knows his condition is terminal, or merely thinks it is a cold day today?”