As the race for who becomes the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at its forthcoming national convention gathers momentum, a pressure group within the party in the South-West, PDP Consultative Forum, has advised the former governorship candidate of the party in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, not to contest the party’s chairmanship seat, stating that such a move may be counter-productive for the party at the state, zone and national level.
In a statement issued yesterday and signed by the group’s cordinator, Mr. Abolore Olusi, the South West PDP Consultative Forum said it is worried about heaps of insinuation in some quarters dragging Agbaje into the race, stating that such move, if true, will only decapitate and divide the party further.
“We are worried as concerned stakeholders in our dear party over the unconfirmed insinuation that Mr Jimi Agbaje, a protégée and political godson of Chief Olabode George, the leading aspirant of our party’s plum job, wants or is being pressurized to throw his hat into the ring of the contest. We want to believe that such reports emanated from fifth columnist who are out to severe the relationship between a ‘father and his son’.
“However, if it is true that such is in the pipeline or is being considered, we want to state unequivocally that the aspiration defies all sense of credibility, be it morally, politically, culturally and even spiritually. If anything, Agbaje should be the first to cue behind the aspiration of Chief Bode George to bring our party out of the doldrums.
“It’s on record that the current crisis the party is having in Lagos State was a product of the insistence of Chief Bode George against the moneybags in the state in 2015, that the will of the people, which was the relatively unknown Agbaje within the party, must prevail. It was Chief Bode George who used his own structures that had been built over 16 years to win the primary for Agbaje. Is this really the way you back the man who went the whole hog with Agbaje and even had to defend his acceptance and candidature before the presidency and party hierarchy?
“Because of Agbaje, Chief Olabode George got too many enemies but as a man who believes that the will of the majority must be respected, he brushed off the abuse and vituperations against him. To now think such a man would now have to contest the PDP chairmanship seat with someone he carried on his back to political relevance, is an aberration and that is unimaginable in Yorubaland or any sane society for that matter.
“As a group which is abreast with events and history of the party in the zone, we want to advise Agbaje to drop his ambition, if he had any at all, because this may be the path to political wilderness if he turned around to bite the finger that fed and still feeding him politically.
“Chief George is a reputable and respected man both within and outside our party. He was the brain behind the PDP tsunami in the South West in 2003 and his experience in party leadership and management cannot be bought in any supermarket shelve. We need his charisma, strength, fatherly figure and uncommon problem-solving tact to reawaken, reorganize our party and put us ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019,” the statement reads.
