It is a wonderful time in the life of our great party. The People’s Democratic Party is back! Our long nightmare is over! The good Lord is on the side of the righteous. The truth is back on the saddle.
Justice has finally triumphed. Our hope is renewed. Our spirit is reborn. The judiciary which is the last bastion of all peace loving men and women and a critical leg of our democratic tripod has finally reaffirmed its purity of purpose. The justices have spoken out loud and clear. They have restored our democracy. They have redeemed our nation.
They have restored the truth. They have reinforced the tenet of constitutionality over arbitrariness. They have confirmed the sacredness of the codifications of our party’s constitution over the intrusive malady of the wandering illegality. Yes, the Supreme Court justices have given our party back to us. Glory be to God.
The July, 12th judgment which overturned the aberrational illogic of the Port Harcourt Appeal Court ruling has most significantly resuscitated the dying embers of our infant democracy. For in this momentous judgment of the highest court in our land, there is a rebirth and a renewal. There is a strengthened rededication to the finest ethos of our democratic values. Yes democracy works if we all obey the rules. Democracy triumphs when we all respect what is fair and just.
In fact, in a larger sense, the Supreme Court judgment is not necessarily a narrow arbitration of intra-party differences. It is more. It is about the fundamental underpinning of all our democratic principles. It is about whether the legal provisions and the abiding constitutional document of a party can be indiscriminately abused and flung into the gutter merely to appease individual ambition.
No democracy can endure on the whims and the caprices of anyone. Democracy is never about what soothes our fancy and what does not. Democracy is always about the strict adherence to laid down principles. It is always about the deference to the rule of law. It is always about the respect for constitutional guidance. It is always about defined procedures and ethical balance.
And without the rule of the law, without respect for constitutional order, the society slips into chaos and the rule of the jungle where anarchy and the riot of the fists and the reign of the cudgel will prevail. We have been brought back from the abyss. We have been redeemed from a slide into destruction. The nation itself has been retrieved from this close withdrawal into the Hobbesian state of nature where life will be short and brutish.
Even as we insist that there is no victor and there is no vanquished, we cannot ignore the glaring lessons we have learned from these torturous two years of self-imposed chaotic eruptions that almost annihilated the cohesiveness of our party and invariably provoked a monolithic one-party state, shattering the normative essence of plural democracy. But we thank God. The legitimate and responsible opposition is back! That is the core value of democracy.
The first lesson here is that a free association like a party is always guided by its own rules, its own norms and principles. And once you are part of such association, you must abide by its laws. In this wise, no one is greater than the summative essence of a party. No one can rewrite the very defining identity of an association just to soothe his fancy.
Secondly, individual ambition can never override the general principles and practices of a collective organization.
The third lesson is that leaders must never play God. You cannot impose your whims and caprices upon everyone without suffering its consequences.
Those who brought Sheriff may be well meaning. But they forgot that to lead an organization you always need those who are tested, proven and well accustomed to the tenets and the norms of such organization. When you bring someone who is not well attuned to the rule of the game, the result is always disastrous. That is what provoked the near destructive grapple we just went through.
Let us now look ahead with a firm grip and with a renewed focus. Let us now forge ahead with calm distinctive vision and with thorough purposeful resolve. We must never revisit the vitiating mistakes of the very recent past. We must never again mortage our party for personal ambition. We lost Edo and Ondo because we were not united. Enough of this divisiness.
Let me reiterate again that this is not the time to be scheming in the shadows for personal ambition. This is not the time to engage in perpetual blame game and continue to slog it out in the barricades
This is the time of purposeful reflection and rebuilding. This is the time to mend the broken places and rectify the wounds of old. This is the time to move forward with great contemplation and determined zeal.
We must rebuild the nearly shattered fabric of our party. We must be vigilant. We must be sincere with ourselves. We must put aside personal ambition for selflessness and sacrifice. We must withdraw from narrow focus and move towards the broader avenue of rebuilding our party and make it more relevant to the ordinary people, the weak, the poor, the disadvantaged and all those who are presently elbowed out of the Nigerian dream.
We must move away from greed to collective discipline. We must move away from personal satisfaction to the general good. We must continue to support those who remained steadfast, devoted, dogged and unshaken amid the storm and the turbulence of the last fourteen months.
Let me use this opportunity to congratulate the members of the National Caretaker Committee who stood firmly with the truth, who were resolute and firm amid great provocations. I also want to use this opportunity to thank all our governors who stood with what is right and just. They have not labored in vain.
Again, while we now preach and acknowledge that there is no victor and no vanquished, we are now eternally vigilant against those serial dissidents and reckless characters who insist on betraying the party’s trust. We will not sit down and watch if anyone tramples on the core value of our party again.
We will no longer tolerate those sleek, dubious and ambivalent characters who pronounce allegiance to PDP in the day time while they hobnob with APC in the shadows of the night. We are not fools. We know who our leaders are. We know the authentic voices of statesmanship and men and women of honourable heritage who never wavered amid the severe challenges of the tumultuous period. As we stretch out our hands to embrace the prodigal sons, we insist that the rules and the tenets of the party constitution remain sacrosanct. We insist that there will be no sacred cows. The party remains supreme. The constituents and the ideals of our constitution must never again be eroded without the necessary consequence. There is no more room for shameless opportunists who want to reap where they did not sow
The Board of Trustees of our party is the conscionable arbiter, the neutral symbol of the pivot of all our essential values. The membership of the BOT is therefore a pre-eminently significant moral center. It is assumed that those who constitute this privileged body must at all times live above board, distant from any insidious, double-dealing treachery. That is the way it is. That is the way it ought to be.
And, here, in Lagos, the authentic and the valid EXCO that is recognized by our Caretaker Committee is the one led by Honourable Moshood Salvador, his Deputy Chief Ola Apena and his Secretary Prince Muiz Dosunmu. This is true in law. This is true on all moral ramifications. Anything else is a fraud. Any other platform is null and void, a flagrant non-sequitor.
As the ashes of rebellion and errant dissidency are being swept away, our party is now maturing in new truths, in new strength and in new awareness.
We are ready for the Nigerian people. We are prepared to play the assertive role of responsible opposition. We are repositioning ourselves for the new challenges.
As part of our strategy of confronting the present challenges, we have decided here in Lagos to implement a PDP and Labour Party Alliance for this Saturday local government Election. It is a necessary recourse which has been authorized and blessed by the National Caretaker Committee.
My appeal now is to all our loyal members and all the electorate in Lagos State to please go out enmasse and vote for our candidates under the Labour Party platform.
This is the platform of truth and liberation. This is the platform that is people centered. This is the platform that cares about the weak, about the poor, about everyone else who wants a better and improved governance in our state of excellence.
Those who stand with God will never fail. Those who genuinely make sacrifice for the greater good of others will always gain favour in the eyes of the Lord.
We have labored. We have made sacrifices. We have not relented on the path of purity. Now this is the time of harvest. This is the time to reap the fruits of honesty and the unshaken dedication to the true course. Our task begins anew. Our journey begins afresh. Our devotion remains unflagging as we confront the present and the future with bold, candid resolve. May the good Lord give us all a bountiful yield. May His Grace and Mercy abide with each and everyone of you. I thank you for listening.
Chief Olabode George, CON
