The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has tasked the Prince Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to get down to work immediately as there is no honeymoon for them.
He has also scored the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led government low on all fonts, saying the debt profile of Nigeria under the party is frightening.
Ekweremadu also commended the PDP faithful for a credible and hitch-free national convention, noting that the party had lived up to its name.
He stated this in a congratulatory message to the newly elected PDP NWC.
He said: “I congratulate Prince Uche Secondus-led NWC on their election in a free, fair, credible, transparent, and indeed democratic. The PDP has set an example, which other political parties will have to emulate to deepen the nation’s democracy.
“Importantly, I believe that 2019 is a comeback year for the PDP because distraught Nigerians look up to our great party. However, there is a lot of work to be done and party faithful expect members of the new NWC to hit the ground running because they have no luxury of a honeymoon.
“We expect them to start the process of galvanising party faithful to reposition the PDP and mobilise Nigerians towards building a Nigeria of our dreams”.
Ekweremadu urged party members and Nigerians to support the PDP NWC to deliver on its mandate.
Meanwhile, Ekweremadu has scored the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led administration low on security, economy, job creation, and national unity.
This was even as he described the 16 years that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power as glorious years for the country, noting that “good men and women who left PDP for the APC are eager to return to join us to build a better Nigeria”.
Ekweremadu spoke on Saturday in Abuja at the national convention to elect new leaders of the PDP.
He said: “the PDP worked out Nigeria’s debt forgiveness and paid up our remaining debts, but today, we are getting indebted more than any other time in the history of Nigeria.
“We groomed and bequeathed the fastest growing economy as well as the largest economy in Africa. The story is different today”.
The Senator also maintained that whereas the PDP years saw to job creation and improvement in agriculture and consequent low food prices, Nigerians have lived under dire realities of insecurity, unemployment, and hunger.
He said: “Millions of our people, who lost their jobs in the last two years and those who struggled through higher institutions of learning to receive education, but could not find jobs in the last two years, but who believe that when PDP returns, there will be hope for them.
“Our brothers and sisters from the North East, who were liberated by the PDP government, but who are now suffering under attacks and threats by Boko Haram believe that they will be safe when PDP returns to power.
“Our people, who are struggling everyday to leave Nigeria to the so-called Eldorado in Europe, but who either end up in the Mediterranean or trapped in Libya and other places because of the hardship in Nigeria believe that this convention will mark the beginning of the end of their problems, as they see hope for Nigeria in 2019”.
He decried the level of disunity in the country today unlike in the PDP years, which, he said “showed Nigerians, in true sense of it, that we belong to everybody”.
“Former leaders of the nation are worried about the disunity in our country want to see a PDP government that will reunite all of us once more.
“In 16 years, we saw justice done to the people of South West of Nigeria when they were deprived the presidency. The PDP provided them with the platform to be part of this country when they made one of their sons, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo the president of Nigeria.
“PDP, within the 16 years, showed the minorities in Nigeria that they are part of us when the party gave one of their own, Dr. Goddluck Jonathan, a platform to be elected the President of Nigeria.
“PDP gave amnesty to those struggling in the creeks and oil production continued because we applied dialogue instead of force and confrontation. Today, the beneficiaries of that amnesty are doing well in different sectors” he added.
Ekweremadu stressed that Nigerians had witnessed darkness in the past two years, but were now eager to see the light again under the PDP.
He, therefore, urged delegates to elect good and competent party faithful as leaders to fulfill the high expectations of Nigerians who now looked up to the PDP for recovery from 2019.