Recently elected Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, on Tuesday formally flagged off efforts to rebuild the formerly ruling party with a view to returning it to power at the centre. Secondus in his opening remarks at a two-day retreat for PDP leaders in Abuja, noted that though the party is presently at cross roads, there is every possibility of it proving naysayers wrong and retaking the Aso Presidential Villa during the next general elections in 2019.

The PDP National Chairman said: “I welcome you all to this retreat which is an intellectual mind rubbing event to mark our take off in rebuilding our own party.

“On Sunday December 10, 2017 our great party made another landmark history in the nation’s democratic evolution when it conducted a successful National Convention and renewed a special mandate on all of us here gathered. Once again I congratulate all of you.

“The mandate they gave to us is special and of a very great size, to rebuild and re-position our party with a view to regaining the power we lost in 2015. Rebuilding trust is not an easy task but that is exactly what we have been charged to do by our teeming members across the country and in Diaspora. When there is a disaster the work of recovery and rebuilding is usually a long term but in our case the disaster of losing power in 2015 is such that we do not need a long period for recovery more so when the ruling party APC has shown clearly by its actions that it never came to govern.

“Our members and indeed Nigerians wants a quick fix for PDP and the huge challenge is on us gathered here. The time is now and it's ripe. In accepting this mandate to pilot this project, I have wholeheartedly surrendered my 120% service to this enterprise and I demand same of all of you.

“The only way to achieve what we have set out to do is by bringing all our stakeholders to work together as ONE larger family.

“I have said it loud and clear that the new PDP is being built around youths and women as catalysts for the rebuilding process.

“We the new leaders of this party should brace up for the huge the challenge, the time for individualistic ideology is over, and moving forward we all must collectively channel our energy and resources towards achieving the party’s present goal, as our ability to win in 2019 has implications not just for us as a party but also for the entire country. It is based on this reason that we are starting on a fresh note. We must be ready to compromise on personal agenda where necessary as well as make sacrifices for the greater good of the party. As a party in opposition, we must be ready to forgo certain deserving privileges for the good of the party.

“The point where we are at the moment is at the cross road about to take the critical decision of which direction to go right or left. Our choice should be swift, clear and unambiguous we are going right and it leads us straight to Aso Rock. Already we have given the ruling APC quit notice and we have no intention of withdrawing it.

“We must therefore begin to invest in our party with the aim of repackaging and eventually unveiling a reformed PDP to the Nigerian electorate, so as to regain their confidence. We must redefine who we are in the minds of Nigerians, down to the grass-root level. We must let the people know that we are ready to reignite the fire that once made Nigeria a shining beacon in Africa and the world over by returning this party to the real owners, the People. It's not for nothing that our founding fathers chose the slogan- 'power to the People. These actions are necessary for us to reclaim the territory we have lost across all 3 tiers of government.

“I believe that I speak your mind if I declare that the new NWC are here to SERVE this party and will continue to promote the principles of Democratic Practice, Progressive Politics, Good and Effective Leadership, and National Interest within our party.

“Conscious of the enormous challenges ahead, I have the intention of bringing in a team of communication experts, to help reignite and develop an effective strategy that will set us on the right path and drive our party towards surpassing even where we were before 2015.

In underscoring the importance of such experts in our midst at this moment may I publish this advisory to the PDP soon after we lost election by the resident Country Director of the International Republican Institute (IRI), Mr. Sentell Barnes, that as opposition Party, PDP, need to re-strategise in order to gain the trust of Nigerians again.

“The director said that the party (PDP) lost the election because of its inability to recognise the power of social media and its failure to harmonise its communication channels and charged them to re-strategise if they must bounce back in future elections.

“Barnes said that no party building task is more important than the development of a successful communications programme because it affects everything a party does. ‘No matter what a political party does, if it does not have effective communication, it can’t achieve much. PDP needs more strategic engagement to lose and unbundle any negative impression already created by the opposition.’

“This two-day retreat is therefore self-reawakening; to give everyone a say in the outcome, a chance to fully participate in crafting the key strategies to move the party forward. This is critical for obtaining buy-in. If they helped build it – they own it.

”Finally, I wish to address pessimists in our midst who are still day-dreaming thinking that PDP cannot resurrect to defeat an incumbent APC in an election in 2019, that after our successful National Convention they should have a rethink especially as politics is a game of variables.

“For such people I like to share this story of Helen Keller, an American author, political activist and first blind-deaf person to earn a degree in Arts in that country, and lived from 1880 to 1968 who said after getting her degree, ‘While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.’ And back home in Osun State in July while Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his APC group were swearing and saying PDP cannot win in Osun our own candidate Distinguished Senator Ademola Adeleke danced his way to victory and is now in the Senate.”