The stakeholders meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called by its national leadership to deliberate on the way forward for the Ondo State November gubernatorial election on Tuesday failed to agree on the idea of a consensus candidate.
The acting National Chairman of the main opposition party, Iliya Damagun, had announced to the about 78 Ondo State critical party members who were invited to the meeting that its aim was to discuss the possibility of a consensus candidate in the election, the issue of zoning and the mode of primary election.
But after about two hours of deliberations, the meeting resolved to continue discussion on a possible consensus candidate while throwing support for the idea of zoning.
Eight governorship aspirants under the PDP in the state were at the meeting.
ALSO READ: Ondo guber: 2020 loss taught PDP bitter lesson – Gov Makinde
One of them confided in Tribune Online that they failed to come to agreement on the question of a consensus candidate because they did not believe a few people as composed in the closed door interactive session could take the decision.
“Every aspirant believes he has good prospects to win the ticket,” the source said, adding: “We will like the electorate to decide.”
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, who briefed newsmen on the outcome of the meeting, could not be drawn into the decisions reached, only saying that the conversation would continue.
While fielding questions, he said: “Basically the issues you referenced were discussed because conversation is ongoing when it comes to the issue of consensus.
“What was paramount in our own dispensation is the PDP is a democratic party that respects its own constitution and we agreed we will in every action that we take going forward in this process, the constitution will be our guide.
“More importantly we talked about unity in the party because without unity whether you zone or not, consensus or not, you don’t go anywhere.
“So, we have major on unity and we recognize the fact that conversation will continue.”
He assured that there would be a free and transparent process “leading to whoever becomes the candidate from our primary election.”
Speaking before the meeting went into a closed session, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State declared that the loss of the 2020 Ondo State governorship election taught the PDP a bitter lesson.
He said, however, that the party tried its best amid internal divisions going into the exercise.
Recall that the candidate of the PDP in the 2020 election, Eyitayo Jegede, was defeated by the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) and its then candidate late Rotimi Akeredolu.
Governor Makinde was of the opinion that despite the loss, the main opposition party learned a critical lesson, saying, “You learn more when you lose than win.”
The governor warned that the 2024 governorship election would not be won on a platter of gold but stressed: “As PDP, we will fight. At this time, we are united.”
He noted that disagreement in politics is normal but appealed to the stakeholders to stick together for the sake of victory in the November exercise.
Makinde stated that after the victory, any disagreement could then be resolved.
The Oyo governor stated: “We learned from the last governorship election. Actually, you learn more when you fail than when you succeed. So, we learned bitter lessons.
“For the benefit of everybody, the governorship election in Ondo State is not going to be handed over to anybody. It will be a fight. As PDP, we will fight.
“If, in the past four years ago, we had that division within us that allowed the seat to slip away from us, at this time, we are united and we will stay united all the way to the election. So, this is a time for us to come together.
“We may actually disagree on a few things, but from our own situation in the Oyo State, yes, we have disagreements, but we’re solving our problems even as we speak. We’re not solving it outside. We’re solving it right inside the Government House.
“So, if you disagree, it’s normal. But let us win the Government House and then all the areas of disagreement we will keep addressing it. We can only share success; failure is difficult to share.
“So, by God’s grace, we shall be successful in the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election.”
In his remark earlier, the acting National Chairman, Iliya Damagun, reminded the aspirants that at the end of the day, there would be only one party candidate, adding: “So, why we are going ahead to do this thing, I want us to act with a lot of caution.”
