A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, has attributed the poor outings of the party in recent elections in the state to a lack of unity in the Lagos chapter.
Pearse, a former chairmanship aspirant of the party in the state, expressed the view in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Lagos.
He said the political party had also not been functioning well in the state because its structure had been weakened and had no leader serving as a rallying point in the chapter.
“We have some fundamental problems in this state chapter, and because of these problems, the party is no longer functioning well as a political party in the state.
“For a party to function well, Ward meetings and Local Government Area meetings must be organised regularly for members, so that they can be easily brought together and mobilised for elections.
“We do not have this in Lagos PDP because we do not have a leader serving as a rallying point.
“When we don’t organise LGA meetings and we don’t organise ward meetings, it is difficult to win elections,” Pearse said.
Pearse, who said politics was local, expressed regret that the party had been crippled at the ward level.
“Everything happens at the ward level, but we do not have this again because there is no leader to coordinate the meetings,” he added.
The party chieftain also said members of the State Executive Committee of the party were not united and could not bring the party together.
Pearse said that the party was strong in the state at the time because there was a leader who served as a rallying point.
He said many issues arose in the party during the governorship election in 2023, which affected its performance.
“We are still where we are until we figure out how to resolve these issues. We do not have a party in Lagos State now.
“The 2023 general elections in Lagos State and the handing over of delegates list to the governorship candidate cost us where we are now and we have not recovered from that,” he said.
Speaking on the poor performance of the PDP in the February 3 Surulere Federal Constituency I by-election, Pearse said that the party failed because it did not present a strong candidate.
He said the candidate presented for the election was not known to stakeholders in the party.
“Lagos PDP is just filled with wrong people and that is why the party is in trouble,” he said.
Pearse, however, said that many of the issues threatening the party in the state would be resolved with the emergence of a new national leadership.
“Things will change soon,” the party chieftain said.
PDP’s Abdul-Azeez Adediran polled 62,449 votes to come a distant third in the 2023 governorship elections in the state, while APC polled 762,134 votes to emerge winner.
Similarly, in the Feb. 3 Surulere Federal Constituency 1 by-election, PDP polled 278 while APC obtained 11,203 votes of the 11,939 total votes, to record a landslide victory.
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