Fielding Jonathan as 2015 Presidential Candidate Was a Mistake...PDP Recounts Regrets

Chief Raymond Dokpesi

 

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Tuesday, November 10, admitted that fielding ex President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole candidate for the May 29 presidential election was an error on its path.

 

Addressing reporters at a media parley in Abuja, the Chairman of the party’s National Conference Organising Committee, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, said the PDP ought to have stuck to its zoning arrangement, adding that the fundamental mistake the party made was the breach of its power shift pact in 2011.

 

According to him, when President Umaru Musa Ya’Adua died in office, the party should have allowed somebody from the North to complete his tenure, instead of settling for Jonathan from the South as its presidential candidate in 2011.

 

Dokpesi also argued that when it was expected that the party would field a northern candidate for the March 2015 election, but party leaders unanimously adopted Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate, a decision he said led to the party’s defeat at the elections.

 

He also explained that the party, in the build up to the last general election, failed to uphold internal democracy, adding that there was impunity, imposition of candidates, breach of the zoning arrangement, and the absence of a level playing field for members.

  

“Make no mistake, the PDP is aware that there were errors made along the way. We admit that at certain times in our past, mistakes have been made; we did not meet the expectations of Nigerians." he stressed