APC, others are absorbing demons from PDP – Effiong Edunam

Tinubu

A Former Commissioner of Education in Akwa Ibom, Effiong Edunam, has said that opposition parties welcoming new members from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are absorbing ‘demons.’

Mr Edunam said that those absorbing people from PDP were yet to prove that they could digest what they have absorbed and still move forward as PDP had done in the past 15 years.”

He also said that the PDP should be given a pat on the back for successfully overcoming the challenges it faced regarding its National Chairmanship.

Speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Mr Edunam said the party had been able to weather the storm despite the presence of opposition parties that were waiting to take advantage. “Our democratic practice is still at the infant stage” and so “a lot of challenges are bound to rise,” he said.

“I think in terms of the kind of challenges that PDP has experienced recently, we can only congratulate the party that it weathered the storm and came out with a new chairman.

“There were a lot of scavengers hovering around what they thought would be the carrion of a dead PDP and I think they have been disappointed.”

He claimed that other political parties had attempted to “feed on the disabilities of the PDP and by that approach and grow to replace PDP. “But a short while ago, these parties demonise the membership of PDP and its leadership and now they are absorbing these demons into their existing structure.”

“We still have a little time to wait and see whether having absorbed these demons, they would not end up with the kind of problems PDP had.”

Mr Edunam agreed that there may be changes in the power structure in the National Assembly but added that “the PDP had already consolidated its standing in the Nigerian polity and in the National Assembly itself.”

He further described the party as “an evolving party.” “Our democratic practice is also evolving. We have to grapple with the problems of deepening internal democracy, the challenges we face with the emergence of party leaders, funding and distribution of power within the structure of the party.

“We could still expect these troubles to continue for a little while longer but then the party is labouring at resolving them as you saw in the case of the National Chairmanship.”

He highlighted a major problem of the ruling party as “internal discipline” and added that the party’s ability to manage challenges “suggests whether it is going to move forward or collapse”.