Acceptance Speech by His Excellency, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, CON as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday, 17th June, 2010 at the Party’s National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja.

His Excellency, The President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR

His Excellency, The Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,

Arc. Mohammed Namadi Sambo, GCON

His Excellency, The Senate President, Sen. David Mark, GCON

His Excellency, The Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives,

Hon. Dimeji Bankole, CPR,

Your Excellency, The Deputy Senate President,

The Deputy Speaker,

Distinguished Senators and

Honourable Members of the Federal House of Representatives,

Their Excellencies, Our State Governors and

Your good selves here present who have held some of these exalted position in the past My Co-NWC members and our distinguished NEC,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is with great humility and praises to the Almighty God that I accept the singular honour and privilege so graciously bestowed on me today to serve as the National Chairman of our great Party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), by the National Executive Committee of the Party, at its meeting of today, 17th June, 2010 at our party headquarters in Wadata Plaza, Abuja.

This decision, I know, has not been easy as many capable and eminently qualified leaders of the South East zone aspired to the position. While I thank each and every member of our National Executive Committee for choosing me, I also salute all the eminently qualified leaders who indicated their interest, and offer them my hand of fellowship.

At this juncture, permit me to acknowledge with the utmost reverence the due diligence of the President in fostering a harmonious atmosphere, free of rancour and bitterness, in the search for the replacement of the former National Chairman of our great Party, Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor. Mr. President, I salute you!

I believe there are no winners or losers as the challenge facing us goes beyond individual personalities. The challenge facing us is the onerous task of rededicating ourselves to the service of our party; to renovate it and elevate it to an enviable institution fully equipped for the consolidation and advancement of true democracy in our dear country.

Your Excellencies, party faithfuls, please permit me to formally recognise and congratulate our President and Vice President on their recent assumptions of their highly exalted offices. No doubt, by virtue of their positions, they are the greatest instruments of our Party in winning public approval. While I congratulate the President for his remarkable success in his skillful navigation of the ship of state, I urge him to continue in the good work he is doing in our overall interest.

My dear friends, I recall that it was on Wednesday, the 19th of August, 1998 that the founding fathers of our party gathered in this Capital City Abuja and gave birth to the Peoples Democratic Party. Our aims and objectives were patriotic and our dreams lofty and visionary.

In our manifesto to the people of Nigeria we said and I quote: “The morals and conduct of our people collapsed to abysmal levels and rampant corruption in all its forms became the norm while integrity became a subject of derision. The spirit of fair play whether in official dealings, or interpersonal relations was destroyed” and again” The decline in political morality and integrity in public offices has eroded the commitment of political leaders to the country and destroyed the faith of common people in any form of political leadership. “

We then promised “that the party shall, in the selection of candidates for public office, and in appealing to the public, emphasize ability, commitment to the common man’s welfare, and accountability in the conduct of our politics. A new type of leadership must develop, it must be forward looking and it must be inspiring and possessing a sense of mission. In essence, the country must learn once more to choose the honest and not the selfish. These choices are not negotiable. We are committed to fight, by all means necessary, the twin evils of mismanagement and corruption in our national life to restore public morality.”

Mr. President, my dear party faithfuls, if we ask ourselves how well we have kept this covenant with the Nigerian people, the answer may not be satisfactory to anyone. Our party today has been handed over to godfathers at different levels that, with reckless abandon, expose candidates with questionable character and no leadership qualities whatever and clear the way for them to run for elections under our party flag. Such people elected under our party banner have consistently brought public odium on our great party to the chagrin of our party members and the nation at large.

Our process of choosing our candidates must once again be subjected to internal democracy, to the dictates of our Party constitution and the extant rules. On that faithful August morning we named our organisation, the Peoples Democratic Party. We must return the choice of our candidates to the people and not to individual godfathers and .godmothers. It is only by this time-honoured democratic process that we can present to the Nigerian people for elective offices quality candidates that are imbued with the patriotic vision of our party.

The days of imposition of candidates by the PDP, hoping to hoist such leaders on the people of Nigeria through rigged elections are over and over forever. Our members aspiring to carry our banner in future elections must start now to market themselves and canvass their programmes aggressively to our party members and the Nigerian electorate. They must get hold of our party Manifesto which we hope to update shortly and study it from page to page and imbibe both the letter and spirit of that document. That Manifesto is our covenant with the Nigerian people. It is our SOCIAL CONTRACT with the electorate. That Manifesto is the new face of the PDP.

All our candidates from Councillors to the President must campaign based on this document and if they win, must strive-to actualize their campaign promises at all levels of government. I guess that many of our elected officials have never seen or read the manifesto of the PDP. This is sad, to put it mildly.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, our flag has green, white and red stripes. It is important that our members and those that represent us at all levels of government know the full meaning of these colours. The green colour represents the vast agricultural landscape of our country. We promised ourselves that no Nigerian should go to bed hungry. Now, have we guaranteed food security to our people? We need to work on this with passion and commitment. The white stripe represents peace and integrity. We must have peace in our party before we can usher in peace in our nation. You cannot give what you do not have. We must love each other and assist each other as a family. We have to bring peace in our country. We are proud of the peace our government has brought to the Plateau and the Niger Delta. Integrity and sincerity must underline our pronouncements and actions to our fellow countrymen and women. Nigerians must come to trust the PDP and the PDP Government. The red stripe is for our struggle and labours past and present. Many Nigerians have paid the supreme sacrifice for one united and indivisible Federal Republic of Nigeria and these sacrifices ought not be in vain. The PDP covenants with all Nigerians that we will continue to labour to keep that unity, not by coercion but by persuasion and concerted effort to build a nation where all may truly regard as home.

In returning our party to the dreams of its founding fathers, we must know and share in those dreams. We promise our people that never again will we allow the military back into politics and governance of our dear country. Only a little while ago, Nigerians were even wishing that the military should come back! Nothing could be more disheartening.

I wish to say a few words on electoral reforms which is on the front burner in our ­country today. We must first salute the courageous and indefatigable stand of our late President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on this issue. (please stand up for a minute’s silence in his honour). In his famous inaugural speech, our dear late President was less than satisfied with the election that brought him to power. With remarkable courage and selflessness, he proceeded to set up the now famous Uwais electoral reform panel. The recommendations of this august panel have been widely acclaimed by most Nigerians. Late President Yar’Adua was in the process of implementing this report but the travails of ill health unfortunately undermined that process before the cold hands of death took him away from us.

Happily, our dear President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has taken the bold and praise-worthy step of assuring Nigerians and the international community of his administration’s commitment to free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria in 2011. This is a worthy legacy the PDP must assist our President to give to our nation.

In actualising the President’s promise, I believe there are two phases to it. One is internal democracy within our party which will give Nigerians the confidence that we can deliver on the second phase, which is free, fair and credible elections in the country, Smaller and less endowed countries in Africa are already famous for credible elections, and we must insist and prove to the world that credible elections are also possible in Nigeria.

To assist you, Mr. President, any candidate who employs thugs in the primary elections will be disqualified, no matter how highly placed. PDP is saying NO to thuggery and all manner of electoral malpractice in our elections. We do not mind such a thug going out to win a general election on the ticket of another party but not under the banner of PDP.

Needless to say, we need money to prosecute our elections but I can assure you that Ghana-Must-Go bags will not be needed at the National Secretariat of PDP in order to win primary elections. There will be no room for cash-and-carry democracy in the PDP because it is the bane of true democracy.

Fellow democrats, we must open the democratic space. Our party was designed as an all-inclusive political party. The last sentence in the binding document that formed the PDP out of the crystallization of these main political associations, namely ANC, PCF, SPP, PDM and PNF is “We hereby solemnly RESOLVE to form a credible, nation-wide, people-oriented and principled political party, enjoying the widest support throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So help us God”.

It is clear from the composition of these founding organizations that our party is not a little bit to the right or a little bit to the left. On the contrary, conservatives and liberals sank their differences to keep the military in the barracks, to bury hunger and poverty in the land, to generate electricity, provide water, good transportation, health services and functional education. These entrenched problems do not affect conservatives to the exclusion of liberals and vice versa. Together we were all committed to these ideals, hence some of us were taken aback when PDP embarked on selective registration of members.

The focus of my leadership of the Party will be primarily on the rebuilding of the party’s image. To do this, I will first of all open up the Party to all Nigerians who deserve to join the party. To this end, I shall soon approach our National Executive Committee with a memorandum requiring approval for all members and prospective members to revalidate or register their membership by paying a membership fee and stipulated subscription fees into designated banks all over the federation. This payment will automatically qualify a member to be registered in his ward and be eligible to hold any position in the Party or be sponsored by the Party for any elections. It will also enable the Party to build a new and verifiable voter register which is a condition precedent for a virile and implementable system of internal party democracy. It will unchain the Party from an organisation where “who you know” matters, to an organisation where your popularity is paramount.

My fellow democrats, we all know that politics is a game of numbers. We need people. This is a People’s Democratic Party. We are anchored on the people. People for membership, people for votes, people for solving the problems of Nigeria for all the people of Nigeria. We will, therefore, use this basic doctrine of all-inclusiveness in the membership of the PDP, rather than the godfather, this faction or that faction syndrome, in solving all problems in the States where there may be crisis. I am saying that there must be total inclusivity of all party members in the membership and the running of the party. The new umbrella we are here to build is so wide and can indeed accommodate all that wish to come under it.

The scope of our delegates to our party primaries must be reviewed to give us far more of elected delegates than statutory delegates. This is what we mean by opening up the party to widen its electoral base and, what is more, enhance the credibility of our internal democracy. The more we reach out to the people and involve them in selecting our candidates, the better our chances of finding the candidates that we can market and who can bring us victory in general elections. If we fail to do this, we would have given the opposition the unfettered opportunity to field superior candidates who can beat us in the elections.

Mr. President, please be assured that we will certainly help you to count two, loud and clear, to all Nigerians and the whole world that the era of free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria has finally arrived.

As stated earlier, in the beginning, our party was founded on concrete principles anchored in our Name, the people’s Democratic Party, our Flag, green, white and red stripes, and our Emblem, the umbrella. We rode to power on the massive support and enormous goodwill of the Nigeria people. Over the years, we have squandered this goodwill to the point that even some of our members are no longer proud to be identified as PD P members and other Nigerians say that the problem of Nigeria is the PDP.

Fellow democrats, this is the time and here is the place, with our God- given President leading the way, to begin to restore the people’s confidence in our great party. We must bring back internal democracy, trust and confidence in our Party, credibility in our electoral process, all-inclusiveness in our membership, entrenchment of democratic ideals in our party politics and, above all, excellence as our hallmark in fulfilling our covenant with our countrymen and women. Loyalty to the party and the ideals enunciated by our founding fathers remain our beacon light.

My fellow compatriots, it is the same patriotic spirit that inspired our founding fathers on the 19th day of August 1998 that I invoke in us all today.” That in the irresistible tides of history, there comes a time that individuals must rise and dedicate themselves completely to larger causes, set aside the simplistic notions of selfishness, greed and sectionalism. Such times as we have today in our party, nay in our country, call for the humanity and compassion of men- a deep desire to associate together in the pursuit of nobility of purpose, devotion to duty and dignity in individual existence and love of one’s country. Let us rise to this commitment of EXCELLENCE in our service to our fatherland. This banner of excellence must be the new image of PDP.

In conclusion, let me thank you once again for the confidence that you have reposed in me by asking me to be the national chairman of our great Party. Let me also assure you, that I will be fair to all concerned but inflexible on matters of integrity, transparency on internal electoral processes and the expectation of hard work from all concerned in achieving victory for our party. Thank you so much for your kind attention.

DR. OKWESILIEZE NWODO, CON National Chairman, PDP.