Former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Gbenga Daniel, on Wednesday said the Peoples Democratic Party had been losing elections because it deviated from its guiding principles.
Daniel stated this while declaring his intention to contest the national chairmanship of the party in Abuja. He said that one of the guiding principles which defined the essence and character of the party but was jettisoned was transparency.
“I have done informed study of the myriad of problems which confronted our political party in the last few years, especially the one which had cost us several electoral victories since 2011, especially the presidency in 2015.
“Various reasons have been given about how we got to where we are. Chief of these are indiscipline and impunity, lack of internal democracy.
“Others are imposition of candidates as well as dangerous introduction of ticket racketing to unpopular candidates.
“The alteration of the time-tested zoning formula and convention also contributed in no small measure to the undoing of the PDP,’’ he said. Daniel said that a party that was hitherto governed by ethos and administered by internal conflict management mechanism based on equity, fairness, transparency and democracy became hostage to judicial controls.
He said that today, the PDP still carried the scar and in some cases, wounds from the misunderstanding and breakdown in the party discipline order.
