The People's Democratic Party, PDP has begged Nigerians to forgive and forget its inability to meet their expectations over the 16 years that the party was in power.
The PDP also admitted that it made a mistake by fielding former President Goodluck Jonathan for 2015 Presidential election.
The party declared that it was ready to mend fences with Nigerians over certain decisions it took in the past which the people were not happy about.
As a way forward, the party said it was organizing a national conference where all issues concerning the PDP would be discussed.
The Chairman of the National Planning Committee of the conference, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi said at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday that the PDP lost the last presidential election due to some errors committed by its leadership.
He begged Nigerians to forgive and forget the sins of the party.
His words ;
“We are aware that there were errors we made. We admit that we made mistakes and we have not met the expectation of Nigerians and we tender unreserved apologies for these mistakes.
“You must have seen the Ike Ekweremadu report on why we are apologising. There was no internal democracy. There was impunity within the party and there was no level-playing ground for members of the party.
“Zoning principles of the party were abandoned and gamuts of all other issues, which will come out during the conference and for all these and the people who have been offended; for people whose toes were stepped upon, we also tender an unreserved apology.
“These are the reasons why we are begging and apologising. We want to assure every founding member of the party that we deviated from their visions. That is why we are going to have all our founding fathers, like Adamu Ciroma, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and other members of the G.34, to come and talk to us at the conference.
“For every and any mistake we have made, I therefore say, we tender our unreserved apologies.”
Dokpesi said that it was a mistake for the PDP to abandon its zoning arrangement to field Goodluck Jonathan for the 2015 presidential election. He added that the party should have allowed the North to complete its term when President Umar Musa Yar'Adua died in 2010.
“The party in 2010 and 2011 made the first round of mistake of not allowing the North to complete its term.
“That was when the party gave a special favour to the then President (Jonathan), who came to compete the term of Yar’Adua, to be allowed to finish just a term.
“The same small leaders of the party came forward in 2015 and refused to allow the North to field the party’s presidential candidate. They manipulated the party to do the same.
“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.
“But the past is exactly what it is. While we should not forget the past and its errors, we must look forward and begin to show true leadership within and outside our party,” he said.
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