In the aftermath of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 100th National Executive Committee ( NEC) meeting, former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said there was no victor and no vanquished in the opposition party.
Saraki, in a statement, yesterday night, said all the leaders of the opposition party during the meeting resolved to bury their differences in the overall interest of the party.
The former Senate President expressed appreciation to all the leaders of the PDP for making sacrifices by shifting grounds on their earlier positions to achieve peace and unity in the opposition party.
“Today, there was no Victor and no vanquished. The winner today is the PDP. Another winner is Nigeria’s democracy because, without a vibrant opposition, democracy dies. Again, millions of our party members and supporters, who are located in all the 774 LGAs across the country, also emerged winners.
“To achieve victory for the party and the great people under its golden umbrella, all the leaders at the meeting resolved to jettison our differences and rally together to pursue a common goal: forget the past, rebuild trust that might have been broken, and give peace a chance.
“I am particularly happy about the meeting for two reasons. One, we all agreed on the need for unity as a way of sending a signal to the entire nation that PDP can only wax stronger. This is because we have to live up to the expectations of the generality of our people as the only alternative capable of providing good leadership to our country. Two, the spirit of give and take dominated our frank discussions.”
Saraki added that “the success of today’s NEC meeting is an indication that we have made some progress. We will continue to strive to strengthen the party and I am sure from now on, all hands will be on deck to achieve this noble purpose.
“We need to realise one fact: there is still a lot of work to be done. The spirit with which we achieved the peace today should be sustained from now on.
It is good that we have disappointed the pessimists.
“I hope that with the outcome of today’s meeting, we have disproved the false propaganda being circulated in some quarters that those of us who chose to remain in PDP are only scheming for the death of the party as opposed to building a strong opposition. If this false narrative were true, the leaders who shifted positions to give peace a chance would have chosen an alternative course of action.
“However, we are determined to make the party a strong opposition, capable of winning the next general election and serving our people better. We only need to forge ahead along these lines.”