Professor Jerry Gana, a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the crisis that has shook the party since 2022 started and finished in Abuja and did not permeate to the grassroots.
Many people seem to have forgotten that the PDP is a grassroots group that effectively ended military dictatorship and took control of Nigerian politics, according to Gana.
He continued by reminding sceptics of the party’s formation in 1998 and the fact that it won the presidency, most local governments, every voting place, and complete power in the 1999 elections.
Speaking in an interview on Arise News, Gana said, “I must confess that many people have forgotten that the PDP was created as a grassroots organization.
“In 1998, we were formed and then moving to the elections in 1999 we were in every polling unit, because we are the ones who really won the first election.
“Many people have forgotten the PDP won most of the local governments, when it came to the presidential elections, we won the presidency, we won the Senate, we won the House.
“We were totally in control, and that is why we were very delighted that we restored democracy to Nigeria and re-established civil rule.
“Because for a number of years there was military rule but we successfully terminated that in a very democratic way, so the PDP was really as it were, a grassroots party.
“That’s why when we said ‘power to the people’, we meant it because that was what it was, and it has been like that.
“So when this recent problem happened, it was really among a few elites here in Abuja. It didn’t even go beyond.”
