A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, on Wednesday stated that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been taught a bitter lesson, warning that the party may go extinct if reforms are not made at the earliest possible time.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Chidoka stated that the party lost some of its strongholds to the Labour Party (LP) in the last election.
While insisting that the party must get its leadership right, he said the PDP must start to act as an opposition party.
He said, “The PDP in itself is a government that was in power for 16 years. Its instinct is that of a government party and not that of an opposition party, and it has taken us eight years now to begin to realise.
“We are smelling the coffee that it’s not four years and we are back or we are coming back the next day.
“Now, we are beginning to see that PDP itself needs to be reformed. It needs to renew and reimagine itself to be able to begin to play the role of opposition, knowing full well that we have a politician as president.
“If PDP doesn’t get its act together, it will be an extinct party. So, we need to wake up, smell the coffee, find the kind of leadership that will represent us in an opposition atmosphere, and begin to do the work of the opposition.
“We must do the work of mobilization and imbibe the work of technology.
“[The] last four years have taught us a bitter lesson that a young party can come up and take away PDP strongholds in an election cycle.”
