Makinde Urges S/West PDP Committee To Ensure Genuine Reconciliation In Osun, Lagos

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has urged the Special Reconciliation Committee of the South West Peoples Democratic Party to ensure
a speedy and genuine reconciliation of all warring factions in Osun and Lagos chapters of the PDP.

The governor urged the Eyitayo Jegede-led committee to be blunt in their assignment and to apportion blames to anybody or group who directly or indirectly contributed to divisions in the states.

The governor, who said this on Friday in Ibadan when the committee visited him urged them to move speedily to resolve the issues and bring the factions together as one party.

He said the PDP needed to resolve it’s crisis and show to Nigerians that the party was ready to provide the kind of leadership the people had been yearning for to win their votes

He equally promised to give the Committee all the needed support to have a hitch-free assignment.

Makinde said, “Let me use this opportunity to welcome you to your home.For Osun, I don’t know if it is not really too late but you have to move very fast to see what you can do.

“We have an election coming up in eight weeks, and if we don’t get the people together, it will just be a case of a house divided against itself, which won’t be able to stand.

“For Lagos, I personally spent a lot of time with them but, at the end of the day, I believe the outcome of their state congress rather than pull the party together, actually exacerbated the division within the party.

“They still have quite a bit of time because elections in Lagos won’t hold in another ten months. So, I will say that we still have the opportunity to pull all of those people involved together.

“One thing I will also advise is, don’t be afraid to speak truth to power. The NWC put this committee together and if you think they have done more harm to the unity of the party in some of these states, don’t be afraid to let them know so that they can make the necessary amendments.

” And if, on the other hand, you feel any other person (including me) has influenced things out there without having the correct situation of things on the ground, let us know.

“If we are not able to gain the confidence of Nigerians so much that we cannot put our house in order, you will see apathy in the forthcoming elections.

“They will just basically stay at home. So, we have quite a lot to do to demonstrate to Nigerians that we are able to unite and bridge the trust gap between the ordinary people and our party. So, we look forward to more governors being produced by the PDP from the southwest zone.”

Jegede had in his address promises the governor that the committee would do everything to achieve success in the assignment given it.

He said, “We believe that the people are waiting for the PDP government not only at the federal level but also in our respective states and part of our efforts is to make this dream come to fruition.

“We, on our own part, are going for the assignment with a very clean heart. We are going to work assiduously to ensure that our people work together; the need for unity and harmony within the party. If there is no unity, there will be problems and that is why we are taking these pre-emptive steps to ensure there is no division within the family of the PDP.
“This assignment will require your support and input so that our members can look forward to the objective of getting to the Government Houses both in Osun and Lagos as well as some other states. God helping us, PDP is back on a rescue mission.”