PDP NATIONAL CHAIRMANSHIP and need for NorthCentral to make right choice in Dr. Phillips Omeiza SALAWU

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Dr. Phillips Omeiza Salawu, PDP National Chairmanship frontrunner

The new Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP,) Alhaji Yayari Ahmed Mohammed, has demonstrated strong character and exemplary leadership by prioritizing to hold the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on October 24, 2024 to select a substantive National Chairman of the party, the PDP.

The meeting is in line with the provisions of the PDP’s Constitution and he had directed the leadership of the PDP NorthCentral GeoPolitical zone to nominate their candidate for consideration of the NEC, for the portfolio of the substantive National Chairman of the Party.

This is to exhaust the balance of tenor of Senator Iyorchia Ayu upto December 2025.

Accordingly, the PDP National Network of Very Concerned Stakeholders, has urged the leadership of the North Central PDP to ensure the best candidate is brought forward from those that have indicated their interests to occupy the office of the PDP National Chairman.

The Network noted that this is an opportunity for Critical Stakeholders from the Central GeoPolitical Zone not take to chance but choose a person with a strong and exceptionally character acceptable to all.

As such, the Critical Stakeholders in North Central GeoPolitical Zone should therefore consider the following criteria in selecting their best candidate that would be acceptable to the PDP-NEC, PDP-National Caucus, PDP-BoT and the PDP Governors’ Forum, the Network stressed.

As such, they insited that the candidate must have been neutral and non-aligned with any of the three Power Blocs in PDP, the right candidate must have a sound knowledge of the history of the party and have sufficient political and/or party administrative experience.

Besides, the candidate must have clean integrity, without any known blemish or scandal that could embarrass the party in future, the candidate must be of high leadership capacity with verifiable commitment and contributions to the party formation and its growth.

Furthermore, they said such candidate must have the courage to enforce the party Constitution when need arises, must be a personality of calmness and maturity in withstanding tensions and pressures from all angles.

The right candidate must have good records of past performance in private and/or public services and possesses adequate educational and/or professional qualifications.

The Network also advised the PDP Governors’ Forum to apply similar important criteria in their final support for the chosen candidate.

“It should be noted that the incoming PDP substantive National Chairman of NorthCentral GeoPolitical extraction, is coming to carry out the enormous tasks of reconciliation and re-building of the party that is already battered and must therefore possess the necessary charisma and the moral authority to discharge such sensitive assignments,” it noted.

It warned the PDP North Central Zonal leadership not to make a wrong choice of candidate as it will return PDP back to the dirty crises and could lead to its eventual demise and called on the North- Central stakeholders to select wisely.

Dr. PHILLIPS OMEIZA SALAWU, THE RIGHT CHOICE:

In deed, going by these qualities, Dr. Phillips O Salawu, a former Deputy Governor of Kogi State and the pioneer National Director of Finance of the PDP fits aptly.

He is an astute politician, the First National Director of Finance of the PDP, 1998 – 2002; a PDP Deputy Governor of Kogi State 2003 – 2012, a PDP BoT Member, 2013 – 2015; an Academic Star from GSS Okene, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, London School of Economics & Political Science, Emily Woolf College of Accountancy in High Holborn London, University of Jos, Baze University Abuja FCT, and the Nigerian Law School.

He made Division One with Distinction at his WASCE, First Class Distinction at his B.Sc. Accounting Degree Program and won all the prime academic prizes for the B.Sc; he led his PhD Class in the Course Work Program.

He is a Financial Technocrat, a Chartered Corporate Accountant, a Chartered Public Finance Accountant, a Chartered Banker, a Chartered StockBroker, a Chartered Tax Consultant, a Chartered Mediator & Conciliator, a Certified Forensic Auditor, and a Lawyer (Barrister & Solicitor).

Dr. Salawu has 3 – point agenda to reposition the PDP:

RECONCILIATION: Will be fair to all concerned to
establish the needed unity.

RESTRUCTURING: To make the party respond faster and appropriately to environmental issues.

RESTORATION: To restore the position of the party in the Power Dynamics of the Nigerian State.

He is equipped with the following instruments that will enable him lead the team that will carry out these three–point agenda:

CAPACITY: Has adequate knowledge of the Nigerian Political environment and its geo-political complexities

EXPERIENCE: Had been at the party’s National Secretariat from Day One in October 1998 and holding the sensitive portfolio as the National Director of Finance. He knows the history of the party from the onset to date.

INTEGRITY: His historical records in the private sector, at the Party’s National Headquarters and during his Public Service in Lokoja Kogi State as the then Deputy Governor for nine years, are a testament of his integrity.

CONTRIBUTIONS: Offered his intellectual, technical, professional, material, institutional and logistic resources for the foundation and consolidation of the party’s control of National Political Power from 1999 to 2015.

ABILITY TO MANAGE CRISES:
He is a Chartered Mediator and a Chartered Conciliator. He will use his professional skills to manage the emerging party crises.

RESPECT FOR THE PARTY’s CONSTITUTION AND RULE OF LAW: As a lawyer, he will respect the party’s constitution on its supremacy.

ABILITY TO ENFORCE PARTY’s DISCIPLINE: He is courageous, firm but fair in discharging his known responsibilities.

FEAR OF GOD: He is a God-fearing man that will ensure fairness, equity and justice to all and sundry.