Former Senate President, Nnamani Resigns From PDP, Quits Partisan Politics

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Saturday, February 6th, 2016

By Ayo Balogun

Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani has terminated his membership of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as temporarily stepped aside from the partisan politics.

The former PDP South East Chieftain made this public Saturday in a statement signed by him and circulated among the newsmen.

“Without any iota of bitterness in my heart, I have decided to disengage from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and consequently step aside from partisan politics in the interim” he declared..

While thanking the party for making him to attain his esteemed status, the former National Assembly Chairman, Nnamani held that he regretted that the PDP leadership has continued to rebuff internal democracy, as well as allowed itself to be blinded by “hubris to believe that it would remain in power and influence for 60 years” in spite of several gross missteps and grievous misnomer.

“We foresaw this ditch and prescribed how to avert falling into it. But we were dismissed as idealistic. Today the idealists have become realists”, Nnamani noted.

The former opposition Leader lamented that the PDP lost in the last Presidential poll, despite his half a decade of championing such a fundamental but simple idea. He stated that in spite of defeat, he has continued to believe the party could still chart a new course and retrieve victory from the jaw of defeat; continued to urge the leadership of the party to believe that the time of defeat could be the time of renewal, and that renewal requires strategic thinking and bold actions.
“How I wish the efforts I mounted with some of my colleagues (many of whom have left the party) to keep the PDP on the path of its noble vision and values had been supported by those who were privileged to be at the helm of affairs of the party, it would have been a different day for the PDP. It would have been a day of victory and pride not of defeat and shame” ex Senate boss regretted.

He recalled the virus of corruption of values and mission was what he and his colleagues set out to cure through the formation of the PDP Reform Forum in 2010/11, indicating that the body worked hard to draw up a new direction for the Party.
The objective of the Forum Senator Nnamani stated was to steer the party away from illegality and impropriety so that the PDP could fulfill its promise of being a vanguard of Nigeria’s political and economic development and a direction defined by strict adherence to basic rules and morality in the management of party affairs.
The peak of these values he pointed out was respect for choice of party members in electing party candidates for elections.

Nnamani therefore urged the PDP leadership to realize that this is the time for internal democracy and principled leadership to reposition the party for new politics.
“We are living in different times and we need new tools, ethos and codes of conduct. We need to become a party of technocrats and professionals and not a party of mercenaries and rent seekers.

“We need to become the party of young men and women with new ideas and not a party of political dinosaurs. It is clear now that these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Every day the crisis of confidence and the contradictions in our party deepen. We continue to lose members and morale. The rebuilding some of us had urged on the leadership is not happening. Those who led us to defeat are determined to continue to lead the party as undertakers.
“I do not believe I should continue to be a member of the PDP as it is defined today. This is certainly not the party I joined years ago to help change my country. I do not also believe that the PDP as it is managed today will provide an opportunity for me to continue to play the politics of principles and values which I set for myself as a young man on leaving graduate school and working for a large multinational in the United States in the 70s and 80s” posited the ex-NASS leader.
In spite of his decision, Nnamani promised he would continue to be politically engaged, as well as continue to support the government and all the elected officers in Nigeria to repositioning the nation.
Similarly, he announced his resolve to constructively criticize the political office holders when by “commission or omission they take actions that could damage the prospects of transforming Nigeria into a productive, merit-based and honestly governed country”.

He wished the PDP leaders a new awakening and ethical revival.