Former Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger has advised the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party against encouraging the return of members who had previously defected to other political parties.

Mr Aliyu, who stated this at a PDP consultative conference held on Wednesday in Abuja, described those who left the party as ‘nomadic politicians’ contributing to the PDP crisis.

Mr Aliyu recalled that during the party’s national convention in Port Harcourt, a significant number of candidates who emerged were ‘nomadic’ politicians.

The former governor urged the party hierarchy to learn from history.

“Both the chairman and the chairman of the governors’ forum have been very diplomatic and saying, ‘Come back, come back.’ No, you don’t invite nomadic politicians back to your party. These were people with a history of nomadism,” he said.

Mr Aliyu attributed the party’s major problems to a lack of discipline and the prioritisation of selfish interests over the collective good.

“We cannot keep on, knowing that the black sheep in the family keeps on destroying whatever we are building. Then, you say, ‘Come back.’ In fact, the most shocking time period was 2019,” he stated.

The governor stressed the need for rewarding party loyalists rather than those who frequently move from one party to another.

Mr Aliyu reminded members that the PDP constitution clearly stipulated that defectors should “join the queue” upon return.

He urged the party to focus on fostering “real, principled politics”, even if it did not immediately translate into electoral victory.

The former governor also appealed to the Senate minority leader, Abba Moro, to ensure the Senate’s compliance with the court’s decision regarding the recall of the suspended senator representing Kogi Central senatorial district, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, to the upper chamber.

Earlier, the party’s acting national chairman, Umar Damagum, had said that PDP’s doors remained open to defected members.

“Let it be said and known that our doors remain open to those who wish to return, and it is my earnest prayer that in their return, they may rediscover themselves. After all, we are still the party that gave many their first political home,” he said.

Mr Damagum described PDP as a formidable entity whose founding fathers faced intimidation and detention.

He acknowledged that the party had witnessed some internal ‘fractures’, including a significant one in 2013 and the one currently happening.

The acting national chairman, however, maintained that the PDP remained the only platform capable of returning power to the people, despite the self-inflicted injury it had suffered. He described the conference as a reaffirmation of PDP’s vitality and its focus on reclaiming its central role in Nigerian politics.

Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Bala Mohammed, urged defectors not to “de-market” the PDP, through which many of them had achieved their political aspirations.

He also advised members who had joined the coalition but still remain in PDP to make their stand known, saying, “You cannot be in PDP and be in coalition with another party. We don’t want to join issue with anybody out of humility and respect for our elders who brought us up. But certainly, as the chairman has said, we cannot take indiscipline to a level where it becomes contagious.

“If you are in PDP, you are in PDP. You cannot be in PDP and be in coalition with another party. We cannot do this. But you have all the time to decide. Coalition is an aberration. You cannot belong to two places. You cannot be a hermaphrodite. You cannot be a man and a woman at the same time. Be who you want to be.”

The Bauchi governor added, “But we will still give you the opportunity to have a second thought because you are our leaders. Some of them left us and caused our loss in 2015, and yet we accommodated them. They left and came back. Some of them became governors, while some took tickets and just sprayed. It is only in PDP that you get that. But sadly, we still respect them.”

Mr Mohammed, however, affirmed the party’s continued unity despite the recent defections.

A former Senate president, Bukola Saraki, advised against abandoning the party due to challenges or anger. According to Mr Saraki, while it is true that the PDP has some challenges, other political parties equally have theirs.

“Yes, mistakes had been made in the past, but the question still remains: should we abandon this party? I stand here as someone who has experienced being in this party and not being in this party. I stand here as somebody who left this party with anger. Anger does not solve problems in leadership.

“Lots of people are leaving the party now and leaving with anger. We must not leave, but if we have to leave, it should be based on ideology, based on plans, based on a vision for Nigeria, not out of anger,” he said.

(NAN)