Turaki: PDP Open to Reconciliation, Efforts Must Not Compromise Unity and Stability

• Party leadership crisis can be resolved in one week, Olawepo-Hashim tells chairman

National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kabiru Turaki, SAN, said the party was open to reconciliation, but he stressed that such efforts must not compromise the unity, stability, and continued existence of the party.

That was as a presidential hopeful, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, said the lingering leadership crisis in the party could be resolved within one week if its leadership embraced political solutions rather than prolonged legal battles.

Turaki spoke yesterday when he received Olawepo-Hashim during a consultation visit.

Speaking at a meeting held at Turaki’s Asokoro residence in Abuja, and attended by the deputy national chairman and national youth leader of the party, the chairman told the presidential hopeful that the party leadership under his watch remained open to reconciliation.

Olawepo-Hashim met Turaki as part of an ongoing consultation aimed at achieving an out-of-court resolution to the party’s internal dispute.

He was among the conveners of PDP in 1998 and its first elected Deputy National Publicity Secretary.

Olawepo-Hashim said resolving the crisis politically would better serve the survival of the party and the health of Nigeria’s multiparty democracy.

According to him, the party already possesses the constitutional authority required to resolve the impasse without resorting to litigation.

“There are more than enough legitimate members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) to convene a meeting and resolve this crisis within one week,” Olawepo-Hashim stated.

He cited Sections 3(1) and 3(4) of the PDP Constitution, which empowered two-thirds of NEC members to convene a meeting, and stressed that majority of NEC members were elected before the disputed Ibadan convention and, therefore, it retained unquestionable legitimacy.

Olawepo-Hashim further explained that although the tenure of some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) expired on December 8, the pre-Ibadan NEC members remained constitutionally empowered to intervene and take corrective action in the interest of the party.

“What is required now is courage and responsibility. NEC members must rise above factional interests and stand for posterity, for the party, and for the nation,” he said.

He warned that continued internal paralysis could weaken PDP’s capacity as a credible opposition party and ultimately undermine Nigeria’s democratic balance.

“We can fix this problem, and we should,” he added.