As the country inches closer to the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, the Acting National Chairman of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Umar Damagum, has charged the party’s members-elect to keep the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on their toes.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the national chairman made this statement during a meeting with the PDP members-elect in Abuja on Tuesday. He used the opportunity to formally welcomed and congratulated them on their electoral victory.
Damagum urged the newly elected lawmakers to be firm in their lawmaking, stressing the need to put the ruling party on their toes to make them work for the country.
He said, “You have a daunting task before you because of the state of the nation. You have been elected at a time when the country is no longer what we used to know. It has been bedeviled by so many vices and people are looking up to you to correct the rot.
“When you make laws, it is expected that you are helping the society and in act of making laws you should be mindful of the fact that the society is no longer what you use to know and you have to be firm. You have to be loyal to your country first and then the party. Loyalty to the country because it is only when you have a country that you can even exist as a lawmaker.
“Most of you that have spoken have been grateful to the party for giving you the platform to here today. We don’t expect anything else from you rather than to be a loyal party member. Most of you will be concerned about the current situation of the party, it is always like that. When you have an election year there will be a lot of crisis. If you look at from your primaries up to the time when you were elected, you have gone through a lot and I know the party is going through the same kind of situations. But one thing I want to assure you is that PDP has the mechanism to solve its own problems.
“The initiative you have taken upon yourself before we even call upon you to make this gathering possible is also one of reasons why I said we have the mechanism. You have done well, I have interacted with some of your leaders towards being up this gathering and I don’t expect any PDP member to be less in terms of that acumen and capacity, we have always been known to be full of capacity in terms of what we want to achieve. I don’t expect less from you. I want to reiterate like some of you have said here that this 10th Assembly should come and make sure that it gives the right opposition that is expected of you.
“I always have hope in the House of Representatives, I am not saying the Senate are not doing much but you are the people that are directly closer to the constituencies and much is expected of you and I hope that ours is going to be a joint credible opposition and we give it to them; we put them to task, we put them on their toes to make sure that the right thing is being done in this country because this is what need at this moment”.
Meanwhile, Hon. Frederick Agbedi, the convener of the meeting, in his opening remarks, stated that the gathering was to seek direction from the party on how to proceed in the incoming 10th assembly.
He also highlighted that the PDP had the numerical strength of 116 to achieve its objectives in the parliament.
“We came to interact with you to give us a direction as we journey on towards 13 June. Guide us, direct us where necessary”, he said.
Hon. Nnolim Nnaji from Enugu State, also spoke at the meeting and affirmed that the PDP was ready to use “our number to get strength in the House.”
The new lawmakers also expressed their gratitude to the party for providing them with a platform to contest the election.
