The National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu, has said it was now evident to everyone that it will not be business as usual when Nigerians go to the polls in February 2023.
He said the era where obtaining the ruling party’s tickets at all levels was akin to guaranteed electoral victory was gone for good.
Anyanwu spoke to a select group of journalists in Abuja, yesterday.
He spoke against the backdrop of the need for political parties to ensure cohesion within their rank and file while ensuring internal democracy to throw up popular candidates which was a more sure way of guaranteeing victory at the polls.
The PDP scribe said, “To be honest with you, it (2023) is not going to be business as usual.
“In the past, when you get the PDP ticket you go home and sleep but now, a lot of interests are coming out. A lot of new political developments have evolved; all
my prayer is for my party to win.
“We need to work hard, the party needs to be together, there should be understanding, there should be sacrifices that is the way I think if I sleep and wake up I can say PDP is heading somewhere.
“As we speak, no home- in an ordinary family when a wife and a husband are quarreling, no one will go into the kitchen to go and cook, the children will be hungry.
“There won’t be peace in that family until the children see their mother and their father holding hands and cracking jokes.
“That is when you say, go and bring firewood they’ll quickly bring, go and bring water, they’ll quickly go and bring, we need peace and we need cohesion. I pray it happens and I believe it will happen soon.”
Anyanwu noted that as it was with the PDP so it was also with ruling political parties at either the state or Federal levels.
He said, “Like I said before if got the ticket of the PDP like the NPP in those days, you go to sleep.
“Just like in the last few years when APGA came on board in Imo, I knew a colleague of mine in the House of Assembly who APGA filled his name in their form for the assembly.
“He was in Port-Harcourt when they called him to come that he had won elections, he didn’t campaign.
“The time for such is gone, people are more politically aware now. They know what they want and are prepared to do what it takes to get them into office.”
Anyanwu who has signified interest in contesting for the Imo State Governorship when the window opens in 2014 said even opponents know that Imo State is a predominantly PDP state.
He expressed confidence that whatever the issues, the PDP will emerge stronger and more united before the governorship primary.
“The PDP scribe appealed to all party members to set aside their differences and work as a unit to deliver victory at all levels because Nigeria needs the party just as the party needs Nigeria.
