Ex-Abia PDP Chairman Chides Defectors for Jumping Ship after Destroying Party

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

Former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abia State, Senator Emma Nwaka, has hit hard at members of the party who are leaving in droves “after destroying the party.”

He said that the current exodus in the state PDP was symptomatic of a party being undermined by self-centred, fair weather politicians, who are only interested in what they could gain from the party without making personal sacrifice.

The PDP, which controlled Abia State for over two decades has been battling with the problem of keeping its members together after it lost power to the Labour Party in 2023.

Several party chieftains with their supporters  have abandoned the PDP and embraced the All Progressives Congress (APC), the latest being the immediate-past Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Chinedum Orji, who defected last Tuesday.

But Nwaka said that he was “not surprised at the turn of events” in Abia PDP, adding that it has exposed the defectors as “food-is-ready politicians.”

He accused the defectors of being responsible for the misfortunes that have befallen the party and “instead of rebuilding the party they destroyed, they have chosen to become mere tenants elsewhere.”

Nwaka, who was chairman of Abia PDP between 2010 and 2015 during which the party witnessed its glorious days, explained that former ruling party had been suffering from internal haemorrhage

He recalled that Abia PDP was in similar situation in 2010 when he was invited to come and revive the party from its state of comatose and rebuild it to become a formidable ruling party.

Nwaka, who was a senator for Abia North in the truncated third republic, said that he and his team “did a good job of the assignment” of rebuilding the party then.

“My five years at the helm have been described as the golden years of the party. I returned the party to its winning ways,” he said. The former party chairman lamented that things began to fall apart after he left office as party affairs that used to be conducted from the party secretariat with party members having their say became a thing of the past.

“Party officials, after my exit, lost control. They started taking instructions from a few government officials, who weaponized the party against perceived enemies within the party.

“They sat in Umuahia and decided who would be an officer of the party at the ward level. As if that was not enough, the three senatorial structure of the state became non-existent in their minds and ceased to be the basis for the allocation of offices,” Nwaka said.

On his current political membership, the former Abia North Senator said that since the “once vibrant” Abia PDP “is now a ghost of itself to remain there would be like having a one-man party.

“So, I have decided to join the Siddon Look Party (SLP). New members are welcome. We’ll soon build it into a formidable party.  Better to build than to destroy is our motto.”