By Titilayo Iwalewa
As the Ekiti State prepares for another Party Congress and governorship election in 2026, the former Commissioner for Works and Transport in the State, Mrs Funmi Ogun, has appealed to the National Acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic (PDP), Umar Damagum to enforce loyalty on members for the party to be victorious.
Ogun expressed fear that the party may lose the election if the National Working Committee fails to rein in some party leaders for overtly supporting the ruling party to sabotage the opposition and render it lame duck to win any election.
Ogun Funmi Theresa, popularly known as OFT, who had declared intention for the 2026 gubernatorial contest, raised this fear over alleged activities of the former Governor Ayodele Fayose and his loyalists, with their commitment to work for Governor Biodun Oyebanji reelection.
In a recent post being spread around on some social media platforms, former governor Fayose was quoted to have told his supporters at a meeting held in Lagos that they will support Governor Oyebanji, having delivered on his promises to the populace.
Reacting to this open backing for the ruling party by PDP leader and supporters, Ogun insisted that NWC under Damagun must be decisive in enforcing party loyalty in PDP, failing which the party might become emasculated by internal and external forces to be able to confront the ruling APC.
She said under an ideal democratic situation, the opposition should be more organised to take on the ruling party, saying it was disgusting that the PDP was brazenly condoning indiscipline by allowing members all over the country to exhibit behaviour suggesting that they are above the law.
The former Commissioner, however, expressed bravery that the Ekiti PDP will use internal mechanisms to reorganise and reposition itself ahead of the coming poll.
According to Ogun, it looks funny that opposition party like PDP was condoning indiscipline. We are supposed to be the most organised at this time to be able to wrestle power from the ruling APC in 2026. That is the kernel of being an opposition party; that is to keep the ruling party on its toes.
What we are experiencing was high level and unbridled anti-party display by our members. Most disturbing was the fact that these were individuals who had benefited immensely from PDP during the good times.
I believe that 21st century politics shouldn’t be momentary survival alone, we should begin to build a legacy that will outlive us, so that we can have good histories boldly written for ourselves.
No matter what happens, we are taking over Ekiti in 2026. It is the people that determine who wins election. If you go round Nigeria, Ekiti in particular,people are already tired of the APC. They are executing bad policies that are making things highly burdensome and agonising.
I want to appeal to our leaders and members to be circumspect of their actions. They should be wary of tomorrow and think about how to make our party stronger, regardless of the anger in them. Let us work together and win the coming election.
However, I believe that Nigerians will reject the APC in the next election beacuse of the ongoing economic crises. A dollar to a naira is now N1200. The highest we ever got under PDP was N225.
Petrol was N145 per litre under PDP, it is now N650. A bag of rice that was N10,000 under PDP is now N60,000. Nigerians have now seen the difference. We are not going to allow Nigerians die in hunger and poverty.
Look at the killing spree under APC. The deaths in Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna and others. Under PDP, what we had was insurgency, which the government of Dr Goodluck Jonathan faced head-on. We recorded some mileage before leaving in 2015.
Today, we are experiencing insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, internet fraud and financial fraud of monumental proportion under APC. Are we going to allow these continue? So, PDP is coming back and that of Ekiti is sure and non-negotiable.