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A former presidential aide, Doyin Okupe, has advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to consider a name change in its bid to upstage the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023.
Okupe, who was Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, gave the advice in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
He said that for the past nine years, APC and its predecessors have discredited and damaged the name PDP before Nigerians.
The ex-presidential aide no that because of this alleged smear campaign against PDP, the Nigerian electorate has come to view the party as existing only “to loot and fleece the economy of Nigeria”.
“Unfortunately the PDP allowed this evil concept to sink and this was largely unsuccessfully challenged,” Okupe lamented.
“The truth is that we lost the propaganda war even while in control of power.
“When the APC won the elections all hell was let loose. They went wickedly and unrelentingly overboard and further shredded the remains of the name PDP and seriously attempted to bury it.
“It is to the Glory of God and the intervention of providence that caused the APC itself to fumble and thoroughly mess up in terms of official corruption and prebendalism.”
According to Okupe, most Nigerians today see no significant difference between PDP and APC.
He explained, “This is nothing to cheer because, if this perception continues till election in 2023, we can easily be muscled out of victory by the power of incumbency and Nigerians will not care a hoot. It will be a case of dog eat dog.
“Secondly, and as a consequence of the above, the PDP has a heavy credibility burden which will weigh it down during the campaigns.
“A brand new party with new orientation and ideology cannot have a past that anyone can use against it effectively.
There are so many registered parties who have learnt a hard lesson from the last elections that Nigerians have no time for political innovators or starters. Many will gladly move into and be integrated in a brand new national coalition.”
Okupe predicted an “impending and unavoidable implosion” APC which he said PDP could take advantage of.
He said this implosion would leave a large chunk of politically strong conclaves in the abyss trying to find relevance and a comfortable and promising coalition.
“Most of them because of self-pride and personal credibility will not like to come under the so-called “soiled” umbrella of the PDP.
“However a brand new political formation different in substance and essence from PDP will be a political refuge for them and even others presently undecided to still vigorously pursue their agenda and exploits under the new formation.
“Finally there are millions of youths who could not find expressivity in the old political formations like the PDP and APC, will seize the opportunity of newness and the chance of a new beginning, to move in en masse and find relevance on this new and novel platform.
“Stakeholders must rise above the sentiments and attachment to the old name, though justifiable, and agree to an opening up of the old party, to allow a new beginning that will lead to a major national movement which will have the potential to sweep away the APC or whatever vestiges of it make it to the blocks for the 2023 race.”
He cited Biblical characters whose names were changed to reflect a new beginning.
“God changed Abram to Abraham so that he could become the father of many nations, not his native Chaldean country.
“God also renamed Jacob, Israel to become the chosen and favoured race,” Okupe stated.
He added, “Bola Tinubu dropped his political baby the ACN and Buhari parted with his main political platform the CPC, in order to create a new national movement, the APC, which eventually swept away the hitherto entrenched PDP.
“I just don’t say all this as a joke.
“Many things we see and experience are controlled by things we do not see. This is spiritual. Those who have ears let them hear.”
