The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has admitted that rebuilding the party after its exit from power has been challenging.
The acclaimed largest party in Africa said that since it lost power for the first time since 1999, it has not been easy.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, who told Punch in an interview, however, said some persons had deserted the party because it refused to use derogatory words on the person of President Buhari.
The party chieftain, however said, he was confident that the forces working against the rebuilding of the party within its fold and outside would crumble.
He said, “We have been rebuilding, but it is not easy. We are rebuilding, but there are different forces, and contending interests (working against it). It is not easy.
“On one hand, we are dealing with a ruthless ruling party, and we also have some divisive elements in our party who are genuinely accepting some influence in the administration of the party.
“Knowingly or unknowingly, they are embarking on distractions and distractions that would rather be in the interest of the ruling party than our growth.”
Metuh said despite losing the general elections, it had tried to remain focused and play the role of an opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
As the spokesperson for the opposition party, Metuh regretted that some members of his party wanted him to be abusing the President (Muhammadu Buhari) with the hope that that action would boost the image of the PDP.
He said, “But since we lost the election, we have tried to remain focused and retain the support of a very large number of our members to remain focused in opposing this government.
“Some of our members misconstrue an opposition party to be a party that insults people because that was what the APC was doing.
“People want us to insult the President and the ruling party to remain in opposition. Because we are not doing that, our people are not comfortable with that.
“They believe that we are too soft and they believe that we are too academic. They want us to be insulting the people. It was not by insulting the former President that gave the APC victory.
“We fuelled partisan support for the APC in some part of the country. ”
