The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia State has said that it has learnt from the mistakes which caused its defeat in the 2023 general elections in the state.

Briefing journalists at the new PDP secretariat, Ogurube layout, Umuahia, at the end of a stakeholders meeting which featured 850 delegates from the 17 council areas; Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary of the party, Elder Amah Abraham, explained that the PDP has reviewed the 2023 elections and discovered where it made mistakes.

He insisted that with what the PDP has learnt after the 2023 elections, will get better and stronger.

Amah stated that come 2027, the PDP will be the, party to beat, as it is still strong and will get stronger with the expected influx of top political juggernauts in the state as well as having learnt from its, mistakes.

Giving detailed reasons why the PDP failed in the 2023 election in Abia, Amah said that the party allowed its welfarist agenda to becloud it, got overstretched which affected the welfare of workers in the state.

He further explained that the party was reluctant in holding some persons in it appointed to head some parastatals in the state accountable for abusing administrative inputs which eventually led into serious problems in most of the parastatals.

He said, “We did an assessment after the last general elections, we actually discovered why we lost the election end we took responsibilities and we’ve apologized.

“We lost because we were carried away by our welfarist government where we were paying up to seven, nine and twelve thousand youths every month in the name of empowerment and we couldn’t manage our pension well which is why we left a backlog of 45 months of pension arrears.

“This is not politics. Go ask the chairman of Abia pensioners. Ikpeazu was in government for 96 months, and he paid pension for 51 months and did not pay pension for 45 months. Mind you, he inherited some backlogs of pension arrears which he also paid off.

“What he left is 45 months arrears which the present government later translated to nine or ten years outstanding, which they later paid nine months and claimed they’ve cancelled the rest.

“We’ve told ourselves the truth, we’ve analysed our mistakes and we discovered that we were busy with our welfarist agenda and we were clouded with what we were doing.

“Now, if a government can pay 12 thousand youths as Special Assistants, Special Advisers etc, if we had cut down 40% of that, we would have been able to use them to manage some of these 45 months and still have change.

“Even some pensioners were captured as Special, Assistants. Some of them were captured as Special Advisers and Senior Special Advisers., They were still being paid under our welfarist arrangements but that payment wasn’t their, rightful pensions.

“We paid our salaries up to date for what we, called and will continue to call them core ministries because even till today, the present, administration is still owing Abia State Polytechnic, College of Education, Arochukwu, and other MDAs.

“So, we were living up to, date and had issues with, some of the parastatals. ,We were, reluctant in holding some persons, accountable.

“We had a situation where we appointed people to, head some of these parastatals and on their, own ,they started employing people without recourse to even the Governor, State Assembly, the Planning, Commission and the office of the accountant general.

“What you will now see is that an institution that usually submit a wage, bill of N30 million will suddenly start submitting N51 million. It’s an experience we had, and we’ve been able to discover some of them as our pitfalls and we’re proud to say that we’ve, learnt from our mistakes.

“We’re learning from the, numerous mistakes we made and we’re committed to ensure that in days, weeks and, months that those mistakes are will not be repeated. We cannot continue to shy away, from these mistakes.

“If you say that you’re sorry, you must tell the, world why you’re sorry. Tomorrow, if we want to conduct a welfarist government, we will not allow it to go to the extent of becoming a threat to the welfare of workers.”

He disclosed that the party is not worried over some people who benefited from the PDP, but has defected to other parties.

He assured that the, members of the PDP caucus in Abia are still with the party except for, one person.

“The challenge we see today is a kind of crisis, we must manage. We’re not dettered by the current situation. The, crisis of some persons who have benefited from the party leaving the, party is a crisis we can manage.

“We’ve received indications from prominent Abians who, are currently classified as political heavyweights, but they’re, not currently members of the PDP, but they’ve told us they’ll join us.

“In the next one month, we’ll have an elaborate celebration here in, Umuahia where we’ll be receiving many of them. Many are coming. Nature, abhors vacuum. When one vacates his sit, another will take over. I assure you that the PDP remains strong and that we’re the party to beat in the 2027 election.

“I said we’re the party to beat because soon, I’ll be releasing a special statement about the analysis the state working committee has done concerning this administration in Abia State and that statement is all encompassing. By the time you go through that statement, you’ll know we have a lot of hope.

“Currently, in Abia, people believe that there’s no party called the Labour Party. That’s why you see, that if 10 people have left PDP, instead of going to the LP, they end up with the National party (APC). May be in 100, one will go to LP and that alone is a vote of no confidence.”

Vanguard