Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, on Thursday received the report of the five-man reconciliation committee led by Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the former governor of Osun state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Makinde inaugurated the committee on Nov. 13, 2020, before the Zonal Executives of the party were inaugurated.
The committee had as one of its tmandate to look into the various challenges confronting the party in the zone and reconcile aggrieved factions.
The governor, who received the report in his office in Ibadan, said that the report of the committee came at the right time.
According to him, the PDP needs to get things right, not just in the South-West but across the country. He appreciated the committee members for their selflessness, noting that the report would be implemented in the overall interest of the PDP in the South-West zone and nationally.
“This is a confirmation that when elders are somewhere, they do not do their job halfway but they complete it.
“Actually, we have quite a lot to learn from our elders and from how you have done things in the past.
“Yes, the party congress has basically come and gone, but our party is still in need of getting all its tendencies together not just in the Southwest, but even at national level.
“So, this report is coming at the right time for us to go ahead, look at it and still try to pull our people together irrespective of the outcome of the zonal congress,” he stated.
The governor maintained that the report would be handed over to the zonal executive of the party, adding that they were now the rallying point for the party in the zone.
“As of the time this was put together, I was acting as the rallying point for our party in the South West.
“But now, we have the zonal executive members in place and they are now the true rallying point for the people within the Southwest.
“They will be invited, we will hand this over to them and we will probably call an expanded zonal meeting.
“Where leaders of thought can come together and put a plan in place for the Southwest and how we are going to interact with other zones in the country,” Makinde said.
He added that the recommendations suggested by the committee would lead to an implementation that would lift the party in the zone and in the country.
The committee chairman, Oyinlola, appreciated governor Makinde for giving the members of the committee the opportunity to serve, saying the committee was able to identify many of the problems and proffer solutions.
He recalled that the committee was constituted by stakeholders of the party in the Southwest zone with the mandate to go round the six states in the zone and identify the areas of problems within the party.
Oyinlola said that the committee did all it could to reconcile the warring factions in all the six states within the zone.
He appealed to the governor and party leaders to look into all recommendations made in the report.
The chairman of the reconciliation committee expressed optimism that the report would go a long way to keep the party in good stead in the zone.
