PDP doesn’t need new national chair —Fayose

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said appointing a new chairman for the Peoples Democratic Party is a waste of time, saying what the party needs is a caretaker committee.

He called on notable PDP leaders in the South-West to be prepared to contest for the national chairmanship position of the next year.

In a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, on Sunday the governor said “since the PDP will pick its presidential candidate from the North in 2019, the South-West that has not produced the party’s national chairman should take the position next year.”

The governor, who maintained that installing a new chairman from the North-East for the party at this time was a waste of time, advocated for the appointment of a caretaker committee to pilot the affairs of the party at the expiration of the tenure of Chief Uche Secondus as the Acting National Chairman.

“I think the party needs a caretaker committee by November rather than a substantive chairman. It will be more desirable that a caretaker committee is put in place by November to pilot the affairs of the party and organise a national convention that will usher in a new National Working Committee early next year.

“What can anyone achieve as national chairman in less than five months?

“The time and resources being devoted to securing the party chairmanship position for just less than five months should rather be devoted to getting the presidential ticket,” Fayose added.

On why the South-West must produce the next chairman, the governor said, “Since the presidential candidate will come from the North, the chairman will naturally come from the South.

“The South-East already had its tenure as the party chairman and the South-South just left the Presidency.”