Cross River State Website

In partial fulfillment of the 7 Point Agenda of President Umar Yar’Adua, the hierarchy of PDP recently in Calabar held their periodical 2-day retreat to strengthen the capacity of its National Working Committee members to key in to the programme that will drive home meaningful development of the citizenry.

COMMUNIQUE ON THE 2-DAY RETREAT FOR THE NATIONAL WORKING COMMITTEE OF THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDP)

A 2-day Retreat organized for the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was held on July 3 – 4, 2008, at the TINAPA, Calabar, Cross River State.

At the end of the retreat a total of 9 papers were presented by various resource persons drawn from Nigeria and abroad. It also witnessed the attendance and active participation of both serving and former Governors, Senators, Members of the House of Representatives, Ministers, Academics, Members of the Business Community and International Civil Society Organizations such as the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute.

The retreat explored ways of entrenching internal democracy in the party, strengthening the institutions and norms of rule of law and increasing the party’s capacity to understand and guide developmental policies and programs based on the party’s manifesto and the 7-Point Agenda of President Yar’Adua.

That the party must strengthen its mechanism for monitoring the performance of its elected officials at all levels in order to ensure that electoral victories translate to democracy dividends.
That all efforts must be made to support President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Administration to tackle the issue of basic infrastructure especially power supply and implementation of the National Gas Policy as a critical step to achieve the vision 2020.
The Retreat commended the efforts of the Federal Government to bring lasting peace to the Niger Delta and called on all stakeholders to support the process.
That the fight against corruption must be sustained through exemplary leadership and support for anticorruption organs such as the EFCC and ICPC.
The Retreat noted that many leading members of the party, including some of the founding fathers left the party in moments of anger and frustration. It is now time to call all of them back to the party to help rebuild and restore the vision and values of the party.
The Retreat also noted that numerous members and supporters of the party were unjustly de-registered. All chapters of the party at all levels are encouraged to open their registers to re-admit all hitherto deregistered members and also admit new members to strengthen the party base.
That the party should learn from the mistakes of the past and should be guided by its own ground norms especially the constitution and manifesto in the conduct of its affairs.
The Retreat applauded the idea behind the 2-day exercise and recommended its replication along the various tiers of the party.