By Juliet Umeh
The National Democratic Congress, NDC, has commenced moves to reconcile aggrieved aspirants following its recent primaries, as the party seeks to heal internal wounds and avert possible defections ahead of the 2027 general elections.
A chieftain of the party, Patrice Akwara, who spoke on Arise Television Friday, said reconciliation committees had been constituted at the national and regional levels to address grievances and unite members.
Akwara said some aspirants were disappointed after losing the contests, particularly after investing financial and emotional resources in their campaigns. He, however, said the party would persuade aggrieved members to remain and work for its success in 2027.
According to him, the challenges were normal “teething problems” associated with a new political organisation. “From an observer’s point of view, we expect internal reconciliation to smoothen some of the rough edges and some of the issues that arose during the primaries.
“NDC is a very new organisation and, like every newborn baby or every new organisation, there are always teething problems. NDC is not immune to such things,” he said.
Akwara said the committees would “weave the party together” by resolving issues capable of weakening its unity. He explained that grievances were inevitable in competitive primaries, stressing that unsuccessful aspirants should support whoever emerged as the party’s candidate.
“The primaries are like any other competition. You win some, you lose some. If you lose, you didn’t actually lose. It’s just that somebody has to fly the flag of the party, so that everybody will come together,” he said.
On reports that some candidates could not find their names on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, portal, Akwara attributed the situation to technical glitches during the uploading process.
“There are some glitches and at the point of uploading some names, the timeline caught up with those uploading and some names appeared vacant,” he said. He, however, expressed confidence that the affected candidates would be properly captured, citing statutory provisions allowing such corrections.
“There is no cause for alarm. I don’t think we’re alarmed,” he said.
On possible defections by aggrieved aspirants, Akwara said the leadership had made arrangements to retain them. “Associations like political parties are like a market square – free entry, free exit. But I can assure you that the national leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, and his team have made adequate arrangements to ensure that every aggrieved aspirant, every aggrieved member, is persuaded to still remain in the party,” he said.
Akwara said the party’s larger objective was to help rebuild Nigeria and restore confidence in its economic system. He urged members to look beyond the primaries, saying: “What lies ahead is much better, it’s much to be fought for than what is behind.”
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