By Desmond Akinnubi

The Ondo State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been engulfed in internal bickerings for a very long time. This crisis, when properly critiqued, is largely based on the chapter’s lack of a good reward system that encourages loyalty and dedication to the Party. Ever since the Party lost power in the State, the Party has been in a free fall and members have had no option than to seek refuge elsewhere. Some have retraced their steps and found their way back into the Party, but some have never left the Party ever since then.

To a lot of core PDP supporters in Ondo State, they feel betrayed whenever one politician leaves the Party to seek alternatives in the APC, a party that has destroyed all what the PDP administrations in the State has effected to better the lot of the entire citizenry. From records, it has proved that whenever the Party gives a returnee a ticket, it further divides the Party and causes electoral defeat. The next guber election is a make or mar affair for the Party and a loss would signal the final burial of the Ondo State chapter of PDP.

A survey within Party faithfuls suggests that only a candidate that has the capability and capacity to unite the Party for victory is what they are yearning for. They crave a candidate who has not amassed enemies within and outside the Party. Someone who has exhibited absolute loyalty and respect for the Party. Someone who will not betray their emotions and trust to join the ruling Party. One name comes to mind: John Ola Mafo!

John Ola Mafo has been in the PDP since its formation and, despite persistent entreaties from the ruling Party, has stayed put. The former two-term commissioner and the PDP Deputy Governorship Candidate in 2016 is a thoroughbred politician with a proven record of loyalty to the Party. Mafo has amassed quality experience in the public and private sector, necessary for uplifting the State out of the abject penury that the APC has plunged it.

The Aheri Ilaje born lawyer, John Ola Mafo comes from the Southern senatorial district of Ondo State. Unlike other aspirants, Mafo has no known enemy within the Party; a factor that makes his candidacy the best for the Party. As Secretary of the Ondo State PDP Elders Committee, he is affiliated to all known tendencies in the Party. With the support of all hands, Mafo will ensure victory for the PDP in the general elections later in the year.

So, the task before the party leadership, the challenge, is how to set aside any divisive tendencies and avoid any dangling of carrots from strange bed fellows, parading themselves as messiahs, in a concerted effort to embrace and endorse the only aspirant who stands out as a lover of the party and a genuine friend of the party faithful and by extension the good people of the Sunshine State.

Desmond Akinnubi writes in from Idepe-Okitipupa, Ondo State