Suffering from corruption stigma placed on it, the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has resolved to change its name, a rebranding measure ahead of 2019 general election.
ThisDay reported that the party had suffered a string of losses in the last four governorship elections – Edo, Ondo, Anambra and Ekiti.
The newspaper reported that the decision of the party for a change of name was taken on Saturday night.
The party noted that the move was pre-emptive to prevent the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from tagging it as corrupt.
PDP, which planned to announce the decision to change its name, had also pencilled down Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu as the one to head a committee that would walk the party through the procedure.
Many of the party’s stalwarts have been worried by how the ruling APC had successfully branded the party as corrupt in the eyes of Nigerians and admitted that, a rebranding was imperative to mount a successful challenge in 2019.
PDP had become damaged goods that must be changed to give the party a fresh start.
The decision by the PDP to change its name might have stemmed from last Thursday’s meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and Senate President Bukola Saraki.
Though, details of their discussion were not made public, many in PDP believed that with such sessions, the chances of bringing Saraki back to the PDP could be hampered.
The opposition party had long mooted the idea of name change, but had slowed down on the decision because a majority of its members were not disposed to it, and those who wanted it could not convince the others.
Besides, it was thought that even though the party had switched positions and had become an opposition party, PDP was still the only party with membership in the remotest parts of the country, and the name resonated with a majority of its members and admirers, particularly among the teeming illiterate populations.
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