The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday organised a one-day orientation and capacity building training for 55 independent observers to monitor its forthcoming congresses in 24 states.
One of the training facilitators, Daboikiabo Warmate, said the workshop demonstrated the Umar Damagum led-National Working Committee’s (NWC) commitment to ensure internal democracy in PDP.
Warmate said that the party NWC was poised to organise a transparent congress to elect party executive in 24 states at the ward, local government and state levels.
“Congress is the life wire of the party. The observers are going to elect executive members of the party across 24 states. So that is huge.
“The party felt there is need for them to have independent observers. This is the first time independent observers are engaged to observe the congresses of PDP.
“No party has done it, but the present NWC under the leadership of Damagum, said they should have such a team in order to enshrine internal democracy within the party,” he said.
Warmate, a chieftain of the PDP said that the independent observers, cutting across different professions including academia, civil servants among others, were engaged with independent facilitator, without any interference from the party NWC.
He said that the observers were expected to observe the exercise and send their executive report to the party to further help improve the process in the future.
He commended the party leadership for the initiative and for not interfering in the process of selecting the observers, this according to him showed that PDP is truly a transparent party that belonged to the people.
He urged the accredited observers to ensure they do the right thing, respect the culture of the people, be conscious of their security while on the field.
The Guest Trainer, Prof. John Okoni, a Lecturer, Faculty of Art and Education, University of Abuja, described the training as a step in the right direction.
Okoni said that the training would help the accredited observers to acquire the requisite knowledge to observe the congress and file their report.
He advised the accredited observers to equip themselves with the party constitution, guidelines and other details information for the congress.
“PDP has decided to take a step by training the observers. They are supposed to present facts. They are not supposed to have colouring.
“They are supposed to tell us what took place at where they observed.
“Once the people are knowledgeable about what they are going to observe, as opposed to somebody who does not know any of these facts,” Okoni said.
Mr Taiwo Oyesola, another Guest Trainer on Human Management and Information Generation, advised the observers to employ emotional intelligence when monitoring the congress.
“When you are dealing with politicians, like I said, human beings are the most difficult resource to manage.
“To manage them, you need to arm yourself with understanding. You must have a very good intelligence quotient to be able to manage people.
“You don’t see somebody that is already losing and you want to interview such person. You won’t get the best out of that person.
“So, it is important for you to actually have an empathy,” he said.
Oyesola also advised them to remove themselves from the exercise to get a good report.
He commended the party leadership for the initiative, saying the workshop showed that PDP wants a good result, otherwise, they wouldn’t organise the workshop.
“When political parties start making this kind of move, it is a way forward and this is where we are going.
“That is party of integrity, accountability, and transparency that we are talking about,” he said.(NAN)