The swearing-in of the newly elected National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorcha Ayu, and other members of the new National Working Commit­tee (NWC) may have aroused optimism in the party ahead of the 2023 polls.

Most PDP members who spoke with our correspon­dent on their expectations from the new leadership said the NWC had started well and that they think Ayu might just be able to reverse the fortunes of the party which had been down since it lost power in 2015.

The crisis which had rocked the PDP some weeks to its national convention held on October 30 and 31 saw the removal of Secondus as National Chairman.

This development brought in the Deputy National Chair­man (South), Yemi Akinwon­mi, as the acting National Chairman of the party.

Instead of Secondus, Akinwonmi presided over the party elective conven­tion that brought in Ayu as the National Chairman.

Even though the PDP, during the tenure of the past NWC, won some states and some seats in the parliament in both states and federal lev­els, the party couldn’t win the presidential seat.

Some party leaders who spoke to Sunday Indepen­dent anonymously noted that the successful conven­tion conducted recently had boosted the party’s morale and inspired every tenden­cy in the party to subsume its interest for the sake of the party.

“We’re now more prepared than ever before to wrest power from the APC and return Nigeria to the path of socio-economic growth,” a PDP leader said, adding, “Ayu’s promise to bring back the PDP to winning ways is infectious, and we all have bought into his vision; we’re expecting the fortunes of this party to improve more and more in the days and weeks ahead.” (Sunday Independent)