From Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna

But Kaduna State Governor, Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, said members who left the party might find it difficult to be re-admitted.

The PDP deputy national chairman (South), Chief Olabode George, who announced the commencement of the registration yesterday, said that the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) had already ordered the release of 100,000 new registration cards for each of the geo-political zones for the exercise.

George, who is the also chairman of the PDP peace committee for the North-West zone spoke in Kaduna when he led the team on a courtesy visit to Makarfi at his residence.

According to him, the programme of the PDP peace and reconciliation committees currently on tour of states of the federation, is an initiative of the party's leadership to reconcile members, especially after the ill-fated proposal to amend the 1999 Constitution.

He said that apart from reconciling members at various levels, the NEC equally mandated the committees to register members who do not posses party membership cards.

The party chieftain argued that the planned constitution amendment had actually threatened the PDP, a development which he said informed the decision of the peace and reconciliation tour, to "massage all the frayed nerves and remind ourselves that the only Nigerian party should not go down."

He noted: "There are other elders of the party who are going to all the other zones, to look at issues and remind ourselves of the need to have oneness in the system and that a landlord does not run away from the house he built.

"It is our house and we must sustain it. When you have two people in an organisation, they must have disagreement and disagreement does not mean you should bring down the roof."

George continued: "So many Nigerians have been watching with keen interest and we should not disappoint them. This is the first time since 1960 that a democratic government would go uninterrupted from the very beginning in 1999.

"It is a message to Nigerians that there are people who can manage the affairs of their country but the best manager is the man who can say, yes, we have had this, let us come back again, have a recheck on what has happened, and that is exactly what we are doing."

Besides, Makarfi remarked that the Constitution Amendment Bill suffered a defeat at the National Assembly essentially because of certain level of disagreement within the PDP. He described the development as evidence of democratic practice.

He said that the PDP had the capacity to make the bill sail through, arguing that, "the party has the number to do what it wants to do."

The governor further contended that those who left the PDP did so on selfish grounds as they could not use the party to realise their personal ambitions, as opposed to the general objectives of the PDP.

He noted that the PDP would eventually have the last laugh, alluding to the party's anticipated electoral victory during the scheduled 2007 general elections.

Makarfi said: "Anybody who tells you that the downfall of the PDP will benefit him is not serious and does not understand what he is talking about. PDP is a national party, it is multi-ethnic, it is multi-religious, it is not a zonal or sub-regional party.

"It is not a party formed to enable an individual or few individuals to actualise their political aspirations. These are issues that people should really ponder about and decide where they should be.

"Definitely, those who have left the party because they feel they stand no chance to realise their political elective aspirations are very difficult to bring back into the party.

"But we hope they will come and follow democratic means and if they are nominated, so be it. The party will close ranks and work for them to get elected."