PDP National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu
• S’West Leaders Urge Mu’azu To Resign
• NWC Warns President’s Associates, Aides
• Roadmap To Recovery, By Uduaghan AS it is with a high scale earthquake, the
round defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) in the 2015 general elections is still
sending seismic waves through the crust of
the erstwhile biggest political party in Africa. While the Southwest caucus of the party has
passed a vote of no confidence on the National
Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, calling for his
resignation, the National Working Committee
(NWC) has accused aides and associates of
President Jonathan of trying to use their closeness to the President to cause crisis in
the party, and consequently pave way for
more defections. This is even as the outgoing governor of Delta
State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, nurses the hope
of a PDP come back, if the right steps are
taken early enough. In an exclusive interview with The Guardian,
he stressed: “If we are able to get a few
people that are sincere and honest to the
cause, we will get back and I think there are
such men who can rebuild the party.” PDP leaders from the Southwest who met
Friday evening at Ado Ekiti expressed regret
over the performance of the party at the
election and blamed the national leadership
for losing focus. They also asked all members of the National
Working Committee (NWC) of the party to
relinquish their positions and return to their
constituencies to rebuild the party. The leaders, however, commended President
Jonathan’s concession of defeat, despite
alleged flaws in the poll, saying the gesture
has united the country and forestalled crisis. Persons at the meeting included: former Zonal
National Vice Chairman, Chief Tajudeen
Oladipo; Senator Bode Olajumoke; Segun
Adegoke; Chief Lekan Balogun; PDP
governorship candidate in the last election,
Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka; Ambassador Toye Olofintuyi; PDP former chairman in Ekiti,
Chief Bola Olu-Ojo; Senator Femi Kila; and
Hon Duro Faseyi, among others. After a three-hour closed-door meeting,
party chieftain, Chief Bode George, read a
communiqué, which stated: “PDP lost the
elections because of unresolved issues and due
to the handiwork of enemies within, coupled
with conspiracy from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who wisely
made Nigerians have the impression that the
election was free and fair when it was not. “As at the time Prof. Jega said he was ready
for the elections, about 2.1 million Permanent
Voter Cards (PVC) were yet to get to Lagos
State, likewise Ogun. If you check the election, there was no
cancellation of results and voided votes in the
North. “In spite of all these, the President
said it should be allowed to stay. The conspiracy was too obvious against our
party, but President Jonathan showed civility.
This was quite commendable.” The party also
said it would punish persons attempting to use
their closeness to Jonathan to perpetrate
activities detrimental to its fortunes. The NWC in a statement yesterday signed by
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa
Metuh, said it is “aware of the clandestine
activities of aides and associates of the
President including their unholy alliance with
some elements in other parties, to undermine and weaken the PDP by attacking its
leadership. “We are aware that these individuals have
been trying to arm-twist the President to
summon a meeting of party leaders at the
Presidential Villa in the coming days where
the NWC members would be put under
pressure to resign, thereby triggering a crisis in the leadership at the national level. “The party is aware that the same group has
been sponsoring series of amorphous bodies
and negative publications in a section of the
media to peddle false allegations against the
NWC to back their heinous and
unconstitutional demands that the President should sack the NWC before the handover
date of May 29, 2015. “However, for the purposes of clarity,
especially for those making uninformed
demands on the President, the PDP National
Working Committee is duly elected and its
tenure ends in March 2016 in line with the
provisions of the party’s constitution. The PDP is a party built on the rule of law and
democratic ethos. Its NWC is elected and not appointed and as
such cannot be sacked at will or by an
executive fiat. Besides, no section of the
party constitution prescribes that the NWC
should quit if the party loses in a general
election. “Moreover, President Jonathan has amply
demonstrated his strict adherence to the
rule of law and the tenets of democracy, even
on issues of party administration and should
not in anyway be hassled by these selfish and
greedy elements to destroy his legacies. “Consequently, the leadership of the PDP by
this statement makes it very clear and in an
unambiguous terms too that it will no longer
condone such divisive actions by the same
unscrupulous individuals who in their
selfishness ruined the fortunes of our great party in the general elections.” Explaining why the PDP suffered a slash at
the jugular during the 2015 general elections,
Governor Uduaghan noted that the party
failed to bolster three of its critical flanks,
describing the loss as having started in 2011
after Jonathan’s election. “It happened at three different levels. One
is the level of elders and leaders of the party
– the National Working Committee (NWC)
and executives of the party. The other bloc is that of the governors, and
the third part is the Presidency; people
around the President, who work in the
presidency and who are his close friends.
“After 2011, some elders and members of the
NWC apparently sat down and felt the governors had become too powerful in the
party. The strength of PDP from inception,
revolved around the governors. One thing that keeps a party going is the
funding and the governors were the ones
funding the party, even during elections and
Obasanjo recognized that. But some of these
elders felt governors were too powerful and
wanted to reduce their powers. Working with the National Assembly
members, they started doing all sorts of
things. “Unfortunately, Chief Bamanga Tukur
became chairman of the party and he was the
arrowhead of the plan, sending queries to
governors and signing such queries as CEO of the party. It didn’t go down well with some
governors and the crisis started building up. It built up to an extent that some governors
were upset and it was one of the reasons the
seven governors walked out at the party
convention in Abuja. “The third area is that of
the presidency. Some appointees in the Presidency, family
members and friends of the President or
people from same ethnic group with him
somehow became a problem. We must understand that the President has a
lot of powers, which are not exercised by him
alone. Sometimes, a mere photograph in which
you and the President appear together can be
used to do a lot of things. Some people around
him misused these powers by elbowing people out. There were people who wanted to
genuinely help but they were elbowed out and
kept away. Some decided to sidon and look,
others moved to another party. These factors, which started from 2011 put
together, eventually led us to where we are
today. “At a point, the current chairman came
and he was called the game changer and all
that, but he also had his own issues and by the
time we were going into the elections, it would have been a miracle if we had won. Underlying
all these was the arrogance of power. As a party, we became arrogant, saying we
would rule for 60 years and that we were
super strong and ended up misusing our
strength. Secondly, there were people who
were not really sincere; people who held
critical positions but were not working for the party. They pretended to work for the party
and by the time we realized, it was already
too late. That is my own analysis of what really
happened.” Notwithstanding, Uduaghan is
optimistic the PDP can get its act together
and return to power. He said: “If we are
honest to ourselves, even if it is just three or
four members that are remaining, we can build the party again. “APC is where it is today because one person
was very prominent in building the party to
what it is today and the person started from
one state, Lagos, spread to some parts of the
Southwest, and today they are at the national
level. So, if we are able to get a few people that
are sincere and honest to the cause, we will
get back and I think there are such men who
can rebuild the party.”
About
Ahmad Abdullahi Adamu
Nhhhdhs
ReplyDelete