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Tag: nPDP

  • nPDP, rAPC and allied nomads

    By nPDP and rAPC, nomadic opportunism seems more and more structured; in Nigeria’s troubled political party space.

    No doubt, a present blight.  But that blight may yet birth the right realignments, to give Nigeria’s shambolic political party system a healthy jab it sorely needs.

    The present woes, where folks just band together for power, sans any shared values, is traceable to Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s 1991 new breed experiment.

    That cut off the parties’ umbilical chord from their 1st Republic (1960-1966) and 2nd Republic (1979-1983) paterfamilias, peaking in the present ideological flux; which most times means no ideology at all.

    That has bred political stragglers-of-fortunes.  They are nothing but great misfortune to all.  In everyday street lingo, they are “food-is-ready” politicians.

    In 2015, nPDP (New Peoples Democratic Party) was the base.  It was the escapist band that fled the crashed PDP which, but for its power delusion, was but a shell, since former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s exit from power in 2007.

    Tragic fall guy, former President Goodluck Jonathan, only added his own peculiar stumble-and-fumble to the meltdown.

    nPDP traced new fortune to the new ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).  But see the misfortune it has wrought that party, these last three years, under the retrogressive agenda, of the pair of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and House Speaker, Yakubu Dogara?

    It was hardly any wonder, therefore, that the nPDP faction that announced its exit to PDP was whining over pork, for which it had violently growled and passionately salivated, like a starved dog.

    Don’t get it wrong, though.  In politics, there is legitimate pork.  But again, as the Yoruba love to quip, the priest must eat from the proceeds of his shrine.  But trouble comes when priestly greed gets so gargantuan and so humongous, that the shrine itself becomes fair game for gobbling!

    That appears the nPDP mentality — and that greed appears driving that nPDP faction to its old PDP vomit.

    But nPDP was 2015.  The 2018 strain of that virus is rAPC — Reformed APC: what the nPDP faction just rechristened itself.

    The polity has seen how nPDP nailed the final coffin of PDP.  But it’s early days yet, how rAPC may savage APC — for the Nigerian political mart thrives with the arch- charlatan baiting the arch-gullible; and both merrily rushing into a doomed marriage, from which they would, ever after, lament and gnash their teeth!

    If you doubt, ponder the Ekiti Fayose debacle, from which Ekiti Kete just wriggled out on July 14, with a Fayemi gubernatorial encore.  Merrily in 2014, Ekiti threw out, with a vengeance, sustainable development, for Fayose’s “stomach infrastructure” — no thanks to Fayemi’s huge image problems.

    But because they were driven by emotions, when reason ought to do the job, they sold themselves a Fayose pig in a poke.  Fayose’s demagoguery drove Ekiti into the Stone Age, in which inexplicable owing of months of workers’ salaries is even the least dent.  About everything sacred by Ekiti, Fayose had profaned!

    That same scenario might be brewing on the national front, with President Muhammadu Buhari’s arch-demonization, while grappling to correct cumulative past bad choices, with the attendant excruciating national pains.

    Which brings the matter back to rAPC, for it’s in such throes that charlatans thrive and demagogues teem.

    What makes rAPC now different from nPDP of 2015, you might riposte?  Didn’t both cash in on a seeming helpless situation, with citizens scared things were breaking down?

    Ay!  But only on the surface — which gauges flared emotive responses by pain-avoiding humans — does the similarity end.

    If you move beyond emotions, which seems to freeze hard thinking, 2015 was a free-fall.  But now, 2018, is the hardship of picking up the pieces; and putting up the crucial infrastructure, to birth a new era, and force development.

    Both stages are painful — extremely so.  But while 2015 would appear a pain of death; now would appear a pain of new life, after living for too long in the thick shadows of death!

    Still, what did nPDP contribute to the recovery process, in the National Assembly, where it somewhat seized power?  Nothing but soulless sabotage, of the infrastructure re-stock.

    That is clearly crossing the red line from legitimate intra-party factional struggle, to an utterly repugnant dashing of citizens’ hope and right, after the paralysis of the Obasanjo-inspired PDP era.

    First, Saraki sold out his party, including its right to deputy senate president (DSP) to PDP, for a personal gain to nick the Senate presidency, in a controversial exercise that reeked more of perfidy than a legitimate election.

    Thereafter, it conspired with the PDP — which clearly wants the new ruling party to fail, so it could regain power, the only thing it knows and ever wants to know — to parody John Keats, the English romantic poet in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: ‘beauty … is all you know, and all you need to know’.

    That red line, from partisan scuffle to citizen sabotage, came from the soulless subversion of infrastructural provisions in the budget, these last three years.

    By that wicked and callous act, key national road arteries that ought to have been delivered by now, to the relief of citizens, are still struggling to be completed.  A good example is the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

    Its smooth, newly delivered parts show the worldview of the PMB executive, by making budgetary provisions for the swift completion of that crucial road.

    But from the bad part glares — citizens and voters be damned! — the counter-Stone Age vision, of the Saraki-Dogara-led National Assembly (NASS), by its wilful decision to sabotage the project, by dissipating budgetary votes, for three years running.

    To make matters worse, such soulless dissipation has earned the saboteurs dirty pork, in the so-called constituency projects, to feed the unending pit of these legislators’ greed.

    It’s an unconscionable vote for personal greed over collective need, which gives an otherwise legitimate concept, of constituency projects, a very bad name.

    Such mindset is too ruinous; and ought to be routed from any decent parliament.  But these ones glory in the destruction of their own environment; and strut over the death of their constituents’ dreams, simply because they feel their electors are manipulable.

    So, whether nPDP, rAPC or even the Saraki-Dogara NASS, electorate manipulation is their market.  Playing on emotions, in painful times, is their currency.  Yet, those who think deep can easily figure them out.

    Which is why neither nPDP nor rAPC is good for any polity. They are political merchants, on the lookout for the highest personal profit, at the expense of citizen wellness.

    Even if rAPC succeeds in crippling APC, it would only mutate into a future virus, plaguing a future government, as nPDP has plagued APC.

    The people are the ultimate victims; for they are doomed to moving round and round, eternally gnashing their teeth, in an eternal circle of pain.

  • nPDP, R-APC: forward to the past

    WHEN the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faced revolt in its ranks before the 2015 general election, the Goodluck Jonathan presidency oscillated between coaxing the rebels into conformity or deploying strong-arm tactics to crush them. In the end, after coaxing and crushing half-heartedly, and torn between bowing to an unsettling form of democracy or embracing the less demanding return to autocracy, the former president and PDP leaders left the rebels alone, abandoned the stalemated fight, and turned their gazes towards the more promising strategy of buying up the electorate and, if that failed, engaging them in verbal warfare. Less than a year to the 2019 elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC),a beneficiary of the acrimonious war that sundered the former ruling party, is similarly embroiled in a fierce political combat to determine which way the country should go next year.

    Despite the lack of discipline among its ranks and the corruption that pervaded its leadership, the PDP had a better understanding of democracy than the APC. That makes the APC more dangerous and unscrupulous. Therefore, faced with rebellion in its ranks, particularly among its leaders, the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari is in the process of determining how to deal with the rebels threatening to scuttle the party’s hold on power, rebels who come under the name of Reformed APC or R-APC. The APC can choose to deploy strong-arm tactics, as seems natural to it; or it can meet the rebellion with the pusillanimity entrenched in PDP’s genes. If history is any guide, the APC is institutionally and idiosyncratically more inclined to crushing than appeasing, and more eager to justify the subsumption of democratic values under its ephemeral and sometimes controversial ethical campaigns.

    The rebels that undid the PDP banded themselves together under the new PDP (nPDP) label, an agglomeration of hotheads, placid souls and confident schemers, some of them governors, and others legislators. They timed their defections fairly expertly, and carried them out incrementally. It is not clear whether the timing and spacing of the defections were planned, and the effects of their injurious disengagement anticipated. But in the end, the PDP was never able to recover from the bleeding occasioned by the nPDP, nor were they able to summon the wits needed to sail through the electoral storm the furious movements before the 2015 elections stirred up. The nPDP, give or take a few subtractions and additions, is essentially the same as the R-APC. Its leaders justifiably complained that they were never really integrated into the APC. And much worse is the fact that they felt they were never really wanted as a coequal entity.

    The alienation of the nPDP was complete when the president, who is himself incapable of showing warmth and running an inclusive organisation, turned his back on the leaders of the breakaway PDP. It was in the president’s power to bring all legacy parties of the APC together under one umbrella, project democratic values, and espouse human feelings. By choosing to rigidly implement his own worldview in place of the consensus needed to bind the APC legacy parties together, it was clear that such political awkwardness was bound to end in one form of explosion or the other. That explosion was predicted to come before or during the party’s convention last month. It didn’t, not because the president took extraordinary steps to remedy the factionalism within the party, but because some party leaders summoned superhuman efforts to paper over the gaping cracks in the party.

    At last, however, the cracks have widened to a point that the schisms within the party can no longer be hidden or glossed over. The leaders of the nPDP are also the leaders of the R-APC. They include Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara, both of whom are still shuffling their feet in the ruling party until they sense the moment clement enough to bare their fangs and play their joker. The hawks in the APC also appear to be ready for the upstarts, determined to play hardball and deploy state power to either ruffle their feathers or completely unhorse them. But no matter how viciously the APC deals its cards, they are unlikely to stave off the open revolt certain to cause tremors in the party in the coming months on a scale that may trigger deep and foreboding anxieties. The problem was avoidable; it is now inescapable. The party will now have to fight the enemies within and without, unsure whether it would not shoot itself in the foot or be injured by friendly fire, and unsure still how the whole imbroglio would be resolved. The APC will have to find ways of calibrating its fiery measures in order to avoid deploying disproportionate force, and it will not be able to tell until perhaps too late whether those measures have not become counterproductive.

    The R-APC leaders who announced their open split from the ruling party last week insist all they care about is reforming the party. No one believes them. If they could not cajole the party into any kind of reform when they wielded a strong hand within the party, it is inconceivable that they could propose and promote even the smallest of reforms when both fate and the APC leaders have dealt them a cruel and remorseless hand. What is, however, clear is that no matter how harshly the Buhari presidency tries to deal with the rebels, the calibre of fighters and brawlers leading them, not to say their swelling ranks, indicates they possess a strong chin and firm knees strong enough to absorb APC’s brutal blows. More, now, it is also clear that the party will go into the next elections divided, depleted, weakened and incapable of presenting even the imprecise ideological front with which it bamboozled the electorate in 2015 and confused and unnerved the then ruling party.

    The split is virtually complete and irreconcilable now. Neither President Buhari nor APC leaders are minded to seek a rapprochement with the angry and aggrieved R-APC leaders, including those yet to come out of the closet. In fact, it seems the ruling party and the president want to be rid of the rebels, in order, as they elegantly framed it, to get a grip on their party and focus on the business at hand. The new party chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, is a conciliator, though his glibness sometimes compounds the problem confronting him and his party. Left to him, he will bend over backwards to reach an accommodation with the rebels, concede positions and policies to them as much as he can, and sustain a friendliness with them that is both practicable and enriching. But everything is not left to Mr Oshiomhole, for the problem that gnaws at the party is at bottom not really his making. He will, therefore, need to frequently have recourse to the president whose penchant for blaming others is as legendary as his sanctimoniousness.

    The split in the APC may be complete, but splits well managed do not significantly undermine the growth of democracy in Nigeria. Indeed, the split, not to say the constant frictions between politicians and their parties, often conduces to the solidification of democracy. There are still too many defections, amorphous ideological positions, strange cohabitations, the election and appointment of incompetent party leaders, and oversimplification of party processes and politcking itself. Undoubtedly, these problems need some shaking and shuffling and refining to form recognisable political shapes. The constant defections may appear like political prostitution, and internal rebellions may sometimes be painted as indispensable to the eviction of flotsam and jetsam, or even to the weeding of the so-called corrupt politicians fighting back, but in the end it should engender the political distillation needed to fine-tune the practice of democracy in Nigeria.

    No one doubts that APC leaders have made up their minds to be rid of R-APC. The rebels are also apparently resolute in seeking succour and refuge elsewhere. The dividing lines are ossifying, unfortunately not along ideological or even policy lines, but along the putrefying lines of partisan animosities. No one, not even the president and his hawks, knows how the rebellion will end, both for the ruling party and for Nigerian democracy. The APC were themselves rebels in 2014 when they rose to challenge the dominance of the PDP and won. In the next few months, it will be clear whether history will repeat itself, whether the R-APC will be able to harness the disaffection they claim to perceive to engineer the defeat of the ruling party.

  • Congress: nPDP transforms into rAPC

    Aggrieved members of the new Peoples Democratic Party in the All Progressives Congress made real their threat to factionalize the party with the emergence of the reformed-All Progressive Congress ( rAPC ) in Abuja on Wednesday.

    The group, at press conference announced Alhaji Buba Galadima as its National Chairman, Dr. Fatai Atanda from Oyo State as the National Secretary and Kazeem Afegbua from Edo State as National Publicity Secretary.

    Galadima who briefed the press, said the decision to form the rAPC was a fallout of the recently concluded congress of the APC which he described as null and void due to the violations of the party’s constitution.

    Describing the APC under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari as rudderless and incompetent, he said Buhari’s highhandedness can be seen from his various attempts to shut members of the nPDP even after they made their grievances known and gave him the latitude to discuss with them on the best way forward.

    He said the rAPC remains the authentic party and does not need to approach the Independent National Electoral Commission for registration, adding that anyone who feels uncomfortable with the arrangement can go to the court.

    He also said the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, are key members of the rAPC, noting that the incident in Kwara State where three leaders of the senatorial zones denounced the APC on Wednesday was just a tip of iceberg as more people would soon join the camp of the rAPC.

    His words: “You will recall that in the build up to the 2015 General elections, some political parties and groups came together, and formed a brand new political party, the All Progressives Congress, APC. This merger was based on the strong belief that Nigeria had come of age, but was severely under-performing and unable to meet its potentials for good governance. The Nigerian people entrusted power to the APC based on its promises and potentials.

    “We are sad to report that after more than three years of governance, our hopes have been betrayed, our expectations completely dashed. The APC has run a rudderless, inept and incompetent government that has failed to deliver good governance to the Nigerian people. It has rather imposed dictatorship, impunity, abuse of power, complete abdication of constitutional and statutory responsibilities, infidelity to the rule of law and constitutionalism. It has failed to ensure the security and welfare of our people and elevated nepotism to unacceptable height. The APC has failed to deliver on its key promises to the nation. There is no evidence of any  political will to reverse the decline of our party, while leaders who have created these circumstances continue to behave as if Nigerians owe our party votes as a matter of right.

    “The APC government, has been a monumental disaster, even worse than the government it replaced. The political party that was a vehicle for enthroning the government was rendered powerless by manipulations and complete lack of due process in its operations.

    “The last straw, was the Congresses and Convention of the APC held recently. The Congresses were intensely disputed as it was conducted with impunity, total disregard for due process, disregard for the party Constitution and naked display of power and practices that have no place in a party we all worked the very hard to put in place.

    “There are countless cases in courts all over the country challenging the legality of congresses and even the National Convention itself. It is very likely that the judicial decisions on these cases will result in massive chaos, confusion and uncertainties. The fate of a party in this state with a few months to the elections is best left to the imagination, but it is not a fate we believe our millions of members should be abandoned to. There were parallel congresses in 24 States namely: Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto and Zamfara.

    “These congresses in Wards, Local Government Areas and States all over the federation produced different sets of delegates. We therefore had an unfortunate situation where the party has been seriously factionalised and divided in not just 24 States but the 36 States and Abuja FCT.

    “The so-called National Convention of the APC was even worse. The National Convention of the party was ridiculed with constitutional infirmities that were so glaring and obvious that no fair minded person can claim that a legitimate and lawful executive emerged from that process. The Chairman of the organising Committee, Jigawa State Governor, His Excellency, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, declared 18 seats unopposed and uncontested, since only one valid candidate stood at the end of the grossly manipulated nomination exercise for each of the offices. He therefore proceeded to declare them duly elected in flagrant abuse and violence to the Constitution of the APC.

    “Indeed, Article 20 of the APC Constitution is very clear and explicit. It envisages a situation where if at the close of nomination, only one person is nominated, the Convention must vote “Yes” or “No”, for each candidate before he is declared duly elected. For the avoidance of doubt, let us re-produce the article verbatim:

    “Article 20 (1) of the APC Constitution states “Unless otherwise provided for: All party posts prescribed or implied by this Constitution shall be filled by democratically conducted elections at the respective National Convention or Congress subject, where possible, to consensus, Provided that where a Candidate has emerged by consensus for an elective position, a vote of “Yes” or “No” by ballot or voice shall be called, to ensure that it was not an imposition which could breed discontent and crisis”.

    “We all witnessed on live television and at the venue, Eagles Square Abuja, that the Convention Chairman, only put the “Yes” question to all the delegates, using words to the effect: Do you affirm? Do you agree? There was no opportunity whatsoever given to the delegates to say whether they are voting “No” for any candidate as the “No” question was never put to them.

    “It may well be that it the convention Chairman put the “No” Question, the voice vote for the “Noes”, may have been more. We will never know, since it was never done, contrary to the express provisions of the APC Constitution. It is therefore unquestionably clear that the 18 officers of APC that was “Elected” through this process could not have been duly elected. This constitutional vice infected the offices of:

    1. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole   – National Chairman

    2. Mai Mala Buni  – National Secretary

    3. Alhaji Ibrahim Masari  –  National Welfare Secretary

    4. Tunde Bello   –  National Financial Secretary

    5. Babatunde Ogala  – National Legal  Adviser

    6. Bankole Oluwajana – National Vice Chairman (South West)

    7. Dr. Zakari Mohammed   – Zonal Secretary (North Central)

    8. Abubakar Sadiq – Zonal Secretary (North East)

    9. Hassana Abdullahi – Zonal Woman Leader (North Central)

    10. Nelson Abba  – Ex-officio (North-Central)

    11. Isa Azare – Ex-officio (North-East)

    12. Tukur Gusau – Zonal Secretary (North West)

    13. Nasiru Haladu – Ex-officio (North-West)

    14. Rachael Akpabio – Zonal Woman Leader (South South)

    15. Misbahu L. Didi – Representative of the physically challenged

    and others.

    “Even before these illegal exercises that have alienated millions of members, there has been widespread disenchantment with the manner the party has been run, and the conduct and performance of our governments.      The nPDP, a group that has made a major contribution to the emergence of the APC administration has made strenuous efforts to invite attention to inequities, injustice and poor management  in our party without any success.The nPDP had shown good faith and commitment to the party, but it has been rewarded with indifference and even contempt.It is obvious that the leadership of the APC has decided to shut out members of the APC, as well as other members who have raised genuine grievances and a desire to improve the responsiveness of the APC to the desire of members for a party founded on democratic principles.

    With scenario painted above, Galadima said the original founders of the party resolved to

    “take control and give legitimacy to APC to be now known as and called REFORMED-APC (R-APC).”

    He noted that: “The R-APC as constituted have officers in all the wards, 774 Local Governments, and all the 36 States of the Federation including the FCT. The R-APC also have National Executive Committee, the National Working Committee and other organs of the Party are properly constituted and functional. Some of the National Officers of the R-APC  include:

    1. Yobe State – Buba Galadima (National Chairman)

    2. Kano State – Bala Muhd Gwagwarwa (National Deputy Chairman, North)

    3. Abia State – Chief Theo Nkire (National Deputy Chairman, South East)

    4. Ondo State – Hon. Eko Olakunle (National Vice Chairman South West)

    5. Kaduna State – Hon. Hussaini Dambo (National Vice Chairman North West)

    6. Kogi State – Mahmud Mohammed Abubakar – (National Vice Chairman, North Central)

    7. Benue State – Hon. Godwin Akaan (Deputy National Secretary)

    8. Oyo State -Dr Fatai Atanda (National Secretary)

    9. Edo State – Kazeem Afegbua (National Publicity Secretary)

    10. Adamawa State – Daniel Bwala (Financial Secretary)

    11. Jigawa State – Abba Malami Taura (Deputy National Auditor)

    12. Kwara  State – Hon. Kayode Omotosho (National Treasurer)

    13. Anambra State -Barr. Nicholas Asuzu (National Youth Leader)

    14. Rivers State – Barr. Baride A. Gwezia (Legal Adviser)

    15. Katsina State – Haj Aisha Kaita (National Woman Leader)

    16. Bauchi State – Mrs. Fatima Adamu (National Welfare Secretary)

    17. Ogun State -Alh. Isiak Akinwumi (Deputy Financial Secretary)

    18. Zamfara State – Alh. Bashir Mai Mashi (Deputy National Treasurer)

    19. Abuja – Hauwa Adam Mamuda (Deputy Welfare Secretary)

    20. Sokoto State – Hon. Shuaibu Gwanda Gobir (Deputy National Publicity Secretary)

    21. Katsina State – M. T. Liman (National Organising Secretary)

    22. Niger State – Dr Theo Sheshi ( Deputy National Organising Secretary.

    11. Some of the State Chairmen include:

    1. Adamawa  – Dimas Ezra

    2. Anambra – Sir Toby Chukwudi Okwuaya

    3. Bauchi – Sani Shehu

    4. Benue – Noah Mark Dickson

    5. Jigawa – Hon. Nasiru Garba Dantiye

    6. Kaduna – Col. Gora (Rtd)

    7. Kano – Umar Haruna Doguwa

    8. Katsina – Sada Ilu

    9. Kogi – Alh. Hadi Ametuo

    10. Ogun – Alhaji Adeleke Adewale Taofeek

    11. Ondo –  Hon. Otetubi Idowu

    12. Oyo – Alh. Ali Alimi Isiaka Adisa

    13. Yobe – Mohammed Burgo Dalah

    14. Zamfara – Alh. Nasiru Yakubu

    15. Niger – Hon. Samaila Yusuf Kontagora

    16. FCT – Adaji Usman

    “The R-APC includes all the progressive forces in APC, including most of the leading members of the defunct nPDP, CPC, ANPP, ACN and others. The R-APC, will work with like-minded political parties and groups to offer Nigeria qualitative good governance in 2019. Nigeria faces an existential threat arising from three years of near destruction of this country and the exacerbation of our ethnic, religious and divisive cleavages. We will in concert with others offer real change to Nigeria. Not fake change. It is clear that our party needs a leadership that will live by its founding ideals.We have therefore decided to legitimately lead those members to work  to rebuild our nation more firmly on genuine democratic principles, to enshrine good governance and restore the faith of Nigerians in the possibility of the existence of a prosperous, secure and peaceful nation”

    He called on “all Nigerians, not to despair as a rescue plan is in the works and will be unfolded soon”

  • Kwankwaso’s defection to PDP a fallacy – nPDP

    The new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) bloc in the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the purported defection of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as fallacy and figment of the author’s imagination.

    The leader of the group, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, stated this in his reaction to the purported defection of the former Kano State governor to PDP.

    Baraje said nPDP would soon adopt a new name, adding that the bloc remains intact.

    He maintained that the group would make public its position on the continued membership of APC on Thursday or Friday.

    He said Kwankwaso played active roles in the decisions of nPDP and would continue to play such roles as a key leader of the group.

    “We are all still in APC but the nPDP will come up with a lot of changes. nPDP is likely to change its name as a splinter group from APC,” he added.

     

     

  • ‘nPDP will make its decision known this week’

    NEW Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) members in the All Progressives Congress (APC) have said that they will make their position public with regard to the party’s membership this week.

    The members comprising Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal and others.

    The group’s leader, Baraje, in a statement from his media office in Ilorin, Kwara State yesterday, added that before the end of this week, members of the group would have  concluded their consultations and come out with their stand on all what they stand for.

    He emphasised that whatever decision they would take will seek to promote the wellbeing of the Nigerian masses.

    Baraje added that the general interest of Nigerians and a united Nigeria, where no man is oppressed is paramount and very dear to their hearts.

    He thanked Nigerians who have always seen reason for their struggle, particularly the media, for adequate reportage of their activities.

     

  • APC:’nPDP will make its decision known this week

    The new Peoples Democratic Party(nPDP) in  the All Progressives Congress ( APC ) has said it will make the group’s  position with regard to the APC public this week.
    Members of the group include  Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal and others.

    The leader of the group, Baraje disclosed the plan to announce its decision  in a statement from his media office in Ilorin, Kwara state on Sunday.

    He said that before the end of this week, members of the group would have  concluded their consultations and come out with their stand on all what they stand for.

    He emphasised that whatever decision they would take will be one that will seek to promote the wellbeing of the Nigerian masses.

    He added that the general interest of Nigerians and a united Nigeria where no man is oppressed is paramount and very dear to their hearts.

    Baraje thanked Nigerians who have always seen reason for their struggle particularly, the media for adequate reportage of their activities.

  • nPDP drops defection threat, meets governors, others for truce

    — Chieftains seek amicable settlement

    Threat by members of the nPDP to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in protest against alleged marginalisation and harassment has been suspended for now.

    The plan was shelved following the intervention of some governors and other APC leaders.

    The Nation gathered that chieftains of the group met on Friday with some governors and other party leaders in Abuja who prevailed on them to remain in the APC and promised that their grievances would be looked into.

    The Friday meeting came hours to the commencement of the party’s national convention which took place in Abuja yesterday.

    One of the nPDP leaders, who craved anonymity, said the meeting became necessary because “it is time for ceasefire.”

    At the meeting with the governors were a former governor, Senators, Reps and a member of the outgoing National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.

    The nPDP delegation, according to sources, was also billed to meet another governor and some members of the party’s National Reconciliation Committee, before the commencement of yesterday’s national convention.

    Explaining the reasons behind the change of mind by the nPDP, the source said they had decided to sheath their sword in the interest of Nigeria and the 2019 general elections.

    He said though members of the group remain unanimous in their objection to  the disposition of the presidency towards their grievances, there are quite a number of them who strongly feel that  dumping the APC  will not be in the interest of the country.

    “We are not happy with the way Mr. President handled our complaints. We are still very, very angry with the leadership of the party for not doing enough to address the issues we raised,” he said.

    “As a group, we toyed with the idea of leaving the party if we are not wanted here. But as patriots and genuine democrats, we are also conscious of the implication of our actions.

    “Many of us feel that leaving the APC will create problems for the country and our democratic journey as a people.

    “We do not believe in throwing away the baby with the bath water. We cannot afford to see PDP return to power so soon and destroy the modest effort of our party at repositioning the country. We feel political disagreements can be resolved without us parting ways and that is why we are making these efforts.”

    Chairman of nPDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, had threatened that the group would dump the APC and seek its political fortune elsewhere except it met with President Buhari on their grievances.

    Since the demand of the group was turned down by the presidency, the group, speaking through its chairman, Baraje, had threatened to dump the party and seek its political fortune elsewhere.

    Although, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo met with the group on behalf of the president, the talks stalled after nPDP accused the presidency of insincerity.

    The Nation also learnt that National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, met with some chieftains of the nPDP in Abuja before the convention.

    Sources at the meeting said part of the discussion bordered on how to avert crisis after the convention. Several suggestions, it was learnt, were made on how to pacify aggrieved party members after the convention.

    One source said: “there were suggestions too on how to keep aggrieved groups and individuals within the party irrespective of the outcome of the convention. nPDP chieftains at the parley made useful contributions to the discussion.

    “I am sure part of the outcome of the parley and many others like that currently going on here in Abuja is the resolve for some of the nPDP chieftains to seek amicable resolution.

    “It is a good development and it should be encouraged. As I said before now, APC will return from this convention stronger than we went into it.

    “Disagreement is an integral part of politics. What is important is how such disagreements are handled. I think the APC has learnt some major lessons these past months and we are ready to make the best use of all lessons learnt.”

    Efforts to get the response of the spokesperson of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi, to the report proved abortive as calls to his phone lines were not going through.

    However, a member of the nPDP from Kano State said the group is resolute about its decision to leave the APC.

    The former commissioner, who said his principal, who is one of the leading lights of the nPDP, is not aware of any effort to seek an amicable solution, added that individuals cannot decide for the group.

    He said: “It is not correct to describe moves by some people to save their political career as the position of the entire nPDP. We know our leaders and we are equally aware that some people are afraid of leaving APC with us. But they cannot force us to stay back with them.”

  • Why we attended by nPDP

    The leadership of  nPDP in the All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday that the need to demonstrate to the world  that it is still loyal to the APC was the reason behind the presence of its members at yesterday’s convention of the party.

    Leader of the group, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, said that although all the nPDP’s grievances have not been addressed by the APC, “we still believe that our loyalty should be demonstrated, that is why we attended the convention.”

    “The convention is on-going now, despite the fact that there are so many litigations in the court against the party arising from parallel primaries in over 18 States of the federation, Baraje’s media office said in a statement in Ilorin.

    It added:”The fact that we were able to attend the APC convention and the convention is going on well, is not an interpretation that the suffering of the masses had been alleviated and is not an answer that the security in the country which has been seriously jeopardized is being addressed.

    “We want to appreciate the entire Nigerians and our supporters and we want to let them know that our struggle is still on course and until the party addresses some the major areas of concerns that will make live easy for Nigerians we remain undoubted.”

  • nPDP pushed farther into the cold

    NO one is sure if or when the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), a faction of the legacy parties that constituted the APC in 2014, will defect. But until they do, they will find that their options are increasingly constricted. They know it, and are saddened and petrified by its many frightening implications. The Buhari presidency, alas, also knows it, and its leading lights are daily exultant that they have their enemies by the jugular. While the nPDP leaders squirm over their limited options, presidency officials and APC leaders inclined towards the president are eager to push the knife deeper into the backs of those they claimed have made life and politics very unpleasant for them.

    Last Monday, according to a report by this newspaper, President Buhari, who was rumoured to be prepared to meet with nPDP leaders to stave off an open rebellion, had called off the effort and opted for defiance. The nPDP is virtually in control of the National Assembly, a reality that grates on the nerves of the stolid but clumsy presidency, and provokes it into fury. That control has led to the national legislature constituting itself into the main opposition to the government, though, like the government, it is also an interest group in the APC.

    Hawkish presidential aides have spoken resoundingly and animatedly about the president’s decision to call the nPDP’s bluff. They will encourage the president and the party’s new leaders who will emerge from yesterday’s convention to take the battle to the rebellious and agitated faction. They will reason that if they cannot subsume the nPDP under their control, it would be advantageous to cripple it before the next general elections. The public should therefore expect that sooner rather than later, something will have to give. The faction is being pushed farther into the cold; it will either bite the bullet and defect, with all its deleterious consequences, or submit to defeat with all its ignoble implications.

    It was unlikely that the nPDP would take a final stand before the convention. They were expected to wait and see how the cats would jump in the convention before taking a leap in the dark. As the hostile presidency turns the screws on the faction in the coming days and weeks to force the hands of the nPDP, the faction’s leaders may finally confront apocalypse with the dignified resolve that becomes their stately politics. Should the presidency win the war of internal rebellion, there is nevertheless not much to suggest that the victory would not be pyrrhic, or that the nPDP would inexorably end their time in the political sunshine holding the short end of the stick.

    nPDP

  • Senator to APC: ignore antics of nPDP

    •We’re not boycotting party’s convention, says Baraje

    FORMER Nasarawa State Governor Senator Abdullahi Adamu has called on the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ignore what he described as the antics of members of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) bloc.

    In a statement in Abuja yesterday, Adamu dismissed the group’s claim of marginalisation, saying that their insistence on meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari was to blackmail, intimidate and ambush the President.

    Adamu, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, hailed Buhari’s decision not to interfere in the nPDP issue.

    According to him, the matter should be left to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the leadership of the party to deal with.

    He accused the nPDP members of a deliberate attempt to distract the President from focusing on governance and added that members of the bloc were bent on resurrecting their defunct platform to fight personal political battles.

    Adamu said: “I belonged to the nPDP and as I have said before, there was nowhere we held a meeting to resurrect the group for the purpose of protesting alleged marginalisation of our former members by the APC-led Federal Government. Apart from that, the basis of the group’s allegation is tenuous.”

    The lawmaker, who is the coordinator of Buhari’s 2019 presidential campaign for the North Central Zone, urged Buhari not to succumb to the group’s blackmail.

    “While the antics of the so-called nPDP to portray the Buhari administration as being unfair to the group in its appointments are reprehensible, I commend the President’s governance style and his litany of progressive decisions that are in tandem with the collective aspirations of our party,” Adamu added.

    The senator lauded the President for signing the 2018 budget into law despite the shortcomings and coming about 200 days after the presentation of the proposal to the legislature.

    He insisted that it was disingenuous of members of the nPDP to create the impression that the Buhari administration had been partial in its appointments, saying nothing could be farther from the truth.

    Adamu urged the leadership and members of the APC to be focused on the tomorrow’s convention, saying the goal was to strengthen the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    He hailed the Convention Planning Committee for doing a good job and urged candidates and delegates to cooperate with the committee and support it to deliver on its assignment.

    But, aggrieved members of the nPDP have denied planning to boycott the APC national convention slated for tomorrow.

    The members said they will attend and participate fully in the party’s convention.

    In a statement by his media office in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, Leader of the nPDP Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, who had been leading other members of the group in their consultations with APC leadership, on Wednesday returned from Saudi Arabia where he had gone to perform the lesser Hajj.

    He emphasised that his group has no cause not to attend the convention.

    “We are looking forward to the Saturday convention. We will be at the convention and after that, we shall see how things unfold,” he declared.

    According to him, as a member of the convention committee, he attended a meeting once with other members of the committee. But after that initial meeting, he had not been able to attend subsequent ones.

    Reacting to the claims in some media that the President was not interested in meeting with his members, Baraje said though he was not privy to such statement, the group or himself as the leader would not officially react now.

    He explained that when it is necessary for the Presidency to invite them for discussion or talk, they will be waiting for such invitation.

    On allegations that names of some people not in the fold of the mainstream APC in Kwara State were included as part of members of the Convention Committee, Baraje said he was not aware of such development and that he or any member of his group had not been briefed either by the Presidency, the party leadership or the chairman of the convention committee of the nomination of such names.

    However, he said if such thing happened, it would be part of the issues to be raised at the eventual meeting with the presidency when such meeting is called.