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Tag: PDP

  • Plot to suspend Tambuwal fails

    Plot to suspend Tambuwal fails

    A plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to suspend the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, over his alleged romance with the opposition, has hit the rocks.

    The Speaker’s home chapter of the PDP in Tambuwal Local Government Area of Sokoto State rebuffed the national leadership of the party which had launched a hate campaign against him.

    The plan was for the PDP local chapter to announce Tambuwal’s expulsion last Thursday with the national leadership intervening by converting the expulsion to suspension “pending further investigation.”

    However, party sources said the local executive members of the party saw through the instigation and declared that it was beyond them to expel him.

    They advised those who had complaints against the Speaker to lodge same with the state executive council of the party.

    “The plan was to get the L.G.A chapter of the party to expel the Speaker. If that had happened, the national leadership would have intervened by revoking the expulsion order and placing the Speaker on suspension while it claims to be looking into the allegations against him,” sources said.

    “That way, other lawmakers plotting to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) would have been cowed. But in spite of the heavy pressure mounted on them, the leadership of the PDP in the council declined to go all the way with the plan. Instead, they requested that those with genuine complaints against Tambuwal should report him to the state executive committee.”

    The Nation also learnt that days before the botched meeting, some chieftains of the party in the state had gone round urging PDP members in the LGA to append their signatures and names to a “vote of no confidence” motion meant to be passed on the Speaker after his planned expulsion.

    It was however gathered that the Speaker survived the plot through the intervention of Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko. The Governor, according to sources, prevailed upon the party chieftains in Tambuwal not to allow themselves to be used to disturb the peace of the state.

    “The governor, though no longer a member of the PDP, enjoys the respect of many of the leading chieftains of the party, especially at the grassroots level. Aside that, he was able to explain to the politicians that any move that is capable of threatening the position of Tambuwal as the Speaker will create chaos in Sokoto State,” one source said.

    The national leadership of the party is understood to have compiled a list of allegations against the Speaker with which it intended to defend the planned suspension.

    The Nation learnt that senior party officials are not only displeased with the Speaker for his close relationship with the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) , they are also irked by his recent criticism of President Goodluck Jonathan.”His recent criticism of President Goodluck Jonathan and the party leadership and his presence at a meeting of APC stalwarts in Abuja are some of the reasons why the party wants to place him on suspension as soon as possible. He will soon be suspended,” a party source said.

    It was also gathered that the current move against Tambuwal may be pre-emptive. According to party sources, some chieftains of the party and some senior presidency officials are of the opinion that it is better to take the shine off Tambuwal’s rumoured defection by kicking him out of the party first.

    “Convinced that nothing can be done to stop the Speaker from joining the APC sooner or later, some stalwarts of the party within the presidency and the party leadership has been able to convince Tukur and Jonathan that it is better to kick him out of the party before he announces his defection to the APC. That way, they feel the shine will be taken off the Speaker’s alleged planned exit from the PDP.

    Tambuwal may also have drawn the ire of his party leaders with his presence at a rally recently organised by the Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu Wamakko. The governor, along with four other governors of the PDP, recently defected to the opposition APC.

    Before dumping the PDP, Wamakko himself was suspended by the party for allegedly disrespecting the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    Tambuwal is close to the Governor.

    Among other things, the party is also said to be angry with the Speaker because of his presence at the launch of Opon Imo, the initiative of the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, in Osogbo.

  • Why Nigeria will remain one united country -Kalu

    Why Nigeria will remain one united country -Kalu

    FORMER Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, has said that the current political crises in the country would not lead to the disintegration of Nigeria.

    Kalu, who spoke to journalists at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at the weekend on his way to Dubai, said the letter written to President Goodluck Jonathan by former President Olusegun Obasanjo was capable of creating animosity among Nigerians.

    Kalu, however, expressed optimism that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would come out of the crisis currently bedevilling it stronger than ever before.

    “Nothing is going to happen to our country. The unity of this country cannot be compromised. It is bigger than all these politicians that are scheming now. We are going to be the trustees of the unity of Nigeria.

    “We are going to have a united, more prosperous country where there will be less letter-writing Nigerians. Those writing letters should face the reality of today; they should face the reality and the suffering of the people,” Kalu said.

    Speaking further on the unity of the country, Kalu said the South East is the only ethnic group that should question the political structure in the country now, but added, “We are not going to disintegrate the country because we have not been elected into the presidency of Nigeria. There are Igbos in Sokoto and every part of the country. So we are the salt of the nation and ready for the unity and a more prosperous nation.’’

  • Beyond our epistolary season

    Beyond our epistolary season

    The PDP as the party that has assured Nigerians that it is the party destined to rule the country for sixty years needs to face the issues raised by two leaders of the ‘largest party in Africa’

    In the early phase of colonialism in our country, there was a small-medium business known as letter writing that threw up a small group of entrepreneurs called public letter writers. At that time, public letter writers used to know the contents of letters meant to be private pieces of communication between the owner (in this case, not the writer) of the letter and the receiver of the letter, who also often had to hire letter readers. The public letter writer and readers in those days were human agents that served as paid mediators between owners and receivers of letters. In this capacity, the public letter writer and reader were expected to keep the secret of the owner and receiver of the letter secret.

    This is no longer the practice in our postcolonial moment that is now characterised by a measure of literacy that has thrown public letter writers and readers out of business. In our time, private letters are made public, not necessarily by the originator of the letter but by others who hope to gain from making public what is designed to be private. Nigeria has been awash with discussions of letters in the last two weeks. Many citizens have even been using the letters in circulation as a means of enjoying moments of catharsis or psychological or emotional release, which allows them to partake vicariously in the embarrassment of their enemies. But the real issues raised in the letters from the perspective of the average citizen appear to be waiting for serious discussion, as our culture of Karounwi dominates when what is needed is sober reflection on the part of friends or enemies of Nigerian letter-writers of the year.

    One letter that came to be part of public intellectual property is one purportedly written by Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello. The release of this letter throws more light on the decline of decency in our society. It does not matter whether the letter in question was written by Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello. Every daughter or son has a right to write any kind of letter to her or his father, just as every father and mother have a right to write critical letters to their children. More dramatic things happen in other societies. Parents or children go to court to seek “divorce” from each other and use the court process to reveal a lot of unwholesome information about each other. What does not happen in decent societies is for private letters between two individuals to become public materials, for reasons of whatever gain—monetary or political—that the release of supposed private communication brings to the agent that distributes such pieces of communication. But today’s piece is not on a letter that should have been strictly private between a daughter and her father, if indeed there was such a letter. To make a strictly private family matter a topic of discussion for the public is to take undue advantage of one’s access to the power of signification in modern societies.

    The two letters that should have been made public are those from former President Obasanjo to President Jonathan. This is not because the two are not entitled to sending themselves private letters on private matters, but because the two public figures are expected, when they discuss issues of pertinence to the nation and its citizens, to share their views with the public. The tendency in our country to privatise what is public and publicise what is private has been evident in the ways sycophants or friends and enemies or opponents of each of these two men of Nigeria’s contemporary history have used the epistolary mode to engage each other and the public, which in the final analysis gave both of them the importance that makes whatever they say to each other about Nigeria worthy of public attention.

    Former President Obasanjo and current President Jonathan are now both messengers in their capacity as letter writers. The popular view that Obasanjo has no moral authority to send the message he sent to Jonathan because he too was culpable of several of the charges levelled at Jonathan’s presidency is as irrelevant as the claim by the PDP that the issues raised in Obasanjo’s letters are not issues for the party to worry about. Although many of the issues in Obasanjo’s letter are about Jonathan’s style of governance, there are many issues that capture the agony of the masses of Nigerians. Such issues as corruption, neglect of the youths of the country, direct or indirect discouragement of foreign investors who could add value to the country’s economy and thus help to create jobs, and citizens being put on watch-list for being opponents of the president are certainly matters that should worry the PDP as the ruling party.

    Thus, the claim by the publicity secretary of the PDP: “The exchange of letters is not a party affair; it is not what we can intervene in any way. The leaders were writing on what they believe in. They have different perspectives to governance. They did not write about party matters. The letter writing is different interpretations of their own style of governance; it has nothing to do with PDP” can only worsen the situation of the sitting president elected to office on the platform of the PDP. This view represents a bizarre understanding of the presidential system as it raises several posers: Is the party disowning or abandoning the president? Has President Jonathan been governing without the consent of the PDP? Is the ideology of the PDP starkly different from what has been driving President Jonathan’s governance style?

    Citizens are already too enlightened on the average to be taken in by the facile and puerile distancing of the ruling party at the centre from President Jonathan’s performance in office. This should be the moment of collective responsibility for the president and the PDP. It is politically dangerous for the president and his party not to speak with one voice on the important issues raised in the letter of a former chairman of the board of trustees of the PDP. Otherwise, citizens are going to wonder (and justifiably so) why the party that won the 2011 presidential election on the platform of transformation of the country would opt to remain aloof when the principal agent of transformation is being pilloried by one of the senior members of the ruling party.

    In addition, citizens are going to continue to wonder what is likely to happen after the furore about the letters dies down or is eclipsed by another news event. Millions of Nigerians, who spend the Christmas period in darkness, indeed in greater darkness than in the days preceding the famous privatisation of electricity generation and distribution, are going to wonder about the governance of the country, more especially at a time the tariffs on electricity consumption are going north while supply of electricity is going south faster than ever before. Citizens are going to be bothered that corruption in high places is eating away funds that could have been used to improve infrastructure and the quality of life of the average citizen, particularly when citizens travel home to celebrate the festive season with their loved ones on bad roads from Lagos to the west and east of the country. Millions of citizens with children or wards who are unemployed are not likely to forget that money that could have gone to the country to create jobs had been chased away by insecurity or corruption in the country. The PDP as the party that has assured Nigerians that it is the party destined to rule the country for sixty years needs to face the issues raised by two leaders of the ‘largest party in Africa.’ Citizens are going to ask, as some of their vocal ones have already been doing, where the heart of the PDP is on President Jonathan’s proposed national conference.

  • Nigeria needs rescue mission, say APC governors

    Nigeria needs rescue mission, say APC governors

    ll Progressives Congress (APC) governors yesterday said the economy is in danger and the nation needs a rescue mission.

    They said democracy is under threat and urged Nigerians to prepare to shape their destiny as from 2014.

    The governors, who made their position known in a Christmas message in Abuja by the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), urged Nigerians not to lose hope.

    The statement reads: “Our national economy has crashed to a level that is hardly explainable by rational economic theories. The common scorecard shows a nation that is efficient in mismanaging unmatched resources and wanton profligacy. Reversing this trend is not a mission that any group can accomplish alone. It requires the support of Nigerians.

    “It is a difficult task, but we are confident that with your support, we shall seize the initiative and return Nigeria to a land where votes count and where the government will be accountable to the governed.

    “After 14 years of democracy, our electoral system has continued to be a major source of national disappointment. The elections in Delta and Anambra states have clearly rolled back the small progress that was recorded in Edo and Ondo states. With the state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe and the declaration by the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC) that it will not be able to conduct elections in those states, democratic rule in the country is under threat and all democrats must rise to the occasion and save our democracy.”

    Condemning the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) “insensitivity” to the security of life and property, the governors said: “The hard and incomprehensible reality is that the Presidency, Federal Government and PDP have become reckless, dishonest and completely insensitive to minimum requirements of protecting Nigerians.

    “The government, as far as the conduct of the Federal Government shows, is all about the political aspirations of functionaries of government, notably Mr. President. This is unfortunate and the consequence is the increasing wave of both intra-party and national political crises, without any visible demonstration of capacity by the federal government and the ruling party to manage or resolve the crises.”

    They advised Nigerians not to lose hope and assured that APC would make a big difference.

    The statement added: “Together with our party leadership, we reaffirm our unflinching commitment to move Nigeria forward. The nation cannot continue to be run the way it has been since 1999. Something must give. True, the resilience of Nigerians has been tested severally by the antics of a government that has continually defrauded the people at the ballot box and continues to play politics with ethnic and religious sentiments while proffering no solutions to tackle insecurity, poverty and unemployment, yet, it is not the people, but this government, that must give way.”

    APC governors said the merger of opposition parties was part of steps to rescue the nation from its abyss, adding: “There is no doubt that the merger of opposition parties today represents a major source of hope for the nation and our people are full of expectations that the APC, its leadership, elected representatives and governments will take the right measures to move the country away from the multitude of crises, halt the current movement towards collapse, restore the credibility of institutions of governance at all levels and respect and recognise the value of the human person. This demands that all political leaders be ready to make sacrifices.

    “We acknowledge and commend our party leadership for demonstrating high resolve to set aside all their personal positions and aspirations to provide the needed leadership to unite all Nigerian progressives.

    “As progressive governors, we are proud of the achievements of our party and will continue to support our leaders towards rescuing our dear nation, Nigeria.”

    Recommending a national reconciliation agenda for the nation, the governors said: “Given the severity and intensity of the crises facing our dear nation, it is clear that rescuing Nigeria will have to commence with a strong commitment to a national agenda of reconciliation to resolve grievances of citizens and bring forth a clear roadmap for nation building founded on respect for our diversities.

    “Such a commitment should be founded on the principles of acknowledging the deep-seated anger of citizens and recognising that it is a product of injustices over years of bad governance. As a result, governments at all levels at different times have infringed on the rights and liberties of citizens. Citizens have, in turn, been abused and, in many instances, violated. It is the view of the PGF that reconciliation, founded on the principles of forgiveness, with governments demonstrating a strong commitment to break away from the past culture of infringements, must form the foundation of a new Nigeria.”

  • Ex-Kaduna PDP chair, ex-commissioners join APC

    Ex-Kaduna PDP chair, ex-commissioners join APC

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday suffered a major blow in Kaduna State, following the defection of 70 members to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Leading them were ex-party chairman, Audi Yaro Makama and Sule Buba, who headed the campaign group of the late Governor Patrick Yakowa.

    They were received by the interim state Chairman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, and others.

    Makama said they were leaving the PDP because of injustice.

    He said what is happening in Nigeria today can be described as a “political revolution”.

    “We cannot remain in a party that cannot provide infrastructure for the people.

    “This is why we want those in PDP to know that we won’t join a party that we know will not deliver. So, by 2015, APC will win elections in Kaduna,” he said.

    Baba-Ahmed assured them that the party will soon begin the registration of members.

    He described the defection as a good omen for the political development of the state and the nation.

    “I want to say this is a very good development for Kaduna state and Nigeria. As you can see, this is only a small fraction of the leadership. But we are going to have a gathering here that will bring more than a million people into the APC.

    “We are going to show the people of Kaduna State that the next administration in this state will be produced by the APC.

    “People who have been PDP chairmen since 1999 are part of this group.

    “We have two ex-PDP chairmen who have now joined the APC. They have also brought high level PDP people to join the party and they are welcome,” he said.

    Baba-Ahmed allayed the fear of APC members that the defectors may likely hijack the party leadership.

    “It’s natural for APC members to worry but APC is not for hijacking, APC is a party that is strong.

    “We have started building structures at the local government and wards levels.

    “Nobody will hijack this party so long we are leading this party. There is no way PDP people will come and take over our party. Those who joined us will come in as members and they will behave as members.”

    But the PDP Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Mansur, said the defectors have long ceased to be members of the party.

    In a statement yesterday, Mansur said the defection of the former PDP members was no longer news to them.

    He assured that members have no cause to fear.

    The statement said: “It has come to our knowledge that some politicians are claiming to have left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    “The Kaduna State PDP wishes to inform the public that the so-called individuals and their co-pilots have ceased to be PDP members a long time ago.

    “We are calling on our teaming supporters to remain calm and focused and not to be deterred by the so call defection, as their defection is not and will never be a threat to PDP.”

  • Party faults arrest of Kano lawmakers

    Party faults arrest of Kano lawmakers

    •’It’s political vendetta’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday described the arrest of the Speaker, Clerk and nine members of the Kano State House of Assembly by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as “political vendetta by a hurting presidency, whose target is the governor”.

    In a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said: “Since the arrest of the lawmakers for approving a budget cannot be justified by any law, it is clear to all discerning Nigerians that the only motive is to harass and intimidate the lawmakers of a state that recently escaped from the hell-hole called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the APC.

    “The politically-motivated arrest marks the beginning of the long-expected series of persecution by a desperate Federal Government of APC states, especially those that recently ducked the cascading PDP plague.

    “We call for the immediate release of the legislators by the malleable EFCC, which has suddenly found enough resources from its dried-up coffers to go after innocent men, when the same commission looked the other away while monumental corruption stalked the land, whether it is the Oduahgate, the fuel subsidy scam or the SURE-P heist, to list a few.

    “Nowhere in the world are lawmakers arrested for carrying out their constitutional- role of approving a budget. The world must be having a good laugh at the lack of ingenuity by a government that is so eager to extract a pound of flesh from supposed political enemies that it would orchestrate arrests for offences unknown to law.

    “The allegation that Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s supplementary budget was meant to cover-up a dubious transaction, due to a budget review request to the Assembly to the value of N28 billion from the initial budget of N24 billion, is as spurious and laughable, just as the EFCC’s claim that the arrest followed a petition by a stakeholder in the state is questionable.

    ‘”The tragedy of the unfolding scenario, which will surely extend to other APC states in the days ahead, is that a democratically-elected government is toeing the well-worn vindictive path of a military dictatorship by harassing and intimidating supposed opponents and stifling the opposition.

    “The Gestapo-style siege on the Kano Assembly is a throwback to what Nigerians thought was a bygone era of military dictatorship. We hate to say it, but we have been proven right in our warning in October that the President was using Rivers State to test-run fascism. Now, he seems ready to roll.”

    It vowed to use all constitutional means to resist any attempt to use state institutions against the opposition; to use trumped-up charges to victimise perceived political opponents and to curtail the citizens’ right of free association

    APC said: “From the moment our party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was dragged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal over a case that lacked merit to the arrest of Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido’s sons and the grounding of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s plane, the Jonathan administration has not relented in its search for any crude measure to badger the opposition and perceived opponents to submission.

    “But if history is any guide, no force is good enough to stop an idea whose time has come. For us in the APC, the cheap shots from a diminished presidency and the evil machinations of a crumbling behemoth called the PDP can only strengthen our resolve to rescue Nigeria from the clutches of entities, which are steeped in medieval tactics of coercion, even as governance has suffered a crushing neglect.”

  • Tukur writes Tambuwal over legislators’ defection

    Tukur writes Tambuwal over legislators’ defection

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has urged House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal to “direct” lawmakers who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to return to the PDP.

    In a letter to Tambuwal, signed by Tukur’s lawyer, Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN), the PDP said the lawmakers’ defection could lead to “anarchy”.

    According to Gadzama in the letter dated December 19, the Federal High Court, Abuja, has directed that the defecting lawmakers maintain status quo.

    The order, he said, was made on December 17 in a suit by Senator Bello Hayatu Gwarzo and 50 other lawmakers against Tukur, Senate President David Mark, Tambuwal, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The plaintiff’s counsel, Gadzama said, sought to move an application for interlocutory injunction restraining Mark and Tambuwal from sitting over deliberations to declare the plaintiffs’ seat vacant.

    Gadzama said Justice A. R. Mohammed suo motu (without prompting by any of the counsel), ordered all parties to maintain status quo pending hearing of the lawmakers’ suit on January 22.

    He said: “Despite the court order, 37 of the plaintiffs have purportedly declared their intention to decamp to the APC. This, you will undoubtedly agree, is not in tandem with the court order. The plaintiffs did not comply with the mandatory criteria for defecting to another party. While the PDP has filed a motion seeking to overturn the lawmakers’ purported movement to the APC, the Speaker should direct that the court order be maintained.

    “We enjoin you to act in obedience to the court order and direct the plaintiffs to revert to the status quo ante bellum. “

    Anything contrary to this will send out the wrong signal to Nigerians and the world that the federal legislators have no regard for the law and the Constitution they have sworn to uphold.

    “The action of the plaintiffs, if not contained, may lead to a state of anarchy, which is not good for our democracy, constitutionalism, rule of law and the polity.”

  • Duke, Ebri to join APC

    Indications have emerged that former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke may join the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The ex-governor resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because, according to him, “it has become dysfunctional and unable to articulate a road map.”

    He, however, returned to the party later.

    Chief Tom Ikimi, the interim national vice chairman, south-south of the APC, dropped the hint when supervising the election for the interim executive council of the party in the state.

    He said they have been in touch with the former governor.

    “We are in contact with Duke. I believe sooner than later, APC will be strong in Cross River State.”

    Ikimi also said they have been in touch with another former governor of the state, Mr. Clement Ebri, who has been giving “a lot of insights about what is happening in the state.”

    He said APC would continue to grow strong across the country and would win the general elections in 2015.

    The lawmaker representing Obubra (1), Alex Irek, emerged as the Chairman of the Cross River State Interim Executive Committee of the APC in a poll, which took place at Etaval Hotel, Ibom Layout, Calabar.

  • Treason, what treason?

    Treason, what treason?

    •Call for presidential impeachment cannot amount to treason, since impeachment ais a constitutional provision

    On December 15, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the All Progressives Congress (APC) interim national publicity secretary, called on the National Assembly to commence immediate impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan, for sundry constitutional infractions. He claimed he spoke with a “high sense of responsibility”.

    Alhaji Mohammed accused the Jonathan Presidency, and the smarting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of plotting to plunge the country into chaos, by courting the courts to declare vacant the seats of its five former governors that just defected to the APC, despite the precedence of a Supreme Court judgment that rejected a similar prayer, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to remove estranged Vice President Atiku Abubakar, for defecting into the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

    Hinting at a possible judicial collusion bordering on high corruption, Alhaji Mohammed warned of “widespread repercussions as the APC has resolved that henceforth, every act of impunity of the PDP and the Presidency would be met with stiff resistance in the form of a vociferous telegraphing of people power, the likes of which have not been witnessed in these parts”. He added that since impeachment is “stipulated in the 1999 Constitution”, and the Jonathan government is at sea on security, corruption, massive unemployment and mass hunger, not to mention impunity, impeachment was a legitimate means to remove the president.

    But Dr. Reuben Abati, chief presidential spokesperson, dismissed “the reckless and irresponsible call by the APC” for Jonathan’s impeachment; and warned that “the APC and any persons who make themselves its willing tools for the breach of public order and safety will be made to face the full sanctions of the law. Those who are threatening fire and brimstone,” he declared, “should be ready for consequences of treasonable action”, adding that the APC could not browbeat the courts in pending political cases before them.

    Beyond legitimate attack and response, emotion and counter-emotion and partisan bile and counter-bile, the two issues here are impeachment and treason.

    Does an urge to impeach the president amount to treason? Certainly not, for a provision of the Constitution cannot be said to subvert the same constitution. That would be a contradiction in terms.

    But could a call for impeachment be reckless? Yes, if it is just to settle political scores; and thus slaughter the Constitution on the altar of crass partisanship. But is that the case here? Political exchanges are never clear-cut, for emotions mix with stark facts to produce a strange mixture.

    Still, the Jonathan Presidency would appear legitimately charged with flat-footedness in anti-corruption (witness the Stella Oduah case, for instance, in which the president appears helpless even with the House of Representatives asking him to dismiss the minister); and with dire constitutional breaches (the partisan abuse of the police in Rivers State; and the reprehensible conduct of the police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, in virtually levying war against the state government; and against real or perceived presidential opponents in that state).

    The Rivers State case is especially serious, for it taints the Presidency, and somewhat projects it as recklessly contemptible of the law that created that high office. That is a recipe for disaster, except the presidency changes tack and calls the constitutional bandits at the “front” to order; or faces possible sanction itself, if the opposition could muster the required number in parliament.

    Still, the impeachment option should be the very last, for it signals a point of no return for a republic grilling in illegality perpetrated by a president, its supposed guarantor-in-chief of law and legitimacy.

    So, let neither side go for broke. But let the Jonathan Presidency do the needful, after a frank soul-searching for, if the bitter truth must be told, its relentless impunity has turned PDP into a boiling cauldron; and pushed the country to this sorry pass.

    But as the opposition should be cautious in its utterances, let no one criminalise a justified call for impeachment. It’s no use issuing threats and flexing muscles, when the administration could quietly lower the political temperature by doing the right thing by law. It is the manifest folly of projecting power instead of projecting reason.

  • No comment on Jonathan’s letter, says Obasanjo

    No comment on Jonathan’s letter, says Obasanjo

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has foreclosed any reaction to President Goodluck Jonathan’s reply to his highly controversial open letter.

    Dr. Jonathan replied Obasanjo’s letter on Sunday, denying the claims made by the ex-President in his December 2 letter.

    Among the allegations by Obasanjo is that 1,000 Nigerians are on a political watch list and that snipers are being trained ahead of the 2015 elections.

    Apart from denying the allegations, Dr. Jonathan said he had referred the matter to security agencies for probe.

    Yesterday, Obasanjo said though he had been inundated with enquiries, “he does not wish to make further comments beyond the contents of his last letter”.

    He spoke through the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2011 governorship polls in Ogun State, Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye.

    Obasanjo said: “Since the publication of the letter written by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, which was in response to the letter earlier written by revered former President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, we have received several requests from local and international media, asking to know Chief Obasanjo’s reaction to Mr. President’s response.

    One, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, acknowledges Mr. President’s letter/response.

    “However, Baba, as he already indicated in his letter of December 2, 2013, does not wish to make further comments beyond the contents of his last letter to Mr. President or react to the said letter/response from Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

    “Let me quote from page 14, paragraph two of Chief Obasanjo’s letter to Mr. President dated December 2, 2013 and titled Before It Is Too Late: ‘I will maintain my serenity, because by this letter I have done my duty to you as I have always done, to your government, to the party, PDP, and to our country, Nigeria.’

    “Two, let me reiterate here, that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has tremendous respect for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Finally, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo sincerely appreciates all of you, my cherished colleagues; gentlemen of the media profession, who have been very upright, ethical and robust on the subject matter.”