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Tag: PDP

  • ‘Why I want second term’

    ‘Why I want second term’

    Shortly after he hosted this year’s Nigeria Media Merit Awards at the Ikogosi Warm Water Spring Resort, Ikogosi-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Governor Kayode Fayemi spoke with reporters on the defection of five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the defection of Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele from the APC to the Labour Party (LP) and his second term ambition. Assistant Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF was there.

    Do you really trust that the five PDP governors, who recently defected to the APC, are bringing something good to your party?

    Political parties, by their very nature, always evolve. And in every political party, you have people who constitute a broad choice – some are left of center, some of right of center, you have the good, you have the bad and you have the ugly. What every political party aspires to everywhere that I know in a democratic dispensation is to have the dominance of the good and the dominance of the people who really adhere strictly to the vision of the party and can contribute positively to its development in order to attract the trust and earn the confidence of the populace. If you look at the five governors that have come to us, as broad as the ideological spectrum in Nigeria is, what really is it that I do here (in Ekiti State) or that Governor Fashola does in Lagos or that Governor RaufAregbesola does in Osunor any of our government that Governor RotimiAmaechi is not doing – free education, free health care, infrastructure development in Rivers State? So you could argue that although he was in the PDP, he was in the left of center of the PDP. If you take Governor Kwankwaso and look at his infrastructure development agenda or you look at his micro finance scheme, it is first of its kind in the country. Or you look at some of his focus on education, as I speak to you, Governor Kwankwaso has about one hundred people studying medicine outside the shores of the country – all sponsored by his government. Everybody who made a first class in Kano State gets an automatic scholarship to study abroad. This is the kind of thing you will associate with us because that is our mantra. Broadly speaking, in situations where ideologies blur, personalities become critical and the commitment to the people in their own agenda become central to the equation.And just as you have that in the PDP, even in the APC, we are not a monolith. We have people who are on the extreme right wing of our broad choice who may even pass for conservatives, just as you have people who are in the extreme radical bent of our politics. To answer your question, the five governors are now in our party. And the nature of our political processes is such that governors are not unknown quantities by virtue of office they occupy and the incumbency that is associated with it. They have what we politicians call structures.

    Talking about these five governors, your party alleged recently that there are plans to declare their seats vacant and probably remove them from office.What is your own take on that?

    If you were in the shoes of the leadership of the PDP, although they say good riddance to bad rubbish and that they won’t miss them and all those statements, they know what it means to be a governor.Governors are in control of paraphernalia of power in their states. The PDP will try everything within their powers to subvert that, but the question to ask is: what law are they going to hold on to in order to declare the seat of any governor vacant? A government or a party in power is deemed to be owned by all the citizens of the state once the person becomes the governor. Before you become the governor, you can say you are card-carrying member of any party and this voted for me and that did not vote for me. So it (removing these governors from office) is not going to happen. I don’t see it happening. Let look at our history again. How many people have been recalled in our National Assembly that has that provision that if you move from one party to another without evidence of a split in the party you are moving from, automatically you lose your seat?

    For example, Hon. Bamidele Opeyemi recently defected from your party and joined the LabourParty where he wants to run for governor. Does your party have any plan to recall him or ask the National Assembly to declare his seat vacant?

    Really, the case of Opeyemi is a case for his constituency. It is not really a party matter.

    But your party can ask the National Assembly to declare his seat vacant because there is no faction in the party is defecting from…

    That is not a matter we have given a serious consideration. I understand that he is saying that he is running in another party, but he is yet to formally inform his party that he has left the party. When he does that, there are two ways he has to do that to make it formal: it is not enough be rumoured that he is doing this or he is doing that. He has to formally notify the leadership of the House of Representatives that he has crossed to a purported party. He also needs to inform us that he is no longer a member of our party. When he does that, we will cross the bridge. And to the best of my knowledge, he has not done that.

    Is it not a bad omen that a prominent member of your party (Opeyemi Bamidele) has chosen to run against you?

    What is wrong with that?

    At what point did you disagree with Opeyemi Bamidele?

    You don’t need to disagree to be ambitious. Ambition does not necessarily require any reason; just an ambition. I have not had cause to disagree with anyone, not least Opeyemi. If Opeyemi wants to run for office for whatever reason, the endorsement is not tantamount to refusal to run or not to run. Has he approached anybody in the party that he wants to run? Has he approached his ward? Has he approached his local government party leadership? Has he approached his state party leadership?

    Maybe, he feels he does not need to do that, since you have been endorsed by the powers that be in the party…

    For goodness sake, recall our history.Adekunle Ajasin was endorsed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Chief Josiah Olawoyin was endorsed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the UPN. The party primary took place and C. O. Adebayo, who was not endorsed, won that primary against Josiah Olawoyin, a close pal of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He was publicly endorsed, but Chief Obafemi Awolowo said all the candidates of the party at the time should be allowed to run in the primary. In Ondo State, Omoboriowo ran against Chief Adekunle Ajasin in the primary and lost. That was why he left the party. In Kwara State, C. O. Adebayo ran against Olawoyin and won.

    In essence, are you saying there is going to be governorship primary in Ekiti?

    As far as our party is concerned, there is a process. If you choose to run for governorship on the pages of newspaper, that is your own prerogative. This is a party that has process. Everybody who belongs to this party is fully aware of what the constitution of this party says. I am in this state, at least, no fewer than thirty aspirants have gone to PDP secretariat in this state to formally notify the leadership of the party that they are in the gubernatorial race in their party. How do you declare gubernatorial ambition in newspapers and you do not inform your party that you want to run?And then, you claim you have been debarred from running and say there is no internal democracy. Yet all you have a problem with is what the leadership of the party –both at the state and national levels – said that by what they have seen and the feedback they have got from people in the state,they don’t want to change a winning team. They want the governor to run again but they never at any point debar anyone from running.

    But, if the leadership of the party said they don’t want to change the winning team, it is a clear message that nobody should run against you at all?

    No, no, no. I just gave you an example from the same progressive camp. C. O. had no chance in the air if you go by the parameters of the politics of Kwara at the time. He won the primary in Kwara.

    Are you saying you could be beaten in a primary?

    It is about internal democracy. It is about allowing the people to have a say; it is not about portraying that you have support, you need to test the support you claim to have. That is what I am saying. I am not saying I could be beaten and I am not saying I could not be beaten. I am saying it is a democracy and I am a passionate democrat. If you believe that you have the popularity you often claim in the press that you have, test it with the people. And there is a process to do that. That is what I am saying.

    Why do you think you deserve a second term of office?

    In very simple terms, you were in my inauguration and you were here before then. All anyone needs to do, at the risk of sounding arrogant and immodest, is to take the Roadmap to Ekiti Recovery, which is my campaign promise, and take my inaugural speech on October 16, 2010, and mark it paragraph by paragraph. What I said I was going to do for Ekiti people and what I have done in three years. If you want to mark me on what I have done and how I have done it, you can judge whether I have passed the test of leadership or not.

    Are you jittery anything could go wrong at all?

    Am I am jittery? Not with the people of Ekiti.

    What with the quality of candidates that may be coming out from other parties?

    The quality of candidates will enhance our democracy, it will not diminish it. I really want a lot of good candidates to come up. But don’t forget that I ran for primary in this party in 2006 against some popular names you can imagine in Ekiti politics and I won when I was nobody. In fact, I was not known. I was an unknown quantity and a lot of people said I was a foreign candidate who just appeared from nowhere and came to run in the state. Compare that to now that I am seen across the length and breadth of this state as a promise keeper; a man whose word is his bond. He said he was going to do social security that has never been done anywhere in this country and he did it. He said he is going to do free education in a qualitative manner and he did. And the result in secondary school jumped from twenty percent pass rate to seventy percent pass rate. A man who said he was going to do free health care and he has done it.That’s what I want to be judged on. Of course, there are people who will want to judge me on other parameters. There are people who will say we don’t see him at parties, that we don’t see him eat booli by the road side, that he is not a populist noisemaker and he does not share money and that their personal infrastructure has been addressed, even though he is building Ikogosi and building roads and fixing schools and hospitals all over the state. He does not throw money at people, and in politics money is the oil of politics. But I will say that I share money. It is just that I have a different philosophy of sharing. When I give social security, the N5,000 old people collect at the end of every month is sharing. It is institutional sharing backed by law. It is not N200 thrown at people on the street that diminishes their self-esteem and dignity. I don’t share money as baba rere, baba ke, owomeji fun baba. I don’t come from that school of politics, and I am not apologetic about that. But it is a marketplace of ideas. Those who come from that line of politics will also come to the people. They had an opportunity and for seven and a half years, they were in this state. People knew what they did. It was one week one trouble. It was six governors in seven and a half years. So, why is it that we don’t deserve stability that others have had, especially where you have evidence that nobody has done what this governor has done in this state?

    So, based on your work in the three years, are you confident of victory, if an election is held today?

    Of course, yes. You know Ekiti people are very discerning. They are very educated and fastidious. It is difficult to please our people and I know. But once they discover the sincerity of purpose and they see that what you say is what you do, that you walk your talk, our people are generally passionate about that. And that is why we were more passionate about Awolowo here than in Ijebu. If you check the history, we were. It is because there is a connection. I was discussing what happened in Anambra with a couple of my friends and I said it cannot happen in Ekiti. In Anambra, you have non-governmental organizations, people who have more money than the government of Anambra, people who will run Governor Peter Obi out of the state because their own convoy is twenty times longer than the governor’s convoy.Here we all are very interested in governance and who governs. That is why you cannot take our people for granted. It was not fun for me to travel in the last one month to 131 communities as I do every November. In every single community that I went, people have their criticisms, they have their praises for government; they have what they will like me to do. I commissioned projects in 85 of those communities. So there is a direct connection because some of the projects are projects from our community government. The town unions run them – all we just do is to give them money because they decided on the projects themselves. There is no community you get to in Ekiti that people will not tell you that the government has just done this or that or that they gave us money to do this. And that is the greatest challenge anybody who is going to run against me in this state will have. That is why they resort to what they said I don’t do – the personal infrastructure that I don’t take care of. We will cross that bridge when we get there. We will define personal infrastructure the way we should.

  • Nwoye goes to tribunal

    Nwoye goes to tribunal

    The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 16 election in Anambra State, Comrade Tony Nwoye, has taken the All Progressives Grand Alliance’s (APGA’s) candidate, Willie Obiano, to the tribunal in Awka, to challenge the verdict of the poll.

    He spoke yesterday in Awka at an interactive session with party stakeholders in the 21 local governments.

    Nwoye said he was challenging the poll because it was fraught with irregularities.

  • Xmas: PDP makes case for ‘underprivileged’

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged its members across the nation to use this year’s Christmas celebration to focus on the “underprivileged.”

    In a Christmas message signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, on Monday, the party pleaded the cause of widows, orphans and the homeless as exemplified in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

    The statement noted that the coming of Jesus Christ brought salvation, joy and happiness to mankind.

    It therefore urged all genuine party members to see beyond the colours and sounds and focus on bringing succour to those who are in need, in the true spirit of Christmas.

    The party said the message of Christmas, which stresses peace on earth and goodwill to mankind must not be lost to feasting and drinking.

    It urged Nigerians to use this year’s celebration to usher in peace, unity and harmonious co-existence across the country. The party also prayed God to shower His blessings on the nation and wished Nigerians happy celebrations.

    “Christmas presents the ideal time to express love to all, especially the needy and the underprivileged.

    “We must therefore ensure that we use the opportunity presented by this year’s celebration to make sacrifices in love and touch the lives of those around us as illustrated by the Lord Jesus Christ, “the statement added.

     

  • ‘PDP, LP can’t dislodge APC in Ekiti’

    ‘PDP, LP can’t dislodge APC in Ekiti’

    Former Ekiti State Governor Adeniyi Adebayo is the All Progressives Congress (APC) Interim National Vice Chairman (Southwest). He spoke with EMMANUEL OLADESU and MUSA  ODOSHIMOKHE on the challenges confronting the mega party, preparation for Ekiti and Osun state governorship elections, Jonathan Administration, single term tenure, national security and other issues.

    Why was it difficult to resolve the rift between Governor Kayode Fayemi and House of Representatives member Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele?

    We did everything possible to bring about rapprochement. We tried to pacify all the parties, but I really don’t know why it did not yield the desired results.

    As a big brother, people thought your influence would have robbed off and brought about peace…

    But unfortunately, this did not make the impact and, like I said, I did my best to ensure that the parties involved resolve their differences.

    What do you think is the bone of contention?

    The reality is that Opeyemi Bamidele don’t want to step down for Kayode Fayemi. He has made up his mind to go to another party to contest. All I can say is that I wish him the best of luck.

    It has been speculated that his departure will have adverse effect on the party….

    Sincerely speaking, I don’t see how that will happen in Ekiti State. I don’t see how our members will leave a winning party and join a party that is not yet tested in Ekiti. I do not think that people will move from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Labour Party (LP). It will not have any adverse effect on our party.

    Some people said that Bamidele has grievances, which you elders failed to address…

    Frankly speaking, Opeyemi Bamideles is a non-issue with me for now. He has left my party. So, I wish him all the best in his future endeavour.

    Why is it difficult for the progressives to resolve their differences?

    Your question is hypothetical. I am a progressive and I don’t think I have problem with anybody.

    People are of the opinion that you don’t have crisis resolution mechanism in your party

    You will always have aggrieved people in any political party, whether progressives or conservatives. That is because sometimes, reasons do not prevail where a man has an ambition. And I don’t think this happens only among progressives. We have it in the conservative fold.

    A month ago, the APC only had an adversary, the PDP. But now, it has the PDP and Labour Party to contend with…

    Add both together; they cannot pose a threat to the APC in Ekiti State. I keep saying it and I will say it again ,until we hold election in Ekiti. The APC will win not less than 70 percent of the votes.

    What is responsible this over confidence?

    It is not over confidence. It is confidence borne out of the reality on ground. The governor has done a fantastic job. He has done fantastic a job, in term of developing the state and that is what gives me the confidence. Any attempt by the Independent National Electoral Commission to rig the election will be resisted. As a politician, I go round the state. I see what is on the ground and I feel the pulse of the people. The feeling is that the governor has performed. Everybody in Ekiti is desirous of having continuity in government. The problem of Ekiti is non-continuity in government. After I left office in 2003, I think we have had about five or six governors in the state. This has created a lot of disruption within the system.

    So, all we are saying is that we admire places like Lagos as a result of continuity of government. When there is a continuity of government, there will be continuity of policy of development. And many people are saying that, with the kind of job Governor Kayemi has done, if allowed to continue in another four years, he will continue to do the same job by making Ekiti greater.

    And whoever comes after him, the developmental stride will continue. That is what people want to see. All they are interested in is to ensure that there is continuity, in term of development. Now, they have somebody who is doing a good job. So, he will continue.

    Between now and 2014, what do you think should be the pre-occupation of Fayemi Administration?

    I think by the time the detail of Governor Fayemi’s budget is out, it will be the continuation of what he is already doing. He will be involved in bringing more development to Ekiti State. He will continue with the development and construction of roads in Ekiti State. He will continue with the development of infrastructure for school, hospitals. I know there is plan to expand the social security for the elderly people. He will put more money in agriculture togenerate employment. He plans to do a lot and he should be given the opportunity to carry this out in another four years.

    The APC has been protesting the outcome of the governorship election in Anambra State. You are going to elections in Ekiti State and Osun states. What are your fears?

    We have learnt a lot from what happened in Anambra State. We have studied the situation and we are going to ensure that we guard against what happened. We are not going to allow that to play out in Ekiti and Osun states.

    The defection of Alhaji Rafiu Ogunleye from the Ogun State APC to the PDP has been described as a minus. What happened?

    I have to ask you why he decided to leave. Sometimes we engage ourselves too much on personalities. It is not the personality that is the issue; it is the followership. For instance, in Ekiti, my deputy decided to go to the PDP, but his followers did not go with him. At a time 14 members of the ACN left and they thought it was going to weaken the ACN, but this did not happen because, when they left, their followers did not go with them. And that is the situation in Ogun State as well. Though Ogunleye has left, many of the followers did not go with him. Many in the APC believe in our party. No party is perfect; there will always be differences. Even within families, there is difference. You are not going to say because you have differences with your children or relatives, you are no long a member of that family. It should not be that way. And incidentally, when these people leave and believe that they are going to move with their followers, they get disappointed. If you want to go, you can do that, f am not happy with what is going on. But I prefer to stay within my own house and fight for my right than abandon the ship.

    Is there no lesson that we can learn from their defection?

    If you say the grass is greener onthe other side, it is when you get to the other side that you discover that it not so. I don’t understand how you profess to be a progressive and you now leave it to the conservative camp. That I don’t understand.

    The PDP is targeting the Southwest for liquidation…

    That has always been their ambition, even when they used might and everything that they have to overrun us in the Southwest. Later, the Southwest liberated itself. They have always dreamt. Let them continue to dream.

    But, how are you prepared to curtail them?

    They did it once. We made the mistake that we tried to support a Yoruba man for the Presidency, but he used everything at his disposal to get us out of office. Now, we are smarter. Our eyes are opened and you can be rest assured that nobody can deceive us. We know what they are planning to do. we are tiding up and prepared to stop any attempt by them to do thingss we considered inimical to democracy.

    You have been celebrating the expansion of your party. How will those who are coming be able flow together with you ideologically?

    If we look at those who have come to join us so far, you find out they have progressive tendencies. And, if you remember, the PDP was formed by progressive politicians. It was unfortunately that they allowed it to be taken over by the conservatives. At the time the PDP was formed and, if you look at the founding fathers of the PDP, majority of them were progressives. Unfortunately, there was an influx of conservatives and, as at today, the party has been taken over by them. And you will find out that it is the progressives among them that have said enough is enough and have moved back to their traditional abode. If you want to get progressives together, people of like minds, you will find out that there is always accommodation.

    There are diasagreements on whether the new governors will have overriding influence in their states…

    We believe strongly in internal democracy. For now, what we are going to face is the registration of our members. Anybody that is interested in our party will be registered and, from then, we will hold our congress. The congress will hold from the ward level, local government to the state level. It is at that point we will know who is in control and who is not in control. What I am saying in essence is that it is the party that will be in control of the party machinery. The leadership of the party will be decided by the people themselves, as supposed to anybody being foisted on anybody. We are not a party where you will say, come ,you are going to be the leader of the party. There is theparty constitution and the leadership will emerge by the will of the people.

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar defected to the Action Congress (AC) 2007 and, after the election he went back to the PDP. What is the assurance that those who defected now will not go back to the PDP?

    I cannot predict the future because I am not a soothsayer. From what they are saying and their body language, I feel comfortable with them. I think they have chosen to come back to their natural abode.

    It has been said that you are eyeing the Senate…

    I always laugh when I heard such comments. I have never nursed any ambition in this direction. I had the opportunity to contest for the Senate and I refused such opportunities. I am not interested in the Senate; my interest is building the party. My ambition, when I was young, was to be a governor. Ekiti State was created and I got into politics and I was elected the first executive governor of Ekiti State. Ever since, I have not shown any interest in an elective office. I still have no such plans and, ever since I left office, I have been involved in the process of building the party from the AC to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now the APC. I have been involved in building a national political party. We have now got to the state that we have to do something to achieve a national party. This will be done such that, by the time we hold our national convention, we will have on ground a national party that will be the envy of everybody and that, for now, is my ambition. I want to state categorically that, either now or the future, I doubt very much that I have such intention. I can tell you categorically that, in the immediate future, I have no interest.

    What is your position on the proposed national conference?

    I have been around long enough. Many people use these conferences for tenure elongation. During the time of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and now President Goodluck Jonathan, I believe that, in this country, we should have a national conference. If we are serious about having a national conference, this is not the time to have it. If President Jonathan was serious about it, we should have had that earlier. This is the same President that had stated categorically that he does not believe in it. And, all of a sudden, it is coming to election time and he has changed. He wants to use it as an opportunity to try and convince some people to get their support. The Yoruba people voted for Jonathan for him to become the President of the country, but the Yoruba have not been treated well under the administration.

    There are complaints in Yorubaland and I think honestly, he must have been advised that the Yorubas are not happy with him and what you can do now to make them happy is to tell them that he will hold a national conference. For someone who for many years opposed the national conference and toward the end of his tenure now decides to hold a national conference is a smack of deceit. I for one do not believe that it is feasible. I do not believe it will work and I believe it was something somebody suggested to him.

    They believe he can use this one to keep people quiet for sometimes and get support from the Southwest. President Obasanjo tried it, which was the beginning of his tenure elongation. The Deputy Senate President has even told us that there should be tenure elongation. He has suggested that people should stay in office for another two years. It is the same script. They are reading the same book, the same attempt that was used by Obasanjo. They have now brought the same script again and the way it failed during President Obasanjo time, that is how it will fail again.

    Does that mean that the proposal will not work?

    Even if we are going to have it, it is not the way he put it to us. Not by saying that the present elected officers should stay for another two years. If we are going to have that, let us sit down and do a proper national conference. We should have proper resolution made; have everything properly put in a constitution. And not that the present people who have been elected to stay in office for four years should now come and extend their tenure. No way. We did not vote for them to stay for six years; we voted for four years.

    What are the factors and issues that will shape 2015 general electionn?

    Number one, it is corruption. There is massive corruption at the federal level. In fact, I am happy that the Minister of Finance, Dr. Okonjo Iweala, made a comment yesterday that corruption is a major problem they are unable to tackle. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, said categorically that corruption is being encouraged by the executive. Nigerians are sick and tired of it. That is one issue that we will put on the front burner.

    The mood in the APC tends to suggest that its presidential slot may be zoned to the North…

    Even, if it is so, there will still be primaries. Whoever is going to emerge will be chosen by the people through a democratic process as provided for in the constitution.

    Will the primary be guided or open?

    We have different procedures. Which ever that is decided upon will be used.

    Most of you who are leaders of Afenifere are not prepared for reconciliation in the fold again…

    I believe that, one day, we will all come back together again. Efforts are being made in that direction. At the end of the day, really what is Afenifere all about? It is the wellbeing of Yoruba people. Many of us are in different political parties today, but we still have the wellbeing of the Yoruba at heart. The most important thing is that, as long as we are fighting for the progress of the Yoruba people, irrespective of political parties, then, we are still on course.

    Are you not worried that local government election has not been held in Ekiti?

    The election has not held because of the case in court. The PDP took the government to court and that is what is holding us. It is not something that we are happy about.

  • Reps fully imbibing progressive ideas – Minority Whip

    THE Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, Mr. Samson Osagie has said with the defection of 37 members of the People Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC), the House appears to be fully imbibing progressive ideas and ideals.

    Fielding questions from newsmen, Osagie described the defection of the 37 lawmakers to the APC as a victory for the Nigeria people.

    He said the defection signifies that the nation’s democracy was taking firm root, stressing that the people were beginning to witness the realisation of their right to exercise their constitutional right of association.

    He also noted that the defection would effect change in the leadership and governance of the country.

    “The wider implication in the House is that in the weeks and months to come, the House is going to be piloted on more progressive ideas for the purpose of effecting change in the governance of our country”.

     

    u can see that without even going for election, the APC is already winning. The end of this defection has not ended; we are yet to see more,” he emphasised.

    Speaking on the issue of corruption, the minority leader blasted the executive for shielding corrupt officials in spite of the efforts of National Assembly to expose these people.

     

  • Defection: We can’t declare Reps seats vacant, INEC tells PDP

    Defection: We can’t declare Reps seats vacant, INEC tells PDP

    Pressure mounted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the seats of the 37 Reps who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has met with rebuff from the commission.

    The electoral body has told the ruling party that it is not within its powers to take such an action.

    Speaking to The Nation on the matter, the Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Kayode Idowu, said that in the first place the commission was yet to receive any letter from the PDP on the defected lawmakers.

    He also explained that it is not the duty of the commission to declare the seats of lawmakers vacant in whatever circumstance.

    “Honestly, I am not aware of any such letter. I sincerely don’t know anything about it. But let me also add that it is not the job of INEC to take such a decision. INEC is not the one to declare seats of elected public office holders vacant. That is not what the law says and I can tell you that INEC is not going to do that,” he said.

    Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, had been quoted in a newspaper interview that the PDP had written to INEC and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, to declare the seats of the 37 Reps vacant.

    Details of the letter dated December 19, 2013 emerged yesterday.

    The embattled National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the National Secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo, and the National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon, who signed it asked INEC to immediately conduct elections into the affected constituencies following the defection of its members to the APC.

    The PDP, they claimed, has no factions and consequently the defectors argument that they left on account of factionalism holds no water.

    They said: “the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in section 68 (i) (g) clearly spell out the consequences of cross carpeting when there is no division in any party. We wish to re-emphasize here that the Courts have pronounced, and INEC has concurred that there are no factions in the PDP.”

    Section 68 (1) of the 1999 Constitution provides thus: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if –

    (a) he becomes a member of another legislative house.

    (b) any other circumstances arise that, if he were not a member of the Senate or the House of Representatives, would cause him to be disqualified for election as a member;

    (c) he ceases to be a citizen of Nigeria;

    (d) he becomes President, Vice-President, Governor, Deputy Governor or a Minister of the Government of the Federation or a Commissioner of the Government of a State or a Special Adviser.

    (e) save as otherwise prescribed by this Constitution, he becomes a member of a commission or other body established by this Constitution or by any other law.

    (f) without just cause he is absent from meetings of the House of which he is a member for a period amounting in the aggregate to more than one-third of the total number of days during which the House meets in any one year;

    (g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected;

    Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored; or

    (h) the President of the Senate or, as the case may be, the Speaker of the House of Representatives receives a certificate under the hand of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission stating that the provisions of section 69 of this Constitution have been complied with in respect of the recall of that member.

    (2) The President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, shall give effect to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, so however that the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House concerned that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of that member.

    The federal legislators dumped the PDP on Wednesday and formally joined the APC.

    Their joining the opposition party increased the number of APC legislators in the House from 135 to 172 and left the PDP in the minority with 171 members.

  • Rep blasts PDP over call on INEC to declare seats vacant

    Rep blasts PDP over call on INEC to declare seats vacant

    A member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Ali Ahmad, has blasted the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the seats of former members of the party who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Ahmad, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, urged his former party to respect the Constitution and court judgment.

    Describing PDP as a lawless party that has no respect for the Constitution, Ahmad in a chat with reporters at the weekend in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, added, “We went to court knowing that PDP is a lawless party. They do not respect the Constitution.”

    Ahmad, a former University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) law teacher added, “Let them (PDP leaders) bother to read the Constitution. The Constitution says a legislator would lose his seat if he defects, but he would not lose in two circumstances: one, if there is a faction or division or if there is a merger between one faction of a party and the other faction.

    “You see the PDP, they cherry-pick, once it suits them, they interpret a court order to their advantage; if it doesn’t, rather than appeal or seek another judicial interpretation, they interpret it weirdly and act on it, because they have control on use of legal force.

    “I am not talking academically; we have seen it during the Oyinlola judgment in the Court of Appeal. Even the court of first instance ruled that Oyinlola is the Secretary of PDP. The day after, they interpreted it somehow and suspended him thereby rendering the court’s judgment nugatory.

    “In this instance, the court said the second and third defendants, who are the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, are restrained; that the status quo should be maintained especially with regard to these two defendants concerning any attempt to declare the seats of the plaintiffs vacant.

    “And even if the court said the parties should maintain the status quo. Parties should maintain the status quo, full stop. No. It is not a status quo in general. It is specific. It says status quo with regards to declaring the seats of the plaintiffs vacant.”

  • What holds PDP together is melting at the core, says Osun APC

    What holds PDP together is melting at the core, says Osun APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State has declared that the wind of change blowing in the PDP will “dismantle the political culture of graft, corruption and impunity in governance,” which it says the party represents since its assumption of power in 1999.

    Reacting to the defection of 37 PDP members of the House of Representatives to the APC, the party said it welcomed it as a “unique situation which will resonate throughout the country and cripple the forces of retrogression that have been at the core of the country’s descent into a banana republic.”

    The Osun APC’s Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, said in a statement in Osogbo that “it will be a costly error for anybody to reduce this event to a sheer struggle for political power.”

    He said: “A force perhaps beyond our comprehension has struck at the monstrous head of evil in Nigeria right there in Abuja which will cause the PDP house built on sand to collapse with a thunderous sound.

    “Things cannot be the same anymore with the ruling party because what held it together has melted from its own heat – corruption, graft, mismanagement of funds and total misrule of Nigeria.”

    He accused the PDP of “ utter misuse of illegitimate violence to muzzle dissent and terrorise opposition parties, rig elections and frustrate the will of the majority of our people, as a crime that is playing out with impunity in several states.”

  • Deji’s death, a huge loss to Yoruba race-Obasanjo

    Deji’s death, a huge loss to Yoruba race-Obasanjo

    FORMER President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has described the death of the paramount ruler of Akure Kingdom, Oba Adebiyi Adesida, as a great loss to the Yoruba race.

    Obasanjo’s visit came 21 days after the late monarch joined his ancestors. The former president is a close friend of the late Oba Adesida.

    At the palace of the late traditional ruler in Akure where he condoled with the widow, Olori Mojisola Adesida, and members of the Adesida family, Obasanjo, who was accompanied by some chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, said the reign of Oba Adesida was memorable and eventful.

    While commiserating with the family of the late monarch, Obasanjo prayed to God to grant his family the fortitude to bear the loss.

    The former PDP Board of Trustees Chairman said Oba

    Adesida would be remembered for his uncommon zeal for the development of Akure.

    Responding on behalf of the family of the late traditional ruler, Raymond Adesida thanked the former president for the visit.

    The former president later paid a condolence visit to the palace of the Asamo of Akure where he also commiserated with the people of Akure.

    At the end of his visit, Obasanjo declined to comment on national issues when he was by journalists.

  • Is PDP dead or dying?

    Is PDP dead or dying?

    PDP has no redeeming feature

    It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy; one that has long been expected, if the PDP does not come out of its current stupor alive. Without a scintilla of doubt, the party has been many times lucky because in decent societies, any party like it would long have become history. Nothing proves the veracity of its cluelessness more than the combination of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s recent, self- serving, 18- page letter to the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, and the legislative tsunami which hit the party when 37 of its members in the House of Representatives decamped to the rival All Progressives Congress, effectively putting the government party in opposition in that hallowed chamber. The move, according to the legislators was as a result of the division in the party, consequent upon the formation of the new PDP, the decampment of five governors from the ruling party and, in tandem with the provisions of the constitution. I described Obasanjo’s letter to President Jonathan as self- serving because it is nothing more than the result of frustrations arising from his seeming inability to install a third Nigerian president in the person of the Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido

    The letter, bristling with rampant denunciations and allegations of, albeit undeniable, massive corruption, ineptitude and crass cronyism against the Jonathan government, could hardly have been improved upon by the opposition the way it hammered both Jonathan, and his government. Obasanjo was so unsparing, he had no qualms in alleging that the country may very soon go back to the murderous days of the goggled one and to bring this poignantly home to Nigerians, a smart Obasanjo posited a causal relationship between it, and the allegedly arranged discharge of Abacha’s former Chief Security Officer in a case of being an accessory to the assassination of Kudirat, wife of Chief M K O Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the historic June 12, 1993 election, adding that Mustapha was escorted back to his native North like a rock star.

    For its un-redeemable woes on Nigeria, PDP’s death, long heralded, will be completely unsung as Nigeria would be much better without that monster, which its members forever deceive themselves describing as the largest party in Africa, clustering our political space. Under the PDP, elections in Nigeria became a ‘do or die’ affair, worse than any in any other part of the world, security of life and property became a chimera as full scale insurgency war erupted in its North-Eastern part, oil thefts increased exponentially in spite of the many sweet heart, multi-billion naira contracts to ex-militants, at least one of who had since established a university in a neighbouring country; ministers became untouchable champions of corruption just as Mr President increasingly became an ethnic jingoist with his rehabilitated Ijaw militants pouring invectives on distinguished Nigerians, at will, and unchecked.

    Jon Campbell, a Senior Research Fellow at the American Council on Foreign Relations and Former Ambassador to Nigeria, wrote recently in his new book Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink that popular alienation and a fragmented establishment have contributed to Nigeria becoming one of the most violent countries in the world. –No thanks to the PDP, and in particular, its first President turned letter writer, Olusegun Obasanjo. PDP had, from the very beginning, been nothing but a curse on the developmental trajectory of the Nigerian state as it governed essentially through indescribable corruption which became highly accentuated by its rentier philosophy of government. For instance, one of its top chieftains, indeed a former Chairman of the party, whose son was fingered in the oil subsidy scam in an agency of government which he chaired, has since been gifted another high ranking appointment thus demonstrating the amoral nature of both party and government.

    Under the PDP, flawed elections in 2003, 2007, and 2011 completely undermined government’s credibility and further aggravated Nigeria’s conflicts: social, political and economic such that today, not just Boko Haram, kidnappers, armed robbers but pirates operating in its territorial waters have all combined to ensure that’ the federal government has failed to provide basic security for its citizens as well as lost its monopoly on violence, two basic attributes of a sovereign state.”

    Thus, a country that ordinarily should have been the lodestar of the African continent, facilitating continent –wide stability, fostering economic cooperation and leading the way in tackling Africa’s key health challenges, has itself become one of the continent’s most urgent challenges as PDP has landed it squarely on the edge of state failure.

    But history teaches us that PDP will not like to die alone. Indeed, its leaders would rather wish that the entire country collapses with it. This is the clear and present danger the dying party presents each and every Nigerian, nay the entire world since the international community, as in other flashpoint areas, may have to pay a steep price for Nigerian state failure, and its consequent humanitarian calamity

    Indeed, a comatose PDP will become lethal, and will do just about anything to rig the elections coming up in Ekiti and Osun states, since the dying party would like to pretend it is alive. This is why Nigerians have to be alive to the antics of not just the federal government, the PDP and its colony of client-parties like Labour, APGA, Accord and SDP, but in particular, the inappropriately named INEC, which recently showed its bloodied hands again in the Anambra governorship election. Even where you could still vouch for Prof Jega’s personal integrity, I have no doubt whatever that he has since been swallowed up by the humongous agency and has thereby lost control of its thousands of mostly temporary staff who could therefore do as they please at elections. This is the more reason why, to forestall the machinations of the PDP, especially in the South West, where it had long been dispatched to political Siberia, we must, with a fine tooth comb, peruse the voters’ register which INEC traditionally helps to sex up, padding it with hundreds of thousands of fictitious names.

    PDP has, since 1999, been the dominant political party in Nigeria. Its failure therefore to emerge outside the cretinism of its respective leaders has had tremendous disadvantages for Nigeria. Since political parties are critical to democratic sustainability, the overall poverty of the PDP, either in its corporate form, or seen from the perspective of its self-seeking leaders, has meant that it has been a great minus for Nigeria. Though it may seem an exaggeration, PDP in my view, has no redeeming feature as everything Nigerians love to admire, adore and celebrate have been completely bastardised.

    I have no doubt that the decampment of about 22 senators from it to the APC; will be the icing on the cake as it will serve as the final nail on the coffin the octopoidal, but effete, PDP.