The Nation Newspaper

Tag: PDP

  • Subsidising our inefficient bureaucracy

    Two experiences in the past week reminded me how public

    service in our country is rigged against the ordinary Nigerians.

    As things are, the little the poor has is forcefully appropriated to subsidise our duplicitous agencies of governments. The first of the two reminders was when I went to renew my driver’s licence, as ordered by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC). The chaos at the commission’s office was typical of a market scene, with several frustrated applicants desperately seeking to bribe any willing official to bypass the agonising process to get the new driver’s licence. With only one machine to capture the deluge of applicants, the officials were also in a quandary.

    Nigerians will remember that several months ago, the Corps Marshal, Osita Chidoka, bamboozled the National Assembly to allow the commission, become a huge revenue earner for the government. Of course back then, he garnished his arguments with the need to develop a biometric data bank of drivers, as a major cure for the security challenges posed by kidnappers and the Boko Haram sect. Faking patriotism, the Presidency and the legislature bought the dummy that the commission has wrought the magic wand to end the incidence of suicide bombers.

    Now ordinary Nigerians are paying a huge price for the young man’s brain wave, devoid of a thorough appraisal of the technical requirements for such an exercise. With just one machine to capture the biometric data of thousands, if not millions of the drivers thronging the Bariga office of the commission, in Lagos, I witnessed our country’s disgraceful waste of man-hour, and the creation of a disgusting brisk business for the unscrupulous staff of the commission. I spoke to applicants who had visited the commission many times, without gaining the chance of getting captured by the biometric data machine. Many others were given dates in second quarter of 2014 for an opportunity to be captured, among other bureaucratic idiocies.

    Of course the real beneficiaries of the unlawful business angle to this national shame are pretentiously putting up a brave face that they have done the country a favour. To show that the protagonists of this project are not different from extortionists and brigands, they failed to consider the contractual obligation the commission owe those whose licence will not expire by the due date of the forceful termination of the existing license. As in other unlawful enterprises of those who foist themselves on us as government agencies, they will likely resort to the use of intimidation or brute force at the end of the unlawfully imposed transition to the new drivers licence. From experience they know that Nigerians are either too ignorant or timid to subject such a breach of their rights and due process to a text in the court.

    Another experience was the first hand experience of my generator repairer. Of course the 3.5 kva gasoline generator, that he came to service after three days of uninterrupted lack of electricity supply (even when the month’s estimated bill was sitting pretty on my table), was my fifth since the advent of our democracy in 1999. But while, no doubt, the denial of electricity after billions of naira have been stolen from the national treasury and the suffering consumers in the unending quest for improvement, is an official cruelty against the ordinary Nigerians, the repairer’s experience and the price I paid has nothing to do with this bureaucratically obfuscated scarce national resource.

    Rather, the poor fellow in the course of his work needed to purchase some items for the repairs. So, he quickly dashed out, promising to be back in a jiffy. That trip turned a grueling three-hour wait for me, without my knowing that he was caught, running between his house and the police station negotiating with the police on the appropriate price to bail one of his neighbours, who according to him, was arrested for fighting. Since he was working for me for the first time, I did not have his telephone number, and was worried as to his motive for abandoning the generator, after he had dismantled same.

    When he later turned up looking drained of energy and with a story of how he was rallying to raise N5000 to bail his neighbour, after hours of pleading and haggling on the appropriate pricing for his neighbour’s freedom, I couldn’t do more than extend my sympathy. He lectured me that since his neighbour was arrested on a weekend, a failure to raise the required ransom to get him out on bail the same Saturday would have resulted in his neighbour being detained till Monday. While he continued his task, I was comparing his neighbour’s experience with that of the privileged Nigerian big men who in the past week have been receiving deluge of sympathies, over the withdrawal of their so called security details.

    I recall that the same last week, as an extension of the civil war in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the security details of a number of the desperados angling to oust President Jonathan from his plume position or negotiate a deal had their police details withdrawn. So while the ordinary Nigerian is a game and is extorted to subsidise the poorly remunerated police, the rich are provided with special security, at the expense of the state. Again, while public commentators are bawling over whether it is right for the police to withdraw those security details, very few spare a thought for the greater injustice that the ordinary Nigerians suffer, as a result of the unlawful appropriation of the nation’s police by the privileged few in the country. Of course with the political elite gaining several unearned privileges, how can our bureaucracy be primed for efficiency?

     

  • Battle for National Secretary splits Lagos, Osun PDP

    Battle for National Secretary splits Lagos, Osun PDP

     

    Crisis is brewing between the Lagos and Osun states Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the choice of the Acting National Secretary. Efforts by the Southwest Caretaker Committee led by the Acting Zonal Chairman, Mr. Deji Doherty, to broker peace between the two warring chapters have not succeeded. PDP stakeholders in the zone fear that the acrimony may affect unity and reconciliation efforts in the region.

    The Osun State PDP Chairman, Mr. Gani Olaoluwa, had criticised the Lagos leaders of the party for hijacking the slot, claiming that it was zoned to his state. Party chieftains also alleged that the Lagos PDP leader, Commodore Bode George (rtd) influenced the appointment of Dr. Remi Akitoye from Lagos as the Acting Secretary, in replacement for Gen. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who was shoved aside from the National Executive Committee (NEC) last year.

    Olaoluwa said that Osun State should have produced the Acting Secretary because the former Secretary hails from the state. He therefore, called for the removal of Akitoye to pave the way for the emergence of another chieftain from Osun to occupy the office. He said the move will foster fairness, justice and harmony in the zone.

    Ahead of last year’s disputed national convention, the position of the National Vice Chairman (Southwest) was zoned to Ekiti State. The position of the Secretary was zoned to Osun. The National Auditor was zoned to Ogun. Former Ekiti State Governor Segun Oni emerged as the Vice Chairman. Oyinlola became the Secretary. But following complaints by some Southwest PDP chieftains, Oni was removed. Oyinlola was also removed from office in controversial circumstances. Although the electoral commission did not void his election, unlike other 16 national officers, the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has refused to reinstate him. His case on the issue is still in court, although he has now emerged as the national Secretary of the Kawu Baraje’s faction. Reflecting on his removal, the former Osun State governor said he lost his seat because he is an associate of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    Three months ago, when reality dawned on the Southwest PDP that Oyinlola may not be reinstated, the stakeholders endorsed Prof. Wole Oladipo, a chieftain from Osun, for the position. In fact, five states-Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun-had agreed to elect him as the Secretary at the recent convention. Lagos PDP officers shunned the zonal meeting at Ibadan, Oyo State, where the decision was taken. But the election into the office did not hold due to the protracted litigation arising from Oyinlola’s removal. Therefore, the National Working Committee (NWC) asked Akitoye to continue as the Acting Secretary.

    Olaoluwa said that, based on the zoning principle, Akitoye is not eligible for the position. “It is inappropriate”, he said, adding that Osun had been short-changed.

    However, Lagos PDP has fired back, saying that the call for Akitoye’s removal was belated and borne out of mischief. The Publicity Secretary, Mr. Taofik Gani, berated Olaoluwa for parochialism and faulted the choice of Oladipo for the position by the Southwest congress. He said the claim that the former university don was endorsed for the position was false and unacceptable to the Lagos chapter. He also said that Olaoluwa has failed to understand the provisions of the PDP Constitution on the filling of vacant positions in the INEC.

    Gani cited Section 13(5) and 14(5) of the PDP Constitution to buttress his argument, submitting that Akitoye’s choice complied with the law. He said the alternate recommendation by Olaoluwa could undermine the Southwest PDP. The Publicity Secretary stressed: “Section 14(5) states that, where a vacancy occurs on any of the offices of the party, the committee shall appoint a substitute from the zone where the officer originates, pending the conduct if the election to fill the vacancy.

    “The provision of Section 14(5) is unequivocal that a consequential substitute can only come from the zone and not reduced to the state. It is thus unintelligent to argue that the Acting National Secretary must emerge from Osun State per se. Moreover, Lagos State is even better strategically positioned to be preferred above Osun State because, unlike Osun State, Lagos State delivered victory to the party in the last presidential election”.

    Gani urged Olaoluwa to concentrate his efforts on how to reconcile the PDP factions in Osun, instead of acting against the wish of the party. He said: “We are convinced that the National Chairman of the PDP is comfortable with the services and support of the current Acting National Secretary”.

     

  • PDP crisis: Jonathan, G-7 governors draw battle line

    PDP crisis: Jonathan, G-7 governors draw battle line

    All is set for a make or mar meeting today between President Goodluck Jonathan and the aggrieved G-7 governors and leaders of the Abubakar Kawu Baraje faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Baraje said today’s meeting will be the end of any further discussions with the president if he did not respond positively to the demands of the faction.

    There were signs of likely deadlock yesterday following a disclosure by a presidential aide that Jonathan is going to insist on his constitutional right to seek re-election in 2015.

    One of the key strategists of the president said Jonathan will not waive his right to contest in spite of threats from the aggrieved governors in Baraje’s faction.

    To end the crisis in PDP, the G-7 and Baraje faction had tabled five demands before Jonathan and a seven-man peace panel headed by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    The conditions are as follows:

    • The sack of National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    • Return of party structure to governors in Adamawa, Rivers, Kano, and other states

    • Sticking to one -term tenure by the president by foregoing re-election in 2015

    • Resolution of NGF and Rivers crises, including the lifting of suspension of Governor Rotimi Amaechi

    • Stopping the harassment of governors by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)

    In an exclusive chat with our correspondent yesterday, Baraje said only two of the demands were partially addressed on Monday.

    He said Jonathan and the Tukur-led PDP agreed to reverse the dissolution of the party executives in Adamawa State and the lifting of the suspension of Governor Rotimi Amaechi by the party.

    He said although Jonathan agreed that the suspension of Amaechi was illegal and ought to have been reversed, the president added a caveat that the Governor of Rivers State should withdraw all suits in court before he can be reinstated.

    But Baraje said his faction insisted on the lifting of the suspension before Amaechi can withdraw all party-related suits.

    He said the two parties could not reach a compromise on the recall of Amaechi from suspension.

    Asked what his faction will be taking to the peace talks today, Baraje said: “Our demands are still intact, they are not negotiable in any form. We are hoping to complete discussion on Sunday. That session may be the end of any discussion with Jonathan and his group if we do not see any positive action or response. We will not tolerate any further attempt to postpone the peace talks to bid time or allow the situation to drag for long.”

    He promised that after today’s meeting “you should expect more action on how to put our group on a sound footing. There will be more political developments in line with our demands.”

    Baraje expressed fears that the blockade of the street to the Government House in Port Harcourt was a new issue the G-7 will raise at today’s meeting. He said his faction would make it an issue at the resumption of talks because there was no way the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, would deploy his men to act in such a brazen manner without orders from above.

    He said: “You can see that our demands are justified, we are fighting for the future of democracy in Nigeria, we are fighting for Nigerians to prevent them from being victims of repression. They are saying that we should discuss but to our chagrin, they are preventing a governor from entering the Government House.

    “Is it even right for the police to invade PDP secretariat and destroy flags? Is it democratic to barricade a road leading to Government House and inhibit the movement of a governor? It is the highest point of impunity, intolerance and an undemocratic action in a democratic setting.This is a way of getting at Amaechi to deny him immunity. The whole world has seen that our demands are justified.”

    Baraje lashed out at Tukur led PDP for justifying police action against Amaechi.

    He said: “I saw the siege coming; I have been saying that Tukur is the most undemocratic element in a democratic system. You can appreciate from video clips and even eye-witness accounts that the road to the Government House was blocked. We saw a lorry-load of policemen disembarking to block the road but in a blatant display of dishonesty, the Tukur-led faction issued a statement justifying the prevention of Amaechi from entering Government House. It said that there was nothing like that. This is why Tukur’s continuing staying in office is unacceptable to our group.”

    But a strategist of the president, who spoke in confidence, said: “The right to seek re-election is guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution, the president cannot waive it at all. Baraje’s faction is overpricing itself; there is no way Jonathan will give them a commitment not to contest in 2015. It is an issue beyond the peace talks; Nigerians should decide the fate of the president.”

    The spokesperson said the demand for the removal of Tukur was a smokescreen because the target is 2015. “They want Jonathan to forget about seeking a second term in office. But they are dancing around it. Jonathan and his team are of the strong opinion that Tukur is not the issue. If the G-7 governors are controlling the party structure in their states, what is their business with the national structure? They want Jonathan to take what they can never accept.”

    The source added: “The best they can get, which Jonathan camp will offer, is for the G-7 governors to acknowledge Jonathan’s right to contest with a caveat that there should a level playing field for all aspirants. That is the minimum demand on 2015 that Jonathan and his group can accept.

    “Do you know that some of these so-called G-7 governors had been removing elected local government chairmen in their states without recourse to due process or the 1999 Constitution? In Rivers State alone, 13 LGA chairmen had been sacked. Go and crosscheck your facts.”

     

     

  • As PDP unravels, where is Ekiti PDP?

    As PDP unravels, where is Ekiti PDP?

    If Ekiti PDP has always been fractious, its problems have now quintupled as the falcon can no longer hear the falconer.

    It the best of times, it is the tradition of the Ekiti PDP to have no idea about any matter, however serious, or pedestrian, until they have visited Ota.  Even at a time when former governor Gbenga Daniel gave Obasanjo, even as President, no quarters whatever in the affairs of  his native Ogun State PDP, our friends in Ekiti would still first visit with Baba or, at the very worst, divine his innermost cravings. Thus, at a point, it became impossible for Ekiti to nominate a candidate as federal minister on its own; and once, when they went beyond their bounds and nominated Dayo Adeyeye, it only took President Obasanjo enough time to remember that the prince was his nemesis as Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, and so, promptly collapsed the party’s temerity and Adeyeye’s earnest hopes.

    These were the thoughts running through my mind this past week as I posed the following question to the ekitipanupo web portal: Wither Ekiti PDP, as the ‘largest rally in Africa’ unravels?

    As I tried to sketch above, at no point in time had the party in Ekiti being as free as you found in Oyo, Osun, Ondo or in Gbenga Daniel’s Ogun. The few times President Obasanjo busied himself with state matters, any of Bode George, the late Baba Adedibu or Senator Omisore took charge; took as much contracts as he wanted or arranged charter flights  for the current governor, however transient. Indeed, when matters came to a head, our dear governors were not unknown to have run to a paramount ruler outside the state to help out. An instance was when an overbearing chieftain of the party was going to overawe the state governor with his  relationship with a top Abuja government official to get a seat on the National Executive Council of the party and the governor had to dash to Kabiyesi for succour.

    It must be said though, that at that time, all Southwest chapters respected the former president as it predated the current Buruji Kasamu’s suzerainty which has seen leading lights of the Obasanjo group shoved aside, even from posts to which they were elected.

    No thanks to a combination of President Jonathan and a rambunctious Chairman Tukur.

    Therefore, with the Presidency reportedly of the view that Obasanjo is behind the present crisis ravaging the party, whither Ekiti PDP?  Kasamu’s desire to add Ekiti to his Ogun conquest must have informed his boast to spend a billion naira on the Ekiti election, knowing full well that once his PDP people hear about money, all sense is lost.

    So what exactly is their permutation; which of the Tukur /Baraje groups offers the best for their chimerical hopes, for 2014 in Ekiti? This is the problem that must literally be eating them up now and I won’t be surprised if all manner of diviners, soothsayers and marabouts are already smiling to their banks. It becomes worse when one remembers that there are no less than 16 wannabe governors within their ranks.

    Writing in answer to the question was Wale Adeoye, a brilliant journalist, and Senior Special Assistant in the Fayemi administration. I shall quote him at some length. Wrote Wale: ‘The Ekiti and South West PDP are in a fix. It is unlikely they will come out unscathed. The Tukur faction, by crook and arm-twisting, will dominate the scene. The two sides are not fighting any ideological war. The Tukur faction wants the President, probably because he has paid his material price for the bidding or the pudding. The Baraje group, in turn, wants power so as to enhance the diminishing influence of the northern (Hausa-Fulani) oligarchy. Neither Tukur nor Baraje has told us that the battle is informed by the interest of Nigeria or Nigerians; neither has either disagreed with the ruinous economic policies of the PDP at the national and local frontiers. The devil is split in two: one is a rattle-snake, the other a scorpion. None is useful to mankind, not even for the eating, except to isolate and kill them before they finally pour their insidious venom on society. The Ekiti and South West PDP are split along the two divides: OBJ is an opportunist, trying to exploit the crack to full advantage. In reality, he is a vocal, devilish authority, but in praxis, he lacks any compelling political structure. Atiku, the knight of treacherous adventures, is using the PDM as a platform to destabilise the setting; to pave the way for his personal ambition or, at worst, to ensure the emergence of his crony as the next president. OBJ is not comfortable with Atiku, but for the plot against the President, he needs to surge at the hawk first, before he could chastise the rebellious, back-stabbing musketeers on his heels. This crisis has exposed the barrenness of the PDP, its lack of tact, its destructive antics, its lows, its self-seeking man-oeuvres and the imminence of its collapse as one of history’s most heinous political institutions.’ He then warns: ‘Let the progressive forces be aware: we need a movement; a movement in alliance with labour, students, workers, seafarers, haves and havenots, rich and poor, dregs and royals, to rise up and agree on the need to stop the PDP in all its deceitful shapes, come 2015.’

    If Ekiti PDP has always been fractious, its problems have now quintupled as the falcon can no longer hear the falconer. If the Oni group can be said to have been weakened by the vicissitudes Obasanjo suffered in the hands of Buruji Kasamu working as a Jonathan/Tukur hireling, the Fayose/Olubolade group, which won its rancorous convention, has uproariously atomised, with both men sparing no lurid word in publicly describing each other. While Akin Omole of the Oni group, who lost the chairmanship election, has since been in court asking it to send packing the incumbent state chairman, Makanjuola Ogundipe, on the grounds that members of the state executive committee came in through a manipulated congress election, as if rigging is not their party’s middle name, Ogundipe has, in turn, threatened to haul Omole before the enforcer, Chairman Tukur, for anti- party activities.

    Things have gotten even worse. There had been serial mutual suspensions of party chieftains, including both Fayose and Ogundipe.  Fisticuffs, cutlasses, guns and charms have also been brought into play with a former Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly a major victim. Abuja has, as expected, done its usual abracadabra; rescinding Fayose’s suspension while tenaciously holding to the consensus arrangement which is the very reason Fayose is fighting to the death. In the meantime, the Oni group has been further affected by the publicised exit of Professor Lola Borisade to energise the PDM which is guaranteed to be Atiku’s next platform to confront the Obasanjo/Lamido group. And that will be the duel! Therefore, even if the Oni group, which is the single most cohesive group, joins the new PDP in the meantime, the romance will most likely be short-lived as most of the 16 aspiring to win the guber slot are likely to tilt towards the Jonathan group which, with power behind it, will most probably thump the new. But, in the meantime, fearing a mass defection into the new PDP in the state, the President will most probably go back on his erstwhile support for his Police Affairs Minister who, of course, has nowhere else to go besides the president’s group.

    That exactly is where the Ekiti PDP is today; their jigsaw puzzle, in no man’s land, marooned and, literally leaderless. Even then, in the most unlikely event that the party resolves its many problems, national and state, where is the PDP going to start from in Ekiti? Is it from its dismal failure to attract any meaningful federal project to the state in 14 years of their party’s stranglehold on the country? Is it in the federal government’s pernicious marginalisation of the Yoruba in the affairs of the country such that you cannot count a single Yoruba man in the topmost 10 jobs in the country? Is it the fact that nothing of substance stands to the memory of PDP’s seven years of locust in Ekiti? Compare that miserable record with the exploits of the Fayemi administration which, in under three years, has touched every nook and cranny of the state, having a minimum of at least one project in EVERY town, village or community; continuously impacting every segment of governance and very positively presenting the state to the world as a caring government via programmes like the monthly stipends to the elderly and the multi-birth care, to mention but a few.

    So to the question, I answer: Ekiti PDP is certainly in the doldrums.

  • Politics of reprisal

    Politics of reprisal

    This is fast becoming one of the hallmarks of the Jonathan administration

    Reprisal is the name of the game, and the presidency is proving to be adept at it. The signs of presidential prompting, or backing, were evident in certain events that developed from the messy internecine conflict in the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Take the case of the reported unexplained police withdrawal of the security guards and escorts of Senator Bukola Saraki, a former two-term governor of Kwara State (2003 to 2011); and the reported branding of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as persona non grata by ex-Niger Delta militants.  It can be deduced that both politicians were on the receiving end because of their perceived guilt by association, following their membership of a splinter group.

    However, there are larger issues involved in the fragmentation of the PDP, with serious implications for the polity, beyond the personal troubles of Saraki and Abubakar. In the case of the former governor, it amounts to a raw abuse of federal might to deny him the benefit of security agents, if indeed he has such entitlement under the law. It is significant to note that this episode, again, raised questions about eligibility for state security services, and the implementation of related legislation.

    In rather dramatic circumstances, a side show by Kwara State House of Assembly Speaker, Razaq Atunwa, shed light on Saraki’s situation.  Atunwa told reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, “By virtue of Section 2 (3) Paragraph H of the Third Schedule of the Kwara State Governor and Deputy Governor Payment of Pension Law 2010, Senator Saraki is entitled to the provision of police security as part of his pension entitlement.”  He added, “That was a law validly enacted by the Kwara State House of Assembly.”

    Interestingly, he chose the occasion not only to condemn the treatment of Saraki, and appropriately described it as “a clear breach of the law”; he also strikingly disclosed that he had notified the state police commissioner that “by Friday, September 13, he should relinquish the police security attached to me until the police security of Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki is restored.”  This development, following an ironic contempt for the law by the police, gave a glimpse of the undesirable consequences that could arise from escalating politicisation of the police and accompanying partisanship, which are unwelcome.

    The selectiveness in Saraki’s case further exposed the complicated fallout of the PDP split; and again highlighted the controversial subject of state police as a possible counter to the apparent drift in the direction of a virtual police state by the powers at the centre who control the force in the existing arrangement. It is alarming that a pattern seems to be forming, to go by the recent police withdrawal of River State Governor Rotimi  Amaechi’s  escort commander in circumstances which suggested that the move was inspired by his running clash with President Goodluck Jonathan; and the scandalous blockage of a major road to the Government House in Port Harcourt by the police.  Also, Jonathan’s recent sack of nine ministers had undertones of retaliation, considering the fact that it generally affected those who were sponsored by his perceived enemies, or who came from supposedly antagonistic areas.

    Notwithstanding the legal context provided by the Speaker, and his spectacular mode of protest, it is pertinent to contemplate the scale of police security that Saraki enjoyed before the disruption. Reports listed seven security personnel, including two at his Abuja residence, three at his home in Ilorin, and two others “at his beck and call.”  Certainly, this number of policemen attached to Saraki alone defies logic, particularly given the general inadequacy in policing across the country. Furthermore, the fact that the Saraki example is likely to be replicated among others of his ilk is a sad commentary on the abuse of state apparatus.

    Regrettably, the presidency’s hand was similarly discernible in the barefaced assault on Abubakar’s freedom of movement by former militia leaders who curiously belong to President Jonathan’s ethnic base. The meeting of the retired but perhaps unreformed warlords representing all nine states of the Niger Delta under the banner of the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI) in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, was suspicious and reeked of reprisal. The group declared, in words that were disturbingly revelatory, “It is unfortunate that Atiku, who has benefited so much from the Niger Delta’s crude oil and gas, is leading dissidents in a political coup against the first Southerner to ever ascend the seat of President of Nigeria.”  Additionally, it issued a not-so-subtle threat that deserves condemnation, particularly because of the potent danger to the right to free movement. LPCDI said, “We are aware of his vast business interest in the Niger Delta and we are warning him, in his own interest, to stay off the region.”

    Such crude posturing, most likely informed by proximity to power, does its supposed beneficiary a disservice. It bespoke aggressive intolerance and should be discouraged by any responsible government. To allow any group to wallow in the conceit that it can unlawfully deny others freedom of movement, or even association, is to send wrong signals, for such illegality could be adopted as a guiding example by opportunists, to the country’s detriment.

    There can be no acceptable rationalisation of the brazen lawlessness and stifling tendency promoted in these respective cases. They are paths that will do the country no good, and the government should know this.

  • Stop heating the polity, PDP youths tell leaders

    A  group, the Kaduna Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Youth Solidarity Forum, yesterday charged leaders of the party to stop heating up the polity but seek alternative ways of addressing issues affecting them.

    In a statement by its chairman, Danjuma Sarki, the group expressed support for the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP.

    The youths, who were reacting to the division in the party, said the PDP in Kaduna State remains one, intact and indivisible under the chairmanship of Abubakar Haruna.

    Haruna, they said, was duly endorsed by the caucus of the party in the state and has been performing well since assumption of office.

    They described those behind the new PDP in the state as desperate politicians and spent forces seeking unavailable relevance.

    A group, Save Kaduna, spearheaded by a former chairman of the PDP in the state, Yaro Makama, last week expressed support for the Abubakar Baraje- led faction of the party.

    It accused the Vice President Sambo Namadi of failing to harness the fortunes of the party in the state for the collective good of all members.

     

  • APC and the PDP refugees

    APC and the PDP refugees

    Therever there is war, you’ll find a steady stream of refugees fleeing the conflict zone. No surprise then that the infighting within the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) threatens to unleash a flood of displaced politicians seeking refuge with whatever resembles a credible alternative platform.

    In the real world playing host to refugees can be nightmarish for whoever is at the receiving end. Sometimes communities and countries fearful that the newly homeless could overwhelm them have been known to slam the door in the faces of the desperate rabble. But no such misery awaits Nigeria’s burgeoning breed of political flotsam.

    Unlike the wretched of the earth to be found in war zones from Syria to Afghanistan, those on the verge of walking out of, or being kicked out of the PDP, can look forward to a warm embrace from a string of opposition parties.

    A few days ago the All Progressives Congress (APC) announced that not only was it willing to accommodate the disaffected PDP members, it mandated its own governors to woo their colleagues.

    The newly-registered Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) was ecstatic in hailing the rebellion on the very day it played out on Eagle Square, Abuja. It, too, would gladly welcome the G7 in its ranks.

    That the disgruntled PDP governors have so many suitors is understandable. The ability of incumbents to swing political fortunes in whatever direction they decide is far more assured at state level than at national level.

    Indeed, it is the recognition of that gubernatorial influence which triggered the desperate, but ultimately shambolic attempt to install a pliant person who will dance to the presidency’s tune as head of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).

    As members of the New PDP have pointed out to their adversaries on National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur’s side, President Goodluck Jonathan, cannot win the 2015 elections without them. Operating as a united team, the ruling party – its diabolical performance in office notwithstanding – still has a chance of clinging to power courtesy of Nigerian-style “free and fair” elections.

    If the rebellion turns out to be irreversible and the New PDP joins forces with the likes of APC and others, that coalition stands a good chance of seizing power. That stark reality is not lost on analysts within the ruling party. It is also the greatest incentive for Jonathan and his people to quickly cut a deal with the troublemakers and keep the unraveling ‘largest party in Africa’ in what approximates one piece.

    Forget the posturing, rumours and finger-pointing: just look at the speed with which Jonathan has rallied to prevent the Abubakar Kawu Baraje faction from slipping through his fingers. From the day of the disastrous convention till now, an unending string of meetings have been holding.

    Even more significant is the fact that the band of rebels for whom a traffic jam of suitors has formed, have been attending the negotiations faithfully. That is not the sort of conduct you would expect from people who have blown up the bridge behind them.

    Everything that has been coming out of those meetings indicates that the president and his people will capitulate and give in to the demands of the rebels. But…

    The sticking point remains whether Jonathan should run in 2015 or not. On the basis of constitutionality it is impossible to bar the president from putting himself forward. But much has been made of some 2011 agreement in which the incumbent purportedly committed himself to serving just one term in exchange for getting northern support to breach existing zoning arrangements.

    All pointers now are that even if such an agreement exists in written form with thumbprints, signatures and legal seal, they will be repudiated by Jonathan. There’s been a lot of huffing and puffing on the part of northern figures over the breaching of that accord.

    We will soon know if such talk is just a negotiating stance or whether it has become a point of principle and deal breaker. Still, we must remind ourselves of the words of one-time German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck who defined politics as the art of the possible.

    It is easy to envisage Jonathan throwing Tukur under the bus, restoring control of party structures to governors in states which have been deliberately factionalised as part of the politics of 2015. The heat and dust generated so far notwithstanding, it will be no big thing to lift the suspension placed on Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi.

    But then negotiations are give and take. Jonathan can’t be doing all the giving. What does he get in return? Stranger things have happened before in politics; but I will not be shocked if after all the noise, those on the northern flank who have been resisting, surrender to Jonathan’s desire to run for a second term. What will be left will be selling the bitter pill to the party’s supporters in the region.

    Caution! Despite its very public mud fight, the ruling party is not dead. It still holds the presidency and all the advantages of incumbency. It controls security agencies and has shown that it will not shy away from dragging the Nigeria Police into its partisan battles. More importantly, its leading lights will do whatever is necessary to hang onto power – including swallowing healthy helpings of humble pie.

    I am amazed therefore at the naiveté of commentators who take it for granted that reconciliation between the rebels and the Tukur-controlled party leadership is foreclosed, and that the PDP as we knew it is dead and buried. It reminds me of that quote by the famous American writer, Mark Twain: “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

    It would be disastrous for any party or groups of parties to base their short or long term plans for capturing power at the center on the help of PDP decampees. The question such strategists should ask themselves is what if the expected split never materialises?

    Even if the break with the Baraje faction is irrevocable, depend on it that the rump of the party that is left will not go down without a fight. That desperation to survive will make the 2015 polls potentially the most bloody and contentious Nigeria will witness since independence.

    After 14 years most Nigerians have a good idea of what PDP has to offer and given a chance they will deliver a damning verdict at the polls.

    That is why instead of wasting time gloating over the travails of the ruling party, or dreaming that the behemoth will crumble in such a fashion that it will no longer be a credible vehicle for capturing federal power, all serious opposition parties should be defining the alternative they offer in ways that will excite voters, and ensure apathy does not hand the ruling party victory against the run of play.

    We also know that in large parts of this country, ballots count for nothing. In many inaccessible areas votes are simply written – producing voting day numbers that would have embarrassed the likes of Saddam Hussein. The opposition should focus on developing ideas to checkmate the rigging we all know happens, but can do nothing about.

    Unless the opposition plans to defeat a full-strength PDP, it could be disappointed again as the monster recovers from its self-inflicted injuries to entrench itself for its self-proclaimed 60-year hegemony.

  • Pdp: Two sides of a coin

    Pdp: Two sides of a coin

    Are there any fundamental ideological differences between the two feuding factions of the People’s Democratic Party? I do not think so. What is currently going on within the self-proclaimed largest party in Africa is a bitter family quarrel for supremacy with 2015 in view. The feud is not about ideology. It is not about principle. It is not about the people. The fundamental issue at stake are the 2015 elections particularly the presidential poll.

    There is a sitting President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who is obviously bent on securing a second term in office. There are also those within the party who are determined to thwart his ambition. Those forces have now crystalized in the Kawu Baraje faction of the party.

    Interestingly, this faction is not confronting Jonathan on the basis of his performance in office. This implies that they must be satisfied with or utterly indifferent to the question of the current standard of governance in the country. All the PDP want is internal democracy in the party and a level playing field to enhance their chances of assuming power come 2015 so as to continue to milk the Nigerian cow to their heart’s content.

    No matter how much anyone loathes the PDP, the party’s implosion will not be in the best interest of the development both of the country’s party system and democracy as a whole. The emergence of the All Peoples Congress (APC) raised high hopes that with a viable opposition and a more balanced party system, the prospects for democratic sustainability in the country had been enhanced.

    The implosion of the PDP will once again lead us in the direction of a one party dominant system particularly if the opposition remains cohesive and gets its act right.

    There is no doubt that PDP deserves to lose the next election at the centre. But this must be on the basis of its monumental failure in governance over the last 14 years and not because it has splintered into factions. It is only when parties begin to lose elections on the basis of non-performance that democracy will become a hand maiden for development in the country.

    How can we understand the raging crisis within the PDP? The party was conceived in 1998 as a pro-establishment party to help preserve both the status quo and the country’s unity. Seeing that the party was not committed to the fundamental structural changes needed in the country, the progressives pulled out of the nascent party and formed the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD).

    Since the PDP was so obviously the party of the establishment bent on maintaining the status quo, the most prominent and influential politicians from across the country flocked to the party. The party had a broad pan-Nigerian outlook. Its structure was centralized and reflected the unhealthy centralization of the country itself.

    Most unfortunately for the party, President Olusegun Obasanjo assumed leadership of the party even when its constitution provides for the office of National Chairman. Obasanjo ran the party like a military garrison removing and imposing party Chairmen and other officials as he pleased. The party could no longer hold its government to check. Under Obasanjo, the PDP could not be distinguished from a military organization.

    Ironically, it was his stranglehold on the party that enabled Obasanjo to foist the late President Yar’Adua and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan respectively as the party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates for the horrendously rigged 2007 polls. Now, Jonathan is showing that he is a most faithful disciple and student of his godfather and benefactor. President Jonathan has now effectively taken charge of the PDP and is ruthlessly and brazenly manipulating his way towards 2015. Like OBJ he is running the party like his private fiefdom.

    With the obvious support of Jonathan, the National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has been running the party like a tyrant. Executive committees in states are dissolved arbitrarily; governors are suspended while threats are made to declare seats of members of the National Assembly vacant. There is no doubt that Tukur has become a huge liability to Jonathan if the President really wants a second term.

    Like I said earlier, there are really no fundamental ideological differences between the Tukur and Baraje factions of the PDP. Both groups believe in Nigeria as she is currently structured. They both believe in the retention of the country’s current obsolete security architecture. They do not see a national conference to re-define the terms of our continued co-habitation as a multi ethnic entity as imperative. In any case, neither has told us that.

    Beyond that, there is no reason to doubt that even if the arrow head of the nPDP, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, had the opportunity of wielding presidential power, he would not use it as ruthlessly and mindlessly as Jonathan and Obasanjo before him. However it must be admitted that Atiku is a far more accomplished and astute political actor than either.

    The only source of grievance for both parties is the fierce and bitter struggle to control the levers of the party towards the 2015 election. It is so sad that this intra-party struggle and the attendant crisis have completely grounded governance in many PDP states whose governors are almost always in Abuja holding endless meetings. I once said here that President Jonathan is distracted by his obsession for a second term in office. Now, it is the entire PDP that is hopelessly distracted. Is it a farewell to the transformation agenda?

    The possibility of a healing of the wounds afflicting the PDP appears very remote although it is not impossible. However, any resolution of the crisis can only be superficial, hypocritical and unsustainable. This is because Jonathan is as bent on serving a second term in office as the North is determined that power should return to the region. Thus, even if daggers are sheathed now, be assured, they will be drawn again sooner or later.

    The crisis within the PDP further boosts the electoral chances of the APC if the latter get its act right. Of course, the party will be eager to work with the aggrieved faction of the PDP if the latter do not go back to their party. While this might be politically pragmatic, the party will also have to decide how much of its core values it wants to trade-off for electoral success. If on the other hand, the nPDP decides to align with the newly registered PDM, the race for 2015 will become more complex and interesting.

  • PDP justifies blockade of Rivers Govt House road

    PDP justifies blockade of Rivers Govt House road

     

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has justified police blockade of the road leading to Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s residence at the Rivers State Government house in Port Harcourt.

    In a statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, on Friday, the PDP, instead, accused the governor of inciting the public against the Federal Government and the Rivers State police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu.

    “Of particular concern is the manipulation of the media by the Governor of Rivers State, His Excellency, Governor Chibuike Amaechi to mislead Nigerians and create an impression that he was barred by the police and the Federal Government from entering the Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt.

    “This distortion of facts is totally unacceptable and unbefitting of a state governor. It is indeed condemnable that Governor Amaechi has continued to distort facts and interfere in the lawful activities of the police and security operatives ensuring law and order in Rivers State only to manipulate the media and portray himself as the victim,” the statement said.

    Metuh added that Amaechi was fully aware that based on the ruling of the courts, the police had sealed off a secretariat illegally opened by some individuals under the name, flag and colour of the PDP, consequent upon which the route leading to the structure and the Government house was also closed.

    He accused the governor of defying the closure order by choosing to access the Government House through the same route in company with “unauthorised persons” who sought to beat security to access the sealed secretariat.

    “Governor Amaechi cannot feign ignorance of the fact that the route was closed as he must have been fully informed by his security details, otherwise he is running an incompetent government that cannot guarantee the safety and welfare of his state.

    “Governor Amaechi must understand that the Nigeria police is a sacred institution which should not in anyway be dragged into politics. In the same vein, he must understand that facts are sacred and should not be distorted under any guise,” Metuh added.

     

     

     

  • PDP warns Amaechi against opening secretariat

    The Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has declared that it would resist attempt by anyone to open up a parallel secretariat in the state in the name of the new PDP other than the existing legitimate ruling People’s Democratic Party.
    The party in a statement signed by the Special Adviser on Media to the state chairman, Jerry Needam and made available to the Nation, gave the warning against the moves by Governor Chibuike Amaechi to open up a state secretariat for the new PDP at No. 38 Forces Avenue, Old GRA, Port Harcourt.
    The statement said that any such move not only amounts to an outright disregard for the rule of law, but is also aimed at truncating the nation’s democracy, stressing that there is a subsisting Federal High Court order barring any attempt to impersonate and, or float any other political party in the name of the PDP which must not be abused.
     As a law abiding party, the PDP said, it is imperative in the light of the apparent danger this criminal plan portends to alert the security operatives in the state to be beware, alleging that this is another in the series of plots to create disharmony in the state so as to have enough reasons to accuse the law enforcement agencies of reneging on their responsibility to ensure safety of lives and property in the state.
     “We’ll however not let this be, but nonetheless, there is need to sensitize the entire Rivers people to be alert to such plot, regretting that Gov Amaechi should strategically choose to hatch the plot same time and day President Goodluck Jonathan made a stopover in Port Harcourt enroute Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
    “This is most embarrassing, insulting and satanically arrogant of a leader on a mission to destroy the system instead of going down alone.
    “It’s intolerable and unfathomable by any person or group of person’s conscious of their identity and personality as typified by the God-fearing and self-respecting Rivers people.  We are therefore calling on all to resist this arrant madness and animalism of one man desperate and power drunk,” the PDP declared.