Atiku: PDP Heading in the Wrong Direction

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar

•  NWC, Gana committee locked in supremacy battle

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar Sunday warned the Peoples

Democratic Party (PDP) against the consequences of the declining
fortune of the party in South-west and its continued neglect of party
members in the geopolitical zone.

Atiku, in a statement, blamed the party leadership for the myriad of
crises bedevilling the PDP in the area, adding that with the situation
in the South-west, the party is heading in the wrong direction.

His warning came against the backdrop of the intractable crises in
nearly all the state chapters of the party in the six states that make
up the South-west and the fruitless efforts by the PDP national
secretariat to reconcile the warring factions in the states.

The party’s efforts to resolve some of its multi-faceted crises by
holding a special national convention and a zonal congress in the
South-west are also being stymied by supremacy battle between the PDP
National Working Committee (NWC) and the Special National Convention
Committee, headed by Prof. Jerry Gana, over the setting up of
committees for the mini convention.

Also, some governors of the party from the north have restated their
demand that there must be Muslims in the leadership cadre of the
special national convention committee.

In a statement he signed, Atiku gave the PDP a wake-up call to
urgently resolve the crises in the party in the South-west.

He said: “I have said it and I will continue to say it that the party
is headed in the wrong direction as it moves from one crisis to the
other. It appears that in the pursuit of our personal ambitions, we
have continued to trample with impunity on the rights of not only of
the members, but also on the freedom of Nigerian citizens who deserve
a right to choose who should govern them and for how long. Sometimes,
progress involves stepping backwards. In the South-west, this is such
a moment for the Peoples Democratic Party.”

Giving instance of the wrong direction to which PDP is heading, Atiku
said: “By the year 2009, the party had five of the six governors in
the South-west zone, 14 of the 18 senators, 46 out of the 71 House of
Representatives seat, 102 members of the state House of Assembly, and
115 local governments. Members of the PDP also occupied all
commissionership and special advisers’ positions, in addition to all
statutory board membership.

“However, the fortunes of the PDP in the South-west took a startling
reverse from 2011 such that today, the party has no governor in the
region, has only one senator, seven members of the House of
Representatives and only 18 members in all the states Houses of
Assembly. Of course, not a single local government administration is
PDP-controlled in the entire region. It is not only in the interest of
PDP, but indeed that of the nation that this trend be reversed.”

According to him, “As a founding member of the PDP, the prevailing
situation of the party in the South-west is very disturbing. I am sure
that our party didn't come to this sorry state in the region because
the party men failed to deliver good governance to the people.
Landmark achievements by PDP governments dot the region.

“It still remains a paradox to me how the presidential candidate of
the party would win massively in all but one state of the South-west,
yet the party failed to produce a single state governor in the region
and could only produce 18 state assembly members in the same election.
My experience in politics tells me that this paradox can only be
explained in one way that is the leadership of the party must have
abandoned the party and negotiated the victory of the president at the
expense of the party.

“Recent events have shown that the leadership of the party has
demonstrated insufficient sincerity in resolving the numerous crises
which are pitting the party members against themselves. Political
manoeuvring that relies on the politics of patronage and arbitrary
application of sanctions will not sustain the popular will of the
people through which the party can recover lost ground.”

The former vice-president explained that the crisis in the South-west
and the continued silence of its leaders is a sign of bad omen as PDP
was formed with the intention of being a national party.

He urged the national leadership of the party “to respect the
democratic wishes of party members in the zone and discourage the
deliberate creation of factions, and upturning the results of duly
conducted elections at the various congresses and the national
convention”.

“In all we do, the adherence to the constitution of the party in the
conduct of the party’s affairs is the only hope for sustaining the
existence and legitimacy of the party. Also, the legitimacy of the
party can only be sustained if the provision of the welfare needs of
Nigerian citizen takes precedent in the hearts of the leaders rather
than primordial politicking. There is need to reverse the declining
trend of PDP in the South-west. PDP cannot afford to depart from the
South-west,” he added.

Atiku, at another occasion, narrated how his late father was jailed
for refusing to let him attend school in his hometown of Jada, Adamawa
State.

He spoke Sunday in Switzerland at the conferment of an honorary
doctorate on him by the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International
Relations.

He said: “When my father was put in jail by local authorities because
he needed my assistance with herding the livestock, it seemed like a
harsh punishment.

“Were he to be alive to witness this day (yesterday) and the last 30
or so years of my life, I am sure that he would exclaim ‘Wow!
Education pays after all’.”

Atiku, the founder of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola,
recalled that as a young lad growing up in his rustic village, he had
dreams, but it was education that made his dreams come true.

According to him, “Education is what brought me in contact with
members of the United States of America’s Peace Corps when I was still
a little boy; a contact and interaction that would have profound
impact on my life, especially my love for education and service.”

While underscoring the imperative of education to personal growth and
development, he said it gave him the friends he made across Nigeria as
he attended high school and university; gave him a job in the civil
service; and provided him with opportunities to meet and form more
life-long friendships from across the world.

Atiku attributed the modest achievements he has made in business and
politics and the contributions in improving the lives of others to
education.

Meanwhile, a fresh crisis is brewing in the PDP over the setting up of
the special mini convention committees by the Gana committee without
recourse to the NWC that is constitutionally empowered to do so.

THISDAY investigations showed that the Gana committee had last week
empanelled sub-committees of publicity, accommodation, transport and
security without recourse to the NWC.

In the past, members of the NWC head sub-committees, but the Gana
committee constituted the committees without making any one of them to
head the committees.

It was gathered that the NWC members were riled by the fact that they
had to read about the constitution of the sub-committees in the media
through a statement signed by the Secretary of the Special Convention
Committee, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

It was learnt that following the development, PDP National Chairman,
Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, went to the State House to complain to President
Goodluck Jonathan.

In furtherance of the face-off, the NWC shifted the date of the
convention to August without informing the Gana committee of the
decision to postpone the mini convention.

Sources said as the battle of supremacy between the NWC and the Gana
committee rages on, governors of the party from the north are calling
for representation of Muslims in the leadership of the committee.

It was for this reason that a former Nigeria’s Ambassador to China and
United States, Alhaji Aminu Wali, is being considered as the deputy
chairman of the committee.

news 2:58:00 PM