14
Politics
Monday, February 3, 2014
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
Tasks before new PDP chair, Mua’zu OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU and EZEKIEL TITUS write on the major tasks ahead of the newly appointed National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and whether he would be able to achieve them.
T
he Peoples Democratic Party and crisis have always been like Siamese twins since the inception of the present democratic dispensation and the emergence of the ruling party, such that when the immediate past National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, was affirmed to lead the self styled largest party in Africa, he came with a lot of promise and vigour to reconcile, rebuild and re-structure the party for cohesion and the challenges ahead. But Tukur seemed to have started off on a sour note, as shortly after his emergence, he dissolved the Adamawa State executive committee of the party, a development which pitched him against the governor of his home state, Murtala Nyako. That singular mis-step led to the crisis that rocked the ruling party and led to Tukur’s ouster last month, as it contributed to the PDP losing five of the governors elected on its platform, Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Nyako (Adamawa), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) and Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto), to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Apart from the faceoff with PDP serving governors, stakeholders in the PDP, like former President Olusegun Obansajo, his vice, Atiku Abubakar and members of the National Working Committee of the party were said to have been side-lined by Tukur, who was busy wielding the big stick against his perceive political enemies, and those alleged to be standing in his way of installing his son as the next governor of his home state of Adamawa and his daring the President to remove him led to his waterloo and his eventual removal. Then entered former governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Mua’zu, whose appointment as the new PDP National Chairman was ratified by the National Executive Committee, NEC of the party penultimate week, to oversee the affairs of the ruling party and stem the drift that the party was getting into. Mua’zu came in at a time that the ruling party was facing its fiercest challenge ever since its inception in 1998 and the new PDP boss is expected to commence mending the party’s political fence, which has been infiltrated by the opposition. But he has to begin from Bauchi State, where he comes from, to justify his appointment and promise to restore the past glory of the PDP that had suffered lingering crises. He would have to begin the fence mending process from his Tafawa-Balewa/Dass/Bogoro federal constituency, where recently, the PDP lost the member representing the constituency in the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, alongside over 15,000 members of the PDP to the opposition APC. Dogara’s grouse was the failure of both the state and federal governments to execute a single project in the entire constituency, despite his role, morally and financially, in ensuring victory for the state governor, Isa Yuguda and President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 election. Coupled with this was the suspension of the only female member of the state House of Assembly from the area, Hon. Rifkatu Samson Danna and the alleged relocation of the headquarters of Tafawa-Balewa Local Government Area to Bununu. Compounding matters for the new PDP boss was the protracted war between Mua’zu and his successor, following the indictment of the former governor by a judicial commission of inquiry set up by Yuguda leading to his alleged ban from political office for 10 years. Mua’zu was said to have gone into political exile from
Mua’zu
ONLY TIME WILL TELL WHETHER MUA’ZU WOULD BE CAPABLE OF HEALING THE
WOUNDS OF THE RULING PARTY, STEM THE GALE DEFECTIONS, RETURN IT TO WINNING WAYS AND BRING TO AN END THE CRISES IN THE RULING PARTY
Bauchi as he could not even return to bury his late father, who allegedly died in Saudi Arabia. The question on many lips now is will Mua’zu forgive Yuguda now that superintend over the ruling party as chairman? As the saying goes, charity begins at home. Mua’zu would have to prove that he has the magic wand to solve the intractable PDP crisis by first providing solution to the problems of the party in his home state. This became very germane, considering that like Nyako, Yuguda was said to have kicked against Mua’zu’s appointment as PDP National Chairman. Despite the stiff opposition, Jonathan was said to have stood solidly behing Mua’zu and galvanised support for his emergence, if for nothing else, for the alleged asylum Mua’zu was said to have granted Jonathan during the heady days of the impeachment of former governor of Bayelsa State, Dipriye Alamieyeseigha, before his eventual swearing –in as Bayelsa governor. Mua’zu would therefore need to watch out to avoid a repeat of the crisis that erupted in Adamawa between Tukur and Nyako, in his home state, between him and his successor. Another major task before the chairman of the ‘largest party in Africa’ was stemming the tide of mass defection from the ruling party to the opposition APC. Since the beginning of the present crisis in the party, no fewer than 37
members of the House of Representatives, elected on the platform of the PDP had defected to the APC. In Sokoto, 27 of the 30-member state Assembly had also defected to the APC; same scenario has also played out in Kwara and Rivers states as well as Kano and Adamawa. As at the last count, no fewer than 11 senators of the PDP had signified intention to defect to the opposition party. And it was expected that in the coming days, more will follow suit. It would also be seen how Mua’zu would also handle not only the PDP presidential primary, but also the contentious issue of automatic tickets to serving federal lawmakers on the platform of the party, a development which has not gone down well with others who were aspiring to take shots at the membership of the National Assembly. The former governor also has the onerous task of leading the PDP, which is being fiercely challenged by the opposition APC, into the 2015 general elections. Before the elections, he has the task of nipping in the bud the crises bedevilling the ruling party in many states of the federation, especially in Ogun State, which has culminated in the sack of all zonal officers of the party from the SouthWest. He would also have to face the task of reconciling all the aggrieved members of the party in all the six geo-political zones, as his predecessor in office, Tukur, was alleged to have forced many members of the party from the various zones to either outrightly baled out from under the umbrella or remained aloof and lackadaisical about party activities and affairs. He would also have to resolve the issue of the reinstatement or otherwise of the party’s court-sacked National Secretary, former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Shortly after assuming the mantle of leadership of the ruling party, like his predecessors, Mua’zu had described the PDP crises as a storm in a tea cup, with a strong promise to capture 28 states for Jonathan ahead of 2015 through total reformation of the party, warning gossips and political jobbers and hatchet men to stay away from the PDP secretariat. Mua’zu also pledged that the era of questionable primary elections in the ruling party was gone. He has also been criss-crossing the length and breadth of the country trying to win back lukewarm members to the fold. He has specifically visited former President Obasanjo who had earlier withdrew from all party activities. He has also reached out to federal lawmakers and governors of the party on the need to stem the gale of defection and the need for them to prevail on their defected colleagues to return to the fold. Will he be able to bring about the desired sanity in the ruling party and turn it back to the path of victory? Speaking to newsmen, Northern elder statesman and former Transport Minister and one of the founders of the PDP, Alhaji Bello Kirfi expressed pessimism in the capability of Mua’zu to put the PDP in the right tract, especially if he dares to work for Jonathan in 2015. Kirfi sympathised with Mua’zu over his acceptance of the PDP national chairmanship job, even as he advised President Jonathan to bury his second term ambition, as a panacea to total resolution of the PDP crises have accept the appointment as the national chairman of the PDP and advise Jonathan to bury his presidential ambition ahead of 2015 as a panacea to resolve the PDP crises saying the appointment of Mua’zu may change anything. But the party’s Assistant Publicity Secretary in Bauchi State, Alhaji Bashi Bukar Rimin-Zayam said, Mua’zu has the capability to put the PDP on the right path, following his unquantifiable track records and experience. APC chieftain, Mallam Ardo Darado, however, said that Mua’zu’s appointment as national chairman will not change anything in the party’s crises, because, according to him, Tukur and Mua’zu are birds of the same feather. As it is now, only time will tell whether Mua’zu would be capable of healing the wounds of the ruling party, stem the gale defections, return it to winning ways and bring to an end the crises in the ruling party.