In defence of G-5 Governors

My major concern is the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan had failed the litmus test of a true democrat who, out of sheer political naiveté, thinks that with executive fiat he can easily change the course of events to suit his parochial interest.The president, to my dismay and utter lack of confidence in his ability […]

My major concern is the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan had failed the litmus test of a true democrat who, out of sheer political naiveté, thinks that with executive fiat he can easily change the course of events to suit his parochial interest.
The president, to my dismay and utter lack of confidence in his ability and capacity to lead in a contemporary democratic age, had woefully failed to prove his mettle as a good student of history, considering his wonderful pedigree, as one who meteorically rose to the pinnacle of fame from grass to grace.
Coming to the issue of the rebellious G-5 Governors who defected from the PDP to APC, I also believe that they have taken a right decision at the right time, in the face of the despicable rot that has permeated the nation’s political landscape. Right from the time when the president disputed the fact that he had at no time signed a pact on power shift, one can see easily see the stuff he is made of.
Having been firmly entrenched in the saddle and surrounded by a herd of court jesters doing his bidding, he is cajoling himself into believing that as a president, no one would dare to challenge his authority as he is at a liberty to do what he deems fit.
I am in defence of the G-5 Governors for defecting from the PDP because as an influential ruling party, it had blatantly besmirched the norms of real politicks, simply because the president is willing to use his lackeys at the top echelon of the party to perpetuate his mandate with the burning quest to sit-tight.
I am in defence of the G-5 Governors for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party, because of the seeming rot that had enveloped the party and killed the spirit of internal democracy within it, which had spelt doom for the polity and by implication turned Nigeria into a bastion of political failure.
I am in defence of the G-5 Governors for defecting from the PDP to APC because the president has encouraged corruption and kleptomaniac characters to stand firm on their feet knowing that with the president supporting their antics, they would surely escape the long arms of justice for wrecking a serious havoc on the nation.
I am also in stout defence of the G-5 Governors because PDP as a ruling party it had allowed itself to completely drift and sink into atrophy, with the unity and cohesion of the country put to a serious test and the nation’s journey to perdition has ultimately sped up.
With the veiled threat of legal action issued to the G-5 governors by the leadership of the PDP, aimed at seeking the invalidation of their mandate from a court of law, one is also compelled to believe that the nation’s nascent democratic system is becoming drossy with the president tacitly spearheading its demise.
Cronies of the president and the president himself had failed to take into cognizance the fact that some legal luminaries had already posited that no amount of legal threat could ever invalidate the mandate of the G-5 governors simply because they changed nest, since the constitution of the country has never enshrined such a clause.
A Governor’s mandate according to legal pundits, could only be invalidated on account of official misconduct in office, a decision which must be effected through a process of impeachment as provided by the constitution.
The threat of legal action against the G-5 Governors had only exposed the crass incompetence and palpable ignorance of the apologists of mandate invalidation, whose sole preoccupation is only to feed on the carrion of tragedy.
In retrospect, Governor Isah Yuguda of Bauchi State had defected to the PDP despite the fact that he ascended the gubernatorial seat on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and no one dared to challenge his decision — in view of its obvious futility.
Governor Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi of Zamfara State had also defected to the PDP despite the fact that he ascended the gubernatorial seat on the platform of ANPP and no one expressed a dissenting opinion against his defection. Also, at the peak of the animosity between the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar and his boss former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the former chose to defect to the Action Congress (AC) and attempt to invalidate his mandate didn’t see the light of the day.
Jonathan is only orchestrating a campaign of vendetta, witch-hunt and calumny against the G-5 Governors, and in so doing exposing his weakness.
He had also forgotten the fact that with tussling political whales like Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso spearheading this movement, efforts to drag their reputation in the mud or rattle them would only be an exercise in futility.

Safiyanu wrote from Abuja