PDP as albatross

Besides, Governors have found that their stranglehold on the State Party structure can be defied to every purpose and one does not expect them not to bite back. But if they have learnt any lesson at all, they should know that Tukur is no toothless bull dog. Already even as they sulked to let the […]

Besides, Governors have found that their stranglehold on the State Party structure can be defied to every purpose and one does not expect them not to bite back. But if they have learnt any lesson at all, they should know that Tukur is no toothless bull dog. Already even as they sulked to let the President have his way, they pleaded for the powers that be to also let them have their way, thus we may not see Tukur being himself in visiting the State Chapters of the PDP with dissolution, the popular post convention hue and cry. Yet he will strive to bring all those that spun out of the cyclone back to the fold. Requires deft moves. That is why somehow, I have this uncanny feeling that Bamanga Tukur will break eggs and serve omelettes to the Presidency and the Board of Trustees, because if he does not in so doing, deal with the lingering and unbearable discontent with State Chapter Executives that have outlived their usefulness, the PDP may split like an amoeba and the other half metamorphous into a formidable opposition, if not to the party, to President Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition to seek a second term of his Presidency come 2015”.
Emphasize “That is why somehow, I have this uncanny feeling that Bamanga Tukur will break eggs and serve omelettes to the Presidency and the Board of Trustees, because if he does not in so doing, deal with the lingering and unbearable discontent with State Chapter Executives that have outlived their usefulness, the PDP may split like an amoeba and the other half metamorphous into a formidable opposition, if not to the party, to President Goodluck Jonathan’s ambition to seek a second term of his Presidency come 2015”.
I predicted, rightly, that the feud in Adamawa which followed Tukur’s taking of charge at Wadata Plaza in Abuja was not going to burn out in Yola, that the fire would engulf the nation. I put it this way: … that Adamawa was once again the home of a crisis whose ripple effect would bounce coast to coast. Once again, because in all our civilian republics, a crisis with roots in Adamawa often proved the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Just before the 1966 coup, the all powerful Minister of Defence Muhammadu Ribadu was the pivot in contending with the Sardauna of Sokoto Sir Ahmadu Bello whose stance was aloof of Federal powers. The crisis that ensued would just have blown over when the military struck in 1966 disbanding the First Republic.
In 1983, Adamawa was again the epicentre of the crisis of the National Party of Nigeria, when Senator Mahmud Waziri and Minister Ali Baba, both of them now of blessed memory, hindered the smooth take off of President Shehu Shagari’s hard won Second Term. The two sons of Adamawa were feuding scandalously over the reappointment of Malam Ali Baba as Minister against the ambition of Senator Mahmud Waziri, who had jettisoned his party Great Nigeria Peoples Party, to assist the NPN. While this bickering held up the new cabinet, General Buhari struck and disbanded the Second Republic.
The greater error is to think it is an Adamawa Affair, for it is not, and lies in the very heart of whether democracy, nay, our nation survives. It pains the more to see allusions to its being a personal feud between National Chairman of the PDP Bamanga Tukur, and Governor of Adamawa State Murtala Nyako, more so the simplistic argument that the both of them are fighting to install their children come the year 2015. It is a crisis that borders on whether individuals can be manipulated into political office the way Presidents Obasanjo, Yar’adua, and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan were foisted on the polity”.
In considering the length of time the feud has taken, the debacle in the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, the creation of the PDP Governors Forum, and the Jang led Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the show of shame in Rivers State, the shuttle diplomacy of the G5, now G7 “rebel” Governors, the PDP Mini Convention walk out and the birth of the New People’s Democratic Party, then peace talks and now so called agreement. Is that what it was all worth?
It could be said that the Presidency made these concessions:-
“• immediate lifting of the suspension of Governor Rotimi Amaechi by the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP;
• return of party structures to all the governors, including those of Rivers and Adamawa states;
• raising a committee to visit Rivers State, like it was the case with Adamawa State, to build consensus and restore party structure to the governor; and the
• the governors and party leaders should leave Jonathan to decide Tukur’s fate.”
Once more, I have this uncanny feeling that of all issues, the dissolved Adamawa PDP Exco will not be restored, and by extension, i do not see Tukur being removed. Restoration of the disbanded Adamawa PDP would nullify Bamanga Tukur and Ahmed Ali Gulak, and it is like giving Samson a haircut, and I do not see the Delilahs to do that yet! I ask myself, between Nyako and Tukur/Gulak, who better assures GEJ of 2015 political legwork? Note that the PDP trounced Nyako’s KOWA Party at the Nasarawo-Jereng Local Government bye-election, which was the test of muscle. I think like President Jonathan would/should think – and i also visualize him back into the recess of Aso Rock, surrounded by Anenih, Tukur, Gulak, – can you hear the sound of the talking drum? Me hears “damn the rebels, they need time they do not have; they will get weaker as we approach 2015; me hears Tukur and Gulak say; and you know Nyako had gone a shopping even to a nonexistent ANPP, how can you restore Kugama? We stuck with you through thick and thin, don’t naked us here!”
I doubt if there is an agreement yet, really.
The fundamental issue is the Party’s 2015 Presidential ticket, which some of the G7 Governors feel qualified to contest. President Goodluck Jonathan wants that ticket even as he is the incumbent and holding it, and needs a consensus. Essentially, it behoves the PDP to learn to conduct credible primaries and give true meaning to internal democracy as of first instance, but can it guarantee President Jonathan the ticket?
Sadly key role players in the dramatis persona are from my State, Adamawa, Tukur, Gulak, and Nyako, and thus the peace of the nation is tied inextricably to the peace in my state, where all you see is suffered and tormented grass and wretched earth.