Still on the Nasarawa State PDP crisis

Having taken over from Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma should have built on the fortunes of the party being in rulership then, but the management of the PDP in Nasarawa afterwards left much to be desired and in 2011, the worst fear that the members of the party had came to pass like […]

Having taken over from Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma should have built on the fortunes of the party being in rulership then, but the management of the PDP in Nasarawa afterwards left much to be desired and in 2011, the worst fear that the members of the party had came to pass like a dream. The PDP lost power to a relatively unknown political entity the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). As if that was not bad enough and should have served as a lesson that should make it return to the drawing boards to reclaim its number one position – more so that the local government elections in the state are nearby,  the party is still grappling with needless internal squabbles – over who controls the soul of the party in the state. It is now an open secret that it is a straight fight between the two former governors, Senator Adamu and Doma.

The interesting thing is the effort at resolving the crisis which Senator Adamu from the look of things  is very much in support of and working hard to see through. He believes that the party has suffered too much, so should be rescued from further plundering.

The snag, however, is the way and manner Doma is going about the whole thing. Doma has shunned all entreaties towards any move to resolve the squabbles amicably as he has defied the intervention from Wadata House delegation led by the National Vice Chairman, North Central, of the party Yusuf Ayitogo. It was agreed at the resolution meeting that both Adamu and  Doma present their members to serve as committee members for congresses at the ward, local government area and state levels, but Doma led his supporters to undermine this gentleman agreement.

With this going on, there was a court injunction obtained by the Adamu faction stopping the congresses, having discovered that the Doma faction was bent on staging a Kangaroo congress.  Unfortunately there was a congress defying the court order. With the court order and other detected anomalies, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refused to recognize the court-stopped congresses in a March 5, 2012, letter to the PDP national office that the congresses in Nasarawa and 8 other states did not follow the party’s constitution on congress.

In a twist the INEC made a u-turn and further damaged the already damaged situation by recognising the flawed congress. How it came about this and what it relied on to do just that is what is puzzling the entire PDP members in the state.

As the PDP is known for twisting things at the expense of its fortunes, and on top of this garbage, the party’s National Chairman who is barely up to three months in office Alhaji Bamanga Tukur who is yet to settle down and assess  the heavy assignment ahead of him went ahead and recognized the congresses that the court stopped. Apart from Nasarawa state, there are eight or nine states that are in similar crisis, why did he rush to single out Nasarawa State and recognize the congress that is causing feud, a congress that is equally being contested in court?

If this is how he wants to lead the party, it is really unfortunate. It means the expectations of party members nationwide that imposition of candidates, restoration of internal democracy and discipline as well as political ideology which the party has lacked for more than a decade cannot be achieved under Bamanga Tukur’s leadership, given the way he handled the crisis in Nasarawa PDP. In a feud, there are always two or more sides to it. It, therefore, makes a common sense that in settling the dispute, all parties to it be given the opportunity to be heard. There was no such thing at all, which renders Tukur’s effort inefficient and counter-productive.

If Tukur thinks it is now Uhuru for the Nasarawa State PDP, we want to remind him – and INEC – that the matter is still pending in court.

Nobody has the monopoly of lawlessness.  We are law abiding party loyalists to the core, which is the reason, that despite the provocation and massive deceit, we have chosen to go to court to seek redress in the matter in a much more civilized way than this brazen display of dictatorship.

Solomon Agiya, Nasarawa Eggon