The political squabbles between the Presidency and national leadership of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the Adamawa State governor, Murtala Nyako on the other hand degenerated yesterday with Nyako accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of ingratitude and unfairness.
He said that the President of concentrating more on developing the South-South, while ignoring developmental problems in the rest of the country.
The governor also expressed displeasure over the way he was being treated by the party in spite of the sacrifices he made to ensure the President’s victory during the PDP primaries and the 2011 presidential election.
Speaking through his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Mallam Ahmad Sajo, the governor said he ensured the President’s success in 2011.
He said, “President Jonathan has been ungrateful to Governor Murtala Nyako.
“In the first instance, you should understand that during the nominations, Jonathan contested with a son of Adamawa State.
“If he (Jonathan) won Adamawa State, the governor swam against the tides. Immediately after that, they started sending him (the governor) text messages, calling him a kafir (infidel), danwuta (hell bound son) and all that.
“They said he backed a Christian against Muslims; he went through all that humiliation.
“At the federal elections, Nuhu Ribadu is a son of Adamawa. Nyako worked for Jonathan to defeat Ribadu, another son of Adamawa in the general elections.
“How would they have expected to win Adamawa in a landslide? When after the defeat of Atiku, he was aggrieved, they did not pacify him.
“He came back here and moved all his acolytes into Labour Party, including the person they are using today as the so-called chairman of the PDP, who was the governorship candidate of the Labour Party.
“We also had NuhuRibadu, who is from this state. If for nothing, at least, he had brothers, sisters and other relatives to support him and yet, Jonathan won.
“It doesn’t matter whether he won convincingly or not, he won at the expense of sons and daughters of Adamawa.”
On his dispute with the National Headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party, Nyako said that the PDP was on a path of self-destruction.
He said, “What we are saying is that a political party is a free association of people of like minds.
“And there are always ground rules for running a political party. When you refuse to abide by the ground rules, you tend to destroy the association.
“What we are saying is that the rate the party is moving, it will surely kill itself.
“Don’t forget that in the past four months (March, April, June and July), they have set up different reconciliation committees but they have been unable to reconcile because of the bottom line. The party is not interested in protecting the rights of everybody.
“We are of the opinion that it is the impunity in the party that will kill it. When there was a bye-election in Adamawa State, the national secretariat sold just one form, is that democratic?
“When the national secretariat of the party decided to meddle in the affairs of the party in Adamawa State by their own mandate, the leadership of the so-called caretaker committee that they set up was supposed to just effect corrections at the state level.”
The governor expressed disappointment that the committee had destroyed the party from the ward to the state level, adding that the party leadership was responsible for the crisis in almost every state where such existed.
He also cited amendments to the PDP constitution, which conferred too much powers on the national chairman, as another sore point.
According to him, under the constitution, which was amended in 2012, members who are under suspension automatically lose their rights, including the right to contest elections.
He said, “They did that amendment in the 2012 constitution. The constitution says that 2/3 members of the National Executive Council can request for a NEC meeting and that the national chairman may call the NEC, which means it is at his discretion.
“This means members can call but he has the discretion to decide. Is that democratic for God’s sake?
“We are saying all these constitutional breeches, all the impunity, all this brigandage will eventually destroy the party.
“We are not wishing the party ill, all we are saying is if all the high handedness continues, it will eventually destroy the party. No free association or supposedly free people will succeed if the situation remains like that.”
Nyako was part of the quartet of four governors, including Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Rabiu Kwankwaso(Kano) and SuleLamido (Jigawa) who had recently paid visits to three former Nigerian leaders: Generals Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida.
Although officially, the governors did not give a reason for their visits, one of them gave insight into their visits on the condition of anonymity.
He said, “We have said it several times that everything is tilted towards the South-South. It is not a question of Kano, Niger, Sokoto or Adamawa or just the North.
“Everything is tilted towards the South-South, appointments, contracts are given to militants; the issue is beyond just Kano.
“The South-West, North-West, North-East, North-Central have all been marginalised. Only last week, they approved a contract of N4bn for the expansion of the Onne Port in Rivers State with just about N1bn to the power plant in Jebba.
“If you consider all the major ongoing projects in Nigeria today, they are based in the South-South.
“We are talking about the marginalisation of a greater portion of Nigeria; we are talking of injustice and unfairness.
“It is about saving democracy. In any case, what is the business of Rivers with any of these issues? What we are concerned about is the consequences of what is happening in Rivers on democracy.”
However, the Presidency responded to the accusations by saying it was Nyako who was being ungrateful and unfair to the President.
The Special Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak who responded on behalf of the Presidency said, “It is Nyako, who is ungrateful to Mr. President. He did not know how the PDP came about. He was in the opposition All Peoples Party when he was brought in and handed the ticket to become governor of Adamawa State.
“The party mobilised the people to vote for him. You can check the records, Nyako did not mobilise votes for the President, it was the other way round; so, what is he talking about?”
Also, the National Chairman of the PDP, AlhajiBamangaTukur, dismissed the allegations against him.
He said some of the governors had, by their actions and utterances, long left the party.
Through his Special Assistant (Media), Prince Oliver Okpala, the chairman said, “By their utterances and their behaviour, they have shown that they have actually joined the opposition in principle.
“They shouldn’t be talking about the affairs of the PDP because they have shown that they are not interested in PDP, all they have been wishing the PDP is death. This is a party that brought them to political limelight. The PDP, just like democracy, will outlive all of us.”