The ‘New PDP’ (1)

By Danielle Lobito

Officers of the Nigeria Police on Saturday stormed the office of the Abubakar Baraje led PDP faction and sealed it off, an action the group has described as the “height of impunity.”
—Channels TV

The ‘old’ PDP led by its chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and President Goodluck Jonathan should accept the creation of the new PDP led by Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje due to the idiom that says,‘What comes around goes around’. Tukur and his goons should leave the new PDP alone and order the police to unseal the national secretariat of the new PDP with immediate effect! The new PDP emerged at the 15th PDP Anniversary after a major leadership crisis. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and eight governors including Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State broke away from the old PDP.

It will be recalled that after Amaechi was re-elected as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Jonathan endorsed the illegal ‘Jangjaweed’ led faction of the NGF under Governor Jonah David Jang of Plateau State. Jonathan and the ‘Jangajaweed’ led faction revealed to the world their dubious political arithmetic that 16 'Jangajaweed' votes were higher than 19 Amaechi votes to the extent that some primary school pupils were baffled and asked their parents some embarrassing questions about the PDP leadership crisis in Nigeria. It must be emphasized that Jang became a contestant within 24 hours to the election in a master plan to unseat Amaechi.

After holding fruitless meetings with some new and old PDP members, Jonathan blamed former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the crisis when he realised that it was too late to solve the crisis in the party, but he did not say a word when Obasanjo told Jang and Amaechi to both back down and allow a new leader to lead NGF. Fighting Amaechi to a standstill has backfired on President Jonathan. A Yoruba proverb cautions the aggrieved evildoer against digging a very deep grave for his enemy because he may eventually fall in it.

Amaechi has suffered from severe presidential bullying and police harassment via the Rivers State Commissioner of Police Joseph Mbu and their cohorts. The National Assembly approved the removal of Mbu but why is he still tormenting Amaechi in Rivers State? What is he still doing there? Amaechi recently claimed that Mbu is planning to assassinate him. Why has the Inspector General of Police failed to recall or redeploy a ‘dangerous’ marauder? Mbu once ordered the police to fire teargas into the Government House while Amaechi was there and removed Amaechi’s bodyguards.

Ameachi’s problems with Mr and Mrs Jonathan of Aso Rock Presidential Villa intensified after two Northern politicians selected him as their running mate in the upcoming 2015 Presidential election. Jonathan would prefer Amaechi to support his Presidential ambition and not contest in 2015; which is a selfish motive of a man who is not an impressive president.

Jonathan’s perceived enemies do not hate him but cannot bear another tenure while the masses suffer to a stupor. Unlike the political crisis in Egypt and Syria, Nigerians are allowing Jonathan to finish his first and last term in office without a civil war. He should be grateful for that rather than listen to sycophants who would abandon him when he is no longer in power.

The major weakness of Jonathan is lack of leadership skills although he holds a doctorate degree in Zoology. His present leadership abilities would be better utilized in a zoo as a zoologist because Nigeria is not a zoo. In order to balance his weaknesses; he should have appointed technocrats like former FCT Minister and the current Protem National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufia as soon as he was sworn in because the likes of El-Rufia understand how Nigeria works and what makes Nigeria tick. Sadly, the President does not.
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