PDP Crisis worrisome
Pan-northern socio-political organisation,
Arewa Consultative Forum on Sunday
expressed concern over the break up of
the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Mr.
Anthony Sani, said it was worrisome to the
leadership of the Forum whose
expectation was that the party would
bring Nigerians together to overcome their
differences.
The Forum noted that if the ruling party
could not unite its own house, then, the
party had no business in presiding over an
already divided people.
The ACF stated this just as the Nigerian
Labour Congress said on Sunday that the
weekend split of the PDP was dangerous to
democracy and the unity of the country.
According to the ACF, in a text message to
one of our correspondent in Kaduna on
Sunday, the deveopment should serve as a
clarion call to those with mandate over not
just the PDP but also over a united Nigeria.
The message reads, "The reported break up
of PDP is a source of concern to those of us
who
have been calling on the nation's
leaders to bring Nigerians together and
enable them to "live up to their synergistic
potential by working hard to overcome the
differences that divide the people."
In a statement titled, "Politicians should put
the nation and the people first," the Vice
President of the NLC, Mr. Issa Aremu, said in
Kaduna on Sunday that the increasing
factionalisation of some of the parties in
the country some months to the 2015
elections was dangerous.
To NLC, democracy was all about
contestation and cooperations among the
political actors.
It noted, however, that it was not too late
for the politicians to quickly return to the
path of democratic process, contestation
and cooperation and prevent Nigeria from
the acid test of implosion in 2015.
It added that the organised Labour and the
ordinary Nigerians who could not run out
of the country would not watch while
democracy, fought for with agony and
pain, was being undermined by new
militicians whose ambition was to hold on
to power without responsibility to the
people and the nation.
According to the NLC, "It is a sad
commentary that almost 15 years after, we
are not building political parties, one critical
success factors in democratic process."
"The solution to the current political
imbroglio, is for political parties and their
leaders to respect their internal democracy.
Elbowing opponents out rather than
accommodating them could not build
democracy in the country.
The statement read in parts, "The weekend
split within the ruling People's Democratic
Party arising from the special convention
of the party held on Saturday August 31,
2013 and increasing factionalisation of
some of the political parties on the eve of
2015 election is a dangerous development
to Nigeria's democracy, unity and cohesion
of the country as a whole.
"Nigeria's democracy is tall in political
acrimonies, (not even contestation),
executive thuggery, bickering, elbowing,
exclusion but miserably shot in inclusion,
cooperation, unity, friendship and
solidarity needed for development of a
country underdelivering for its people like
Nigeria in basic goods and services.
"It is certainly not too late for the
politicians to quickly return to the path of
democratic process, contestation and
cooperation and prevent Nigeria from the
acid test of implosion in 2015.
"Labour and the working people who
cannot take a flight out of the country will
not watch while democracy fought for
with agony and pain is being undermined
by new militicians whose ambition is
power without responsibility to the people
and the nation.
"We cannot criminalise dissidents. That was
the discredited ways of the military, not
the tested way of democrats world wide.
"The burden is on the President and
Governors as well as party chieftains to
reaffirm commitment to democracy or risk
loosing the baby plus the mess we unfairly
tie to her.
"In all this, the missing link is the people
and the country."
Meanwhile, the Lagos State chairman of
PDP, Mr. Tunji Shelle, has described the
party's crisis as embarrassing.
He, however, appealed to the aggrieved
members to allow truce, with a view to
resolving the acrimony.
He said, "The internal mechanism of the
party to resolve such grievances ought to
be well explored.
"Indeed the fact that the aggrieved
persons have not decamped out of the
party but allegedly created a parallel NWC
shows that they are still passionate about
the party even as their actions may have
been too spontaneous, radical and
threatening to the integrity of the party.
"I urge all sides to the crisis to put the
interest of the party above parochial
sentiments and particularly not act "judas"
to the Party, especially at this time that
their appears to be vibrant opposition in
the polity.
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