Adamawa State Governor, Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd), has taken his war of words with the Presidency and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to another level as he accused President Goodluck Jonathan of ingratitude and unfairness just as he accused the ruling party of impunity and high-handedness. Nyako, specifically decried the treatment meted out on him by the party despite the sacrifices he made, at the expense of two sons of Adamawa, to ensure that Mr. Jonathan emerged the PDP flag-bearer and winner of the 2011 presidential elections. Speaking on behalf of his boss, Director of Press and Public Affairs, Mallam Ahmad Sajo 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 thetides. Immediately after that, they started sending him (the governor) text messages, calling him akafir(infidel),dan wuta(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 Nuhu Ribadu, 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.” Giving an insight into his bone of contention with the national leadership of the PDP, Nyako said that the party was treading the path to 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 partyis 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 theparty decided to meddle in the affairs of the party in Adamawa Stateby their own mandate, the leadership of the so-called caretaker committee that they set up was supposed to just effect corrections atthe state level.” Gov. Nyako expressed dismay that the committee had destroyed the party from the ward to the state level, adding that almost all the stateswhere the party is in crisis could be traced back to the party leadership. He also cited amendments to the PDPconstitution, which he fears conferred too much power on the national chairman. According to him, an amendment of the party’s constitution in 2012 states that a meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) can hold at the request of 2/3 of its members and that the national chairman may call the NEC, which means it is at his discretion. “This means members can call but hehas 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.” However, Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Dr. Ahmed Gulak berated the governor saying he was the one, who is being ungrateful and unfair to the President. Gulak said the governor did not mobilize any votes for the President during the elctions and asked him to get his facts right. “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 hewas brought in and handed the ticket to become governor of Adamawa State” the presidential aide said. “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?”
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 15:32:59 +0000