WHAT OBJ TOLD PDP CHAIRMAN ABOUT JONATHAN •PDP WILL TEACH APC HARD LESSONS —MU’AZU FORMER president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, at a meeting with the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, on Saturday, was said to have re-echoed his points of grievances, while telling Mu’azu that he had nothing personal against President Goodluck Jonathan. Mu’azu, it was gathered at the end of the meeting, was to set machinery in motion for another round of meeting between President Jonathan and Chief Obasanjo on the need to make the ruling party more formidable. The national chairman, who held a private meeting with the former president in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Saturday, had saddled himself with the task of reconciling the two leaders, currently at loggerheads. It will be recalled that upon assuming office as national chairman, he had vowed to pursue a genuine reconciliation agenda which, according to him, would facilitate the return of disaffected members of the party into the fold. Obasanjo was the first top member of PDP which Mu’azu visited, as emerging reports from the meeting indicated that he (Mu’azu) engaged Obasanjo in frank discussion and gave the former president opportunities to air his grievances. The source said Obasanjo told Mu’azu that he had always wanted President Jonathan to succeed, mainly because he personally spearheaded his choice as president in 2011 and hence would never have wished for his failure. Obasanjo, it was also gathered, said as part of efforts to make the Jonathan presidency a success, he had gone out of his way many times to offer practicable suggestions for addressing the knotty problems of Nigeria, the gesture he lamented the president did not appreciate. He also reportedly told Mu’azu that he had to withdraw his eagerness to be around the president at a point when he realised that Jonathan was avoiding him. The former president equally complained about the situation of the South-West PDP, in which case he said the machinery of the party was handed over to non-foundation members. Obasanjo was also said to have reiterated some of the issues he raised in the letter to the president, while concluding that he would not be averse to meeting with Jonathan again anytime the opportunity arose. Mu’azu, it was gathered, assured Obasanjo that his grievances would be looked into, especially the state of PDP in the South-West. He was said to have expressed the desire to have Obasanjo back into the party with full steam, while working with President Jonathan to ensure success in the coming elections in Ekiti and Osun states later this year and the subsequent 2015 general election. According to reports, the planned meeting between President Jonathan and Obasanjo was now dependent on the report to be filed by the PDP chairman before the president. 2015: PDP will teach APC hard lessons —Mu’azu NATIONAL chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, on Tuesday, sent a warning signal to the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to be prepared to suffer a mass defection of its members to the ruling party in due course. Alhaji Mu’azu, who handed down the warning in Abuja, while receiving the Akwa Ibom State delegation of the party, led by the governor, Chief Goodswill Akpabio, said PDP had perfected strategies to beat the opposition to its game of poaching. The national chairman pointed out that APC would soon begin to suffer from defection scourge, as his party was set to embark on another round of poaching that would produce terrible political effect on the opposition. “We will soon show to the opposition that although they are master poachers, if that is what they are teaching us, we will beat them to it, because when two members of your family fight, you should settle them and not for you to come and pitch one against the other,” he said. Mu’azu said plans were on top gear by the party to begin the review of its manifesto, so as to make it more responsive to the needs and the aspirations of the people. “The world is dynamic, so is our manifesto and we will ensure that when a foreigner enters each ward, local government and state controlled by our party, the difference is immediately clear, because of the development our party has brought to bear. “I will soon call for a conference that will involve all stakeholders, for the party to address Nigerians on what it stands for. I will also set up a manifesto review committee to make it more sensitive to the needs of the people,” he added. This came as Governor Akpabio, who is also the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, warned the national chairman and the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) against the antics of those he described as “Abuja politicians” with no grass-roots supports. Speaking to Mu’azu, he said “one of the things you [Mu’azu] should watch out for, not just from Akwa Ibom but from all the states, are the ones they call metropolitan politicians, who come here with stories and they will tell you they can deliver everything, that they own the whole state. “They will tell you to forget the governors, forget chairmen of councils and forget everyone and that they can deliver everywhere. First, look into their history and find out where they have delivered before, because some of them cannot even deliver their families.” He added that “we are not the kind of politicians to come with elders who had been ambassadors or who had been high commissioners to the United Nations. “Those ones don’t win elections anywhere, they only win offices of the United Nations. Elections are won in villages and local governments. We can only win in the 2015 elections if members concentrate attention in the grass roots.” According to him, “for us to win the presidency, we need the grass roots. Elections are done in the wards, villages and chapters. “Elections are not done in offices, in NWC, in Wadata House, neither do we do elections in the Villa or Abuja, except the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) elections. “So, those who have access to the Villa and who have access to the offices here are not necessarily those that will get the votes that will put PDP in power in 2015.” Governor Akpabio pleaded with party members on the need to sink their differences and work as a team, to ensure the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. “We in Akwa Ibom State urge Mr President to go back for a second term in office. We believe strongly that the transformation agenda that he has put in place in Nigeria, in the power, agric and other sectors will deliver good dividends of democracy to Nigerians and will lead this country to a higher level,” he said. Akpabio restated his loyalty to the president, pointing out that it was imperative that members of the party in his state accorded him similar respect. “I am very loyal to the leader of the party at the national level. You can all attest to that and I don’t make pretences about it. “So, I will expect the same loyalty to be extended to me at the state level. Whoever wants to stay in Abuja and jump through the office of NWC to take power in Akwa Ibom, I say Tufiakwa, it is impossible,” he said. On the recent directive by the APC to its members in the National Assembly to scuttle the passage of the 2014 appropriation bill and other executive bills and to impede the screening of the service chiefs, Governor Akpabio lashed out at APC, saying the posture was undemocratic. Governor Akpabio said it was unpatriotic for any political party to have issued such a directive to its members at a time when all hands should be on deck to move the nation forward. Bafarawa visits PDP headquarters today Former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, who defected from APC to PDP, will, today, visit Mu’azu at the PDP secretariat in Wadata Plaza, Abuja, along with his supporters. This was in order to confer with the party leadership over his reason for joining PDP. Bafarawa, who had been attending to visitors, including PDP leaders and supporters in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states since his defection on Saturday, said he, alongside his supporters, joined PDP, since it was the last option to ensure justice and fairness in nation’s politics. He described his defection to PDP as the only solution over injustice meted to him and his supporters by the leadership of APC, after suffering along with others to register the party. “I am not seeking any political position, that is not what encouraged me and my supporters to decide for our political survival by leaving APC for PDP. “It is true we are politically-oriented, disciplined and coherent with belief of justice and fairness, as anything short of it will not be accepted. “I have no grudge or enmity with any particular individual or group, my political destiny comes from God, only God decides my future and I trust His judgment for our political destiny and direction,” Bafarawa said. Source: Tribune
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:03:42 +0000
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