Thursday, April 19, 2012

Nigeria: 2015, Jonathan overheating the polity said Yuguda’s aide

A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and former Chief of Staff to Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, Alhaji Shehu Gabon, weekend accused  President Goodluck Jonathan of overheating the polity with his presumed 2015 presidential ambition, saying that such ambition amounted to double standards.
He also welcomed the resignation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT, of the party, saying that having brought anarchy into the party through imposition of candidates,Obasanjo needed to give way for internal democracy to be restored in PDP.
According to him, Obasanjo was smart to have resigned the position because he would not have been re-elected if he recontested the position when it becomes vacant in July when his tenure would have ended.
His said there were ‘’a lot of contradictions on the part of Jonathan,’’ pointing out that the same Jonathan who banned PDP members from expressing their ambition to contest political positions in 2015 so as not to heat up the polity had turned out to be main person overheating the system.
His words, ‘’well, I think there are a lot of contradictions and I can remember vividly that just last month, the same President said some people are trying to overheat the system”.
’’He said they just won elections and he needed to stabilize. I think the President is among those that are trying to overheat the system. It is totally uncalled for and unwarranted for him to make such comments (talking about 2015 presidential election).
’’Constitutionally, President Jonathan has the right to contest elections and nobody is denying him this. I do not think it is wise for him to come and talk about it, because the timing and the situation in the country does not need such comments being made at this critical time.
’’He is less than one year in office and I think he should be a leader that should discourage people from overheating the system. It is wrong for him to make such statement at this critical time.
’’I have been following  some of the controversies that have been generated by Chief   Edwin Clark and I feel that it is not healthy for the country. I want to warn that if this country collapses, it will collapse on his head and history will record it.
’’As a promising young man who was ordained by God to rule this great country, I think he should think well and contain some of these issues that are coming up.’’
On the resignation of Obasanjo as BoT chairman, Gabon further said, ‘’The former president’s resignation is absolutely healthy for the party, because it will bring more prosperity for the party; and it will restore internal democracy that people are complaining about in the party. The architect of this lack of internal democracy in the PDP is Obasanjo.
’’He created this anarchy in our democratic structures through imposition of candidates; so it is a good development that he has left. The election into that office is coming up very soon and it was clear to him that if he contested again he would lose. ‘’So the best thing for him is to go with the little integrity that he has and even if someone accuses him of anything, he can boldly declare that he resigned on his own and that he was not booted out of office.
’’At least, he now has something he can defend himself with. I think that he was smart enough to do what he did (resign) and it is very okay. It is now that the party can have space to engineer, restructure and entrench the internal democracy that we are all agitating for. So I think it is also one of the best things that has happened to the party and there is no regrets about it. The party welcomes the development and did not beg him to come back.’

No comments:

Post a Comment