The meeting by the governors under the umbrella of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos may have come and gone but the dust generated by the issues raised may take a while to settle. Also, as the PDP and its major challenger, the All Progressives Congress (APC) prepares to slug it out in the all-important presidential election on March 28, some of the issues raised by the governors will remain indelible in the minds of the electorates and will definitely influence their choice on who get their votes when they file out to vote in less than three weeks time, all things being equal.
Meeting sealed fate of rumoured governors defection
The meeting also afforded the governors the opportunity to clear the air on the rumours being bandied around that some of them are working underground for the emergence of the presidential candidate of the APC, Muhammadu Buhari. When five PDP governors dumped the party for the APC last year, many had predicted that Niger State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Babangida Aliyu and his counterpart in Jigawa State, Sule Lamido are just bidding their time in PDP and will declare their love for APC in the days to the election.
The rumour of the governors defection became promounced again a day to the PDP governors meeting when Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, at a rally in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos State for the APC governorship candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode announced that no fewer than seven PDP governors have indicated interest in formally joining forces with the APC. He spoke at a rally in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos State for the APC governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.
According to him “Now let me tell you that the victory of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has been signed, sealed and delivered. But let me tell you something but don’t tell anybody. It is a secret, about seven PDP governors are coming to hold meetings with us privately, planning to join us.
“There is fear in the country. The fear is that they know Buhari is a good man, they know Buhari will win. The fear is that once they announce Buhari on March 28 as winner all the bad people stealing the nation’s money will take midnight flight and leave the country. The fear of Buhari is the end of corruption in Nigeria. ”
The PDPGF usually holds its meetings in Abuja or any PDP state but this time round they chose Lagos, a stronghold of the opposition APC for the interactive session. This further gave impetus to the planned defection of the governors with many anxious to know the crux of the meeting. But to the consternation of these ones, the governors not only rubbished Okorocha’s claim, they also pledged their unalloyed support to President Goodluck Jonathan by highlighting some of his notable achievements and urging Nigerians to reelect him for a fresh term.
Niger State governor, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, who also spoke on the matter, said it was deceptive to say that he wanted to join a party he had rejected all along. He also declared that while he was a member of the G7 uprising in the PDP in 2013, there was no agreement that the group would defect to another party, adding that some persons in the group with personal ambitions used the uprising to seek defection.
“One of the APC governors reportedly said that seven PDP governors are in Lagos to negotiate joining the APC. Any of you conversant with the APC will know that it is not true. We understand that some of us have personal ambitions, have reasons to live, while those of us who are committed stayed in the PDP. I don’t see any reason now why I will join the APC through the back door when I had the chance to join through the front door. All they are doing is propaganda” he said.
Governors took APC, Buhari to cleaners
In his welcome address, Akwa Ibom state governor and Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Godswill Akpabio who delivered the lead paper on behalf of the governors, said the presidential candidate of APC, after taking over in the 1983 coup, also used the fight against corruption to justify his emergence. He said the promise to fight corruption is today a 50-year trick, adding that Nigerians should be concerned about how to jointly fight corruption. According to him, while the PDPGF might not question Buhari’s age at 73, the governors question the age of his ideas, which he described as outdated.
“We are aware that some people have complained about the age of Major-General Buhari. But we do not see anything wrong with his age if he thinks he can withstand the rigours of the job. But we are extremely concerned about the age of his ideas. We are concerned that a man who could not take charge when he was in his 40s, cannot take charge at 73, when his health would need constant monitoring. We are concerned about the age of his ideas, because 50 years after the first coup, which was hinged on corruption, Buhari is still thinking of using the same subterfuge to deceive us today. We dare not allow anyone use a 50-year old trick to destroy our democratic values. We are wiser today.
Akpabio also used the forum to highlight the achievements of the Jonathan administration, pointing out that the President has ensured freedom of expression; created an atmosphere for free and fair elections; refrained from arresting and detaining media practitioners and political opponents and congratulated opposition governors who defeated PDP candidates at the polls. He added: “What we need in Nigeria today is transformation, not change. Change is an amorphous term. It could be positive or negative. Any change that is not planned will lead to disaster.”
Also speaking on Buhari, Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, the APC was full of angry and aggrieved persons, adding that it was questionable to say that Buhari would fight corruption even though he (Buhari) kept quiet in the face of untoward actions perpetrated under the regime of General Sani Abacha. He said while bombs were raining under the regime of the late Sani Abacha, Buhari kept quiet, even in the face of massive looting under that regime. Acording to him , Buhari should be rejected for not speaking up when atrocities were committed under previous governments in Nigeria. He also questioned how Buhari would handle the issue of some leaders of the party who are in court for corruption issues, but currently on bail. The governor also flayed the PDP governors who defected to the APC, saying that they are dregs.
“How comfortable are Wamakko and Amaechi in the APC? APC is a contraption, an organisation of hate, envy, anger and confusion. APC has as members former PDP governors and senators. But, because they lost out in their states, they connived with the APC. The question we face in Nigeria is how to banish poverty. Nigeria must be refocused. It must re-unite. There is corruption everywhere. It is in the boardroom. It is a Nigerian phenomenon. We should think of how to deal with it. APC has no plan for Nigeria. They are dregs of the PDP.
“They came to Jigawa to talk to me. They said they are saints. I asked them: why do you want me, a member of a party of rot and rogues? If two APC leaders die today, the party will perish. But, PDP is solid and organic. The challenge is how do we preserve Nigeria, salvage Nigeria, reconcile Nigeria and promote understanding.”
On war against Boko Haram
Akpabio in his speech also cited what he claimed as contradictory positions by the APC on the Boko Haram insurgency, saying the party has moved between accommodating the group and pushing for its extinction.
“When the Federal Government was contemplating negotiating with the dreaded Boko Haram group, Boko Haram nominated Gen. Buhari as their chief negotiator. The APC is like the man who set his seat ablaze in the theatre, and ran out screaming, ‘fire, fire, fire.’ But God has intervened, and we are defeating Boko Haram.
“Despite the antics of the opposition and others sympathetic to Boko Haram, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and indeed the military have been able to rise to the occasion by decimating insurgents and restoring hope of a peaceful North-East in particular and Nigeria in general.”
In the words of Adamawa State governor, Bala Nigilari, sustenance of democratic value should be anchored on security, adding that insecurity is not an invention of the PDP. The governor lamented that in one household, 120 skulls were found, following attacks by the Boko Haram sect. He also chided his Borno State counterpart, Shettima for not giving enough support to the military in the fight against terror. The governor said the military had been up and doing in recent times, adding, however, that the states of Yobe and Borno needed to cooperate with the military to fast track the war against insurgency. He said if the two states of Borno and Yobe had been supportive, the war would have been won faster.
“It was like watching a film in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People go through the carnage. But, with what the Federal Government and the military are doing, we will cross the bridge. If the Borno governor has collaborated with the military, as we have done in Adamawa, much success would have been achieved. In two weeks, the sect will be wiped put in Adamawa” he said.
Aliyu’s bombshell on Buhari’s alleged one- term pact
Aliyu, who had been an ardent critic of President Jonathan over the rumoured single term pact the president allegedly had in the prelude to the 2011 elections took many by surprise when he accused Buhari of planning to short-change the North by agreeing to serve a single term if elected president. According to him, APC never wanted Buhari as their presidential candidate but decided to field him when he agreed to serve a term and return power to the South West. This, according to him, would negate the spirit of zoning that currently operates in Nigerian politics.
“Buhari promised us that he is going to do one term. The implication of that would result in the short-changing of rotational presidency when it gets to the turn of the North. I was speaking to one of the presidential candidates and he told me that the bullion vans came that night to distribute money to produce Buhari because he promised them that he was going to do one term and hand over power to the South West. Definitely, he wants to short-change the North.
“The party or people who adopted Buhari on that primary day did that to extend their looting, stealing of public property into the nation. They have done it in a state and they want to transfer it to the whole country. When they went for that primary, the candidate they had in mind was different from what transpired that day.
“That’s the anomaly that has taken over Nigeria and that is why we were very happy that these elections were shifted because if the elections were held on February 14, believe me, the tension then, whoever was announced or whichever party was announced, would have a lot of problems,” he said.
APC fires back
In a swift reaction, the APC debunked the allegation by Aliyu saying it was the creation of the PDP which is seeking to play a section of the country against another. In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said contrary to PDP’s claim, no conditionality was attached to Buhari’s candidacy. The party said it had ignored the myth all long because it was being peddled by fringe elements in the PDP, but decided to put the record straight once and for all after those who were thought to be saner elements in the ruling party started parroting the same incredulous lies.
“The APC will not abridge the right of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to spend the constitutionally-guaranteed two terms as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria if elected in the March 28 poll .No conditionality whatsoever was attached to Gen. Buhari’s candidacy. He won the party primaries fair and square in a globally-acclaimed transparent manner, and he was neither a compromise nor a consensus candidate, hence there is no need for him to make a deal with anyone.
‘’We are therefore telling Nigerians to disregard the tales by moonlight which some PDP elements are yarning, in their desperation to muddle the waters ahead of the forthcoming elections and create disaffection between a section of the country and another .This myth that Buhari will spend one term, after which power will return to the South West, is along the same line as the outlandish claim that our Vice Presidential Candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has sworn to an oath to resign in favour of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu once elected.
‘’The question to ask is: ‘When will the PDP stop this campaign of calumny and character assassination against our candidates and leaders? When will they stop this one-day, one-lie nonsense? The truth is that Gen. Buhari’s candidacy has brought out the worst in the PDP leadership and supporters, including Mr. President and his wife. Unfortunately for them, the more they campaign against our candidate, the more popular he becomes. Perhaps, the PDP would have stood a better chance of winning the forthcoming polls if its state governors, in particular, have devoted as much time and energy to running their states as they have devoted to maligning Gen. Buhari,’’ the party said.
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