PDP crisis, worrisome – ACF, NLC

SEPTEMBER 2, 2013  

ACF National Publicity Secretary, Mr Anthony Sani

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.”