The
victory of the Makarfi-led PDP faction at the Supreme Court recent is
set to cause a change in political formation with some APC bigwigs being
lured to the opposition party.
Atiku Abubakar and Rabiu Kwankwaso
Emboldened by last Wednesday’s judgment of the Supreme Court, which
settled the leadership tussle within the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), some former members of the party are set to quit the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC) and return to the umbrella-symbolled party.
Indications to this effect became rife on Thursday night when
Saturday Telegraph got wind of a meeting holding between some bigwigs
within the PDP and some of their former colleagues, who are now in the
APC. A further probe by correspondents however revealed that the meeting
involved some former members of the group that what was then known as
the newPDP, who defected to the APC in the wake of the 2015 general
elections.
Sources within both parties confirmed that the Supreme Court
ruling, which confirmed the leadership of the PDP on the Senator Ahmed
Makarfi led faction, might have buoyed the defectors to conclude a plan
to return to the PDP.
Ex-nPDP leaders in talks with former party
Investigations by our correspondents however revealed that there
had been series of meetings between some of the defunct nPDP and APC
members, who had been awaiting the verdict of the apex court. One of the
sources informed that some of the defectors, who in 2013, formed what
was then known as the newPDP, are the major players in the current move,
while not ruling out the possibility of new entrants from some of the
parties that formed the APC.
“Don’t you know them? They are from the second PDP. Have you
forgotten them? They called themselves the newPDP at that time. They had
been meeting before the ruling, it is certain that some of them will go
back. “This is the judgment they had been waiting for. It could have
been different if the judgment had gone the other way.
Some of them had said openly that they cannot work with Senator
Ali Modu-Sheriff, but with the victory given to the Makarfi group, you
can expect majority of them to go back to their vomit. “You need to see
how they were dancing as if it was their party that won the court case.
It is obvious that their hearts are still with the PDP.
They are just waiting for the right excuse to use and return to the PDP”,
he said. The Supreme Court had in its judgment affirmed that the PDP
leadership led by the party’s caretaker committee’s chairman, Ahmed
Makarfi, was the authentic faction of the party.
However, feelers within the party last night revealed that former
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former Kano State Governor, Senator Rabiu
Kwankwaso and the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, might be
among those considering a return to the PDP. But one of the sources was
quick to exonerate the former Rivers State Governor from the clandestine
moves to jettison the ruling party, saying, “except for people like
Amaechi, who are serving, and who you don’t expect to quit the cabinet,
most nPDP members will go back ‘home’, where they belong”, he said.
Another highly placed party member, who is in the know of the
latest twist, told this newspaper that most, if not all the members of
the nPDP may be on their way back to the PDP. The source, who was not
categorical when such movement would be, however, insisted that the need
to return to the party was necessary considering the fact that the
judgment had given hope for a fresh PDP emerging from the rubbles of a
crisis-ridden party. According to the female source, the rebirth is
coming at a time when the APC was no longer living up to its billing in
meeting the socio-political and economic yearnings of Nigerians. She
said: “As you can see, the Supreme Court judgment has thrown up so many
things.
From all indications, a lot of realignment and counter-realignment
will begin to emerge to shape the countdown to 2019. “Don’t be surprised
when you begin to see the return of our nPDP members who went to APC.
Yes, I can tell you that they are already thinking of a return and this
will definitely happen. This I know.”
The big madam’, as she is fondly called was of the opinion that the
restructuring agenda being propagated by Atiku, is one major reason
that the former VP would return to the PDP, insisting that he can’t
achieve his aim of restructuring Nigeria in the APC. “Atiku can
never be in the APC and still be talking of restructuring. He can’t
achieve that in the party, he has to come back to the PDP. “But before
then, I want you to recall that Atiku is a strong contender for 2019
presidency. So, we know that Atiku is already considering this option
since he had been championing the cause for the nation to be
restructured.”
Atiku: Not true, insists on restructuring
But one of Atiku’s aides who craved anonymity denied the report saying; “that is not on the table and not on the agenda. “The
rumoured defection had been going on for some time now, we don’t know
where that is coming from. But I can tell you it is not true. Atiku
remain in the APC”. Also, the Special Assistant on Media to Atiku, Mr. Paul Ibe, told Saturday Telegraph that the insinuations could not be true.
According to Ibe, the former Vice President remains a loyal member
of the APC and any report of him crossing over to another party at this
time is merely speculative and should be ignored.
“He is a loyal member of the APC who worked for the emergence
of this government. He deployed his resources in aid of the party
before, during and after the 2015 elections. So I don’t know what
greater commitment somene can show than what he had done,” Ibe said.
And as if the source was reading Atiku’s mind, the former VP who
had been in the forefront of the campaign to restructure the polity,
yesterday insisted that Nigeria must be restructured for national
cohesion.
Atiku, yesterday urged debaters and contributors on restructuring
to be openminded. He also charged the states opposing restructuring
because of the oil to have it in mind that oil would not have an
everlasting relevance, but to make use of the relevance it has today and
develop their revenue base.
He said: “The states or zones of the country that are most
dependent on oil revenues have a greater urgency to decouple themselves
from that dependency now that there is still some oil revenue to assist
them in the transition. That window may not remain open for a long time,
which may then make the inevitable transition much more painful and
chaotic.”
“Restructuring will contribute to national cohesion and good
governance, as it would decongest the centre and enhance greater
manageability, efficiency and accountability.
“Restructuring will ensure greater accountability. People are
more likely to hold their state and local governments to account once
those governments are no longer able to convincingly blame the central
government for their shortcomings; Restructuring will promote healthy
competition among our federating units, which will encourage them to
diversify their revenue sources.
“Restructuring will ensure greater fairness and a perception of
same among our constituent parts and there is also another huge
economic imperative for us to restructure: oil, which underlined and
underwrote our excessive centralization and fragmentation into numerous
unviable states, and which has been at the centre of much of our
squabbles, seems to have reached its peak as source of revenues for our
country”. On those holding different views about restructuring, the
former Vice President said: “Yes restructuring may mean different
things to different people.
Like all things with political and economic implications, those
calling for restructuring have varying positions, which is not a bad
thing. But we won’t really find out how close our positions are to those
of others until we sit down with them and start to talk and negotiate.
The biggest challenge seems to be that we seem to be allowing
moderate voices on this issue to be drowned out by the reckless
utterances of a few rabble-rousers on all sides who may be tools in the
hands of those who do not wish this country well.
Kwakwanso denies involvement
But, in a swift reaction, Kwankwaso refuted the claims through his
spokesperson, Binta Spikin, saying there was no time he muted the idea
of moving out of the party that he suffered to nurture. “Kwankwaso
is not an unpopular politician who will go out of a party unannounced,
you know the army of his followers across the country so I don’t think
he can even think of decamping without first discussing it with his
loyalists.”
The former governor, who was among those that dumped the PDP after
polarising it shortly before the 2015 general elections, said he didn’t
see anything good in the PDP that would make him go back. He reminded
that the ruling APC is still the party to beat despite the lapses being
witnessed, saying all those needed to be corrected would soon be
corrected and that, that does not mean the party has completely lost
ground.
The spokesperson noted that when Kwankwaso was going out of PDP he did it in such a way that he attracted attention. “It
is not that simple thing for a Man like Kwankwaso who drive national
loyalty and supports to just decamp to a party that still is searching
for it is based. “If truly he is going out of the ruling APC it would
have been the talk of the town by now because he will do it in such a
way that millions of his followers will be put in the know and be
prepared for the journey ahead.”
Kwara PDP moves to poach from APC
In Kwara State, the leaders of the party confirmed that they were
ready to poach more members from the APC as a means of working towards a
2019 victory in the state. A leader of the party said they were
convinced many APC members were not happy with the way things were being
done in the state but had no veritable platform to move to given the
crisis of the PDP and expressed confidence that with the situation now
resolved, such members will only be glad to be invited to the PDP. “We are ready to poach even their big names because we know they are unhappy here’, the party elder who is also a member of the central working committee in the state said.
State chairman of the party, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, while
addressing members who had gathered at the party’s secretariat to
celebrate the decision of the apex court, said the leaders would also
work to ensure that members that left the PDP due to the crisis were
brought back. Fagbemi called on all, including his factional colleague,
Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, to join the PDP to effect a genuine change.
The PDP boss said the decision of the court would also filter down
to the factional situation in the state and would work to reconcile with
the other faction. He said: “We know that if we join hands, the
misrule, misgovernance, poverty promotion, and negatives that they have
brought upon us will be brought to an end.
The legacy they are saying must continue in Kwara will be stopped
because there is nothing to continue. The change they have brought must
be changed for a better Kwara. “The widely applauded ruling of the
nation’s apex court has rekindled Nigerians hope in the judiciary as the
last hope of the command man. “The ruling is a welcome development and a
relief to Nigerians yearning for a virile opposition party, the absence
of which has made the ruling to be slumbering and denying the citizens
good governance.
“We thank the judiciary for staying on the side of the truth
and we urge its officials to continue in that direction, so that
together we can build a country where there will be equal opportunities
for all, regardless of class status. “With this landmark judgement, our
great party, the PDP is now in a better stead to play its role as the
leading opposition party in the country. It’s also a great opportunity
to reposition the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.
“We have strong conviction that the party under the
chairmanship of Makarfi will wrest power from the crisis-ridden APC in
the next general elections. The feat recorded by the PDP in the last
weekend senatorial bye election in Osun State is a pointer to this”, he said.
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