The ripples of last month’s manipulated national convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), erupted into the open today as the PDP fought against the internal dissension of a former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, who has continued to question the “entire essence of the current leadership.”
The ripples of last month’s manipulated national convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), erupted into the open today as the PDP fought against the internal dissension of a former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, who has continued to question the “entire essence of the current leadership.”
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In a statement remarkable for its strident alarm, the PDP said: “We must state for the avoidance of doubt that, that there is nothing wrong in the electoral consensus option through which our national Chairman, Dr. Bamanga Turkur emerged that constitutes an inhibition in the effective discharge of his functions as the National Chairman of our Party. That other aspirants, having noted the likely trend of voting, decided on their own to withdraw from the race and support an aspirant does not translate to incapacity on the part of the consensus candidate.”
In the statement, signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the party described as both a surprise and a huge disappointment the “unrestrained aspersions” being cast on the “electoral consensus option” by Prince Kassim Afegbua, the Media Assistant to General Babangida.
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The PDP said it was unfortunate that for a second time in a week, a frontal attack on the person of the President, the National Chairman of the Party, the Publicity Secretary and indeed the entire essence of the current leadership of the Party was coming from a respected statesman and former President.
The party, clearly deeply concerned at the growing schism within, then attacked Babangida with four choice weapons of its own.
First, it tried to establish distance between Babangida and his spokesman, questioning whether one was actually speaking for the other. “We do not intend to descend to the gutter as Afegbua has been doing because we still hold the former President in high esteem,” the statement said. “However, we must state that for a leader in our Party to engage a loose cannon as his Media Assistant, care must be taken to restrain him from injury to Party loyalty.”
Second, it tried to establish that Babangida, as a former leader, has an obligation to act in a certain way. “The statement credited to the former President is surprising because known tradition the world over is for former Presidents to tow the path of maturity and decorum in criticisms of perceived lapses of the incumbents,” the PDP said. “We know of George Bush Jnr. and President Obama and we also know of Tony Blair and Prime Minister Cameron.”
Third, it suggested that Babangida was guilty of hypocrisy, recalling that in the prelude to the 2011 presidential primaries of the PDP, the former military president “wholeheartedly subjected himself to the then Northern Presidential Consensus arrangement in which Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged.”
Fourth, it inserted Babangida into the politics of Edo State. “We wish to put on record that if our respected Party leader has donated his Spokesman to the Action Congress of Nigeria gubernatorial campaign in Edo State, it is not a lesson in loyalty and Party building,” the statement concluded.
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