… As peace meeting continues on Tuesday
SAN FRANCISCO, September 02, (THEWILL) – The Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, on Monday, declared that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar should be grateful to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) instead of leading the break-away faction of the party.
Gulak, who stated this while speaking with State House correspondents, said as a politician, Atiku should acknowledge the uniqueness of the ruling party, which he abandoned at a point in his career but also ran back to at some point.
“Atiku should be grateful to PDP. Atiku is indebted to PDP and the best way to continue to pay the debt is to protect PDP,” Gulak declared, stressing that the current political impasse in the party is a reflection of the character of politics, which he noted is “is about interest.”
Gulak said Atiku made the volte face having realised that there is no party that would accommodate him like the PDP “and he came back and was even given the waiver to contest the primaries election in 2011.”
The presidential adviser made the declaration as peace talks between President Goodluck Jonathan and aggrieved governors of the party continue on Tuesday.
According to Gulak, “We are harmonising. We are talking. We are holding dialogue because the PDP as a family will not allow any of its members to go away. And even if the members want to go away, we will make bold to tell them that out there, there is no party as good as PDP.”
It is important to note that the ruling party is not experiencing this kind of crisis for the first time as the founding Chairman, Solomon Lar, and a former Deputy National Chairman, Shuaib Oyedokun, broke away seven years ago to form a parallel faction after alleging that the Ahmadu Ali-led leadership was playing politics of exclusion.
Gulak however expressed optimism that the party will be re-unified once the stakeholders conclude their dialogue on Tuesday.
“It can never be the end of PDP. PDP has been there from 1998. It is only PDP that has still maintained its name and identity. The other people you are talking about, started as AD, transformed to AC, transformed to ACN. You know they have lost their identity. It is only PDP that has consistently maintained its identity and its name, so there is no party that can beat PDP,” he said.
Gulak, who did not disclose what the grievances of the dissenting governors were, however agreed that they have issues with the party “and they have put on the table what they want, or put on the table what it should be and the leader has carefully listened and analysed it and we keep on talking.”
According to Gulak, “The President is the leader of the party and the governors came and the President and other leaders had useful discussions with them and God’s willing these things will be things of the past.”
He also dismissed the calls for the removal of the party chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
“You cannot remove the national chairman like that. He was elected and you will remember that of all the offices, INEC observed that only the position of the national chairman and the financial secretary was properly done and that is why we had do to the special national convention to properly elect the other officers.
“There are processes. There are provisions of the institution. There are electoral acts. We should not act outside the laws. We must act between the extant laws of the land because the PDP is a law abiding party. We must entrench internal democracy.
“You cannot come and say remove Mr. A or Mr. B and you cannot say for example remove governor A. There are processes of removal. The constitution is clear about it. And I want to plead with all PDP leaders and members, especially the senior stakeholders to continue talking. You don’t win war at the battle front. You win war on the table,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the peace meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan, all the aggrieved governors in the new faction of the party and top party officials will continue on Tuesday.
Chairman of the party’s board of trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, said all the aggrieved governors will be in attendance.
