On a day the ruling party inaugurated its disciplinary committee, one of its leading lights, Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako, declared the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dead yesterday.
He said the party on which platform he was elected twice as governor and which has ruled Nigeria for 14 years, “is just a lifeless body, waiting to be buried”.
To Nyako, a Navy Admiral, the PDP slumped into its precarious state as a result of the flagrant abuse of power by its national leadership.
Nyako spoke in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, after a meeting with his host, Governor Sule Lamido.
He said: “People leave even their religions for another and PDP is not a religion, which means leaving it would not be regrettable.
“There is no regret for us to be accused of deserting a dead body because to me, I would not want to be buried with the dead body. So, the PDP is a dead party and if they feel expelling us from the party is what they desire, so be it.”
Nyako is one of the seven PDP governors who formed the breakaway faction .
The others are: Lamido, Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Abdulftah Ahmed (Kwara).
A former acting national chairman of the party, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, is leading the faction, which appealed yesterday the court judgment that stopped it from parading itself as a faction of the ruling party.
Nyako added: “The leadership of the party in Abuja has already given it a terrifying fatal upper-cut, like in boxing, and to leave a dead body of the already dead PDP is better than be buried with it.”
He described the visit as “purely to fraternise and discuss the way forward on common issues bordering on our security as Northerners, as Nigerians and to discuss on how to develop our entire region”.
According to Nyako, “the Dutse airport will serve as a gateway for massive exportation of farm produce when completed and, as the chairman of National Farmers Association, I will use my connection to actualise the aspiration of the Jigawa governor on the airport project”.
PDP National Chairman Bamanga Tukur urged the seven-member Disciplinary Committee, led by 77-year-old Alhaji Umaru Dikko, to ensure discipline among party members.
He said the choice of the committee members was painstakingly made, with due consideration of their pedigree and love for discipline and the party.
Tukur stressed that Dikko was picked as chairman of the committee because of his uncompromising stance on discipline.
He said Dikko’s love for the rule of law and defence of democracy during the military era was also considered before he was picked.
He thanked the committee members for accepting the job. He is sure that their effort will yield the discipline the party yearns for.
Tukur called on all who believe in democracy and discipline to support the committee to actualise its objective.
Dikko, who spoke on behalf of members of the committee, thanked the party for the confidence reposed in them.
He said the committee would do everything needed to ensure discipline among party members.
Former Transport Minister Ebenezer Babatope is the Deputy Chairman of the committee. Onwe Onwe is the secretary.
Other members are: Hajiya Nana Aishat-Quadir, Alhaji Hussaini Duraki, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun and Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.
Iwuanyanwu and Babatope were absent the inauguration.
Dikko was minister of Transport in the Second Republic Shehu Shagari administration.
Dikko, who was born in 1936, fled to London on self-exile after the military coup of December 31, 1983, which overthrew the Shagari administration. An attempt to forcibly bring him back in a crate was foiled at the Heathrow Airport in London.
all this political propaganda and activity is focusing on 2015 election.it is better to properly take care of today before tomorrow.the wise is moved by what you disposed not what you proposed.God bless you.