On the 6th of January, 2015 during the inauguration of the PDP presidential campaign committee the National Chairman of PDP Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu made a startling confession that is highly instructive. After speaking for minutes during which he made a lot of boring and sometimes annoying statements like the fact that Goodluck Jonathan brought peace to the North-East and that they build airports for the people in PDP controlled states; the chairman ended his speech with a warning to the opposition to address only issues during the forthcoming electioneering campaigns. Instead of sitting down, the man then made a confession that should push Reverend Father Mbaka’s sermon to the background. He said and I quote, “Mr. President, I want to appeal to all our party members who hold elective positions from you at the apex of the pyramid to the lowest who is the councilor not to use our party members and dump them”. If he had stopped at that, we wouldn’t have known what was on his mind. But he dropped this clinker, “if you check all of those that left our party to other parties, they did so because of lack of Equity, Fairness and Justice and I repeat, we need Equity, Fairness and Justice. We should not allow a situation where monkey dey work baboon dey chop. Let the monkey or baboon that works also chop.” Oh my God! What a confession. So PDP operates without Equity, Fairness and Justice? What else do we need as a people from political parties and elected leaders other than Equity, Fairness and Justice? And if by the self-confessions of the National chairman of the PDP, the party operates without Equity, Fairness and Justice, what then do they hope to offer Nigerians? The Hausas have a saying that “if someone promises you a garment, check the one he is wearing” meaning no one can give you what he or she doesn’t have. If within their party they cannot provide Equity, Fairness and Justice, then how can they offer same to Nigerians? And in any case what is governance other than providing social good to the people? What is social good other than operating a system anchored on Fairness, Equity and Justice?
Now these are the very attributes lacking in the PDP according to its National Chairman. We have always known that the word ‘democracy’ means nothing to the PDP; hence they suppressed all interested persons and closed the door to the Presidency by printing only one form. They also refused to allow free and fair primaries in a number of states, sometimes preferring to rent a crowd on the streets of Abuja to hold congresses for states whose delegates are left behind at the state capitals. But to say the party lacks a sense of Fairness, Equity and Justice is the height of it all. The PDP and all it stands for is now openly anti-people of Nigeria. The party has now proved to be the very opposite of whatever democratic governance stands for. Another thing Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu proudly mentioned is the fact that most of the chieftains of the other major political parties are former PDP members. But even at that, he linked it with his party’s lack of Equity, Fairness and Justice. By his self-confession, most of those who left the PDP were dissatisfied because they were “used and dumped” and hence were not treated with Fairness, Equity and Justice. According to him, the President should not allow a situation where the monkey worked while the Baboon chopped. In fact he used these same words as if he was talking to street touts. For Ahmed Adamu Muázu lack of equity means being left out of the “chopping”. For him and the motley crowd at the venue of the event, the only purpose of leadership is to ensure that all those who “work” for the success of the party at the polls are accommodated when it is time to “chop”.
No wonder that under the PDP, especially the current leadership of the party and the country; leaders have become scavengers feeding fat on our National Resources without recourse to even a modicum of a sense of responsibility. They have eaten the Nation dry and still they are talking about allowing both PDP monkeys and Baboons to chop until there is nothing left to chop under their leadership, the Nation’s economy is collapsing, the infrastructure decaying and all National Institutions are drying; yet all the National Chairman of the PDP will want the President to promise them is that if he wins PDP members should not be dumbed. They should be part of the “chopping”. What this simply means is that if Nigerians make the mistake of allowing the PDP rule them in the next four years, they will not only ‘chop’ off the flesh of the Nation but crack even the bones and eat away the ligaments. Another four years of PDP, going by Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu’s confession will simply mean that even the carcass of a Nation called Nigeria will not be available to the undertakers.
Of all the things said about President Jonathan and his 2015 re-election bid, nothing insults our sensibilities in the North-East like their peace and development mantra. Where is the peace in the North-East? Where is the development in the North-East? Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu spoke about the building and rehabilitation of Airports. Who built the Airports mentioned? Certainly, not Jonathan. The only one being rehabilitated in Yola was awarded by the Obasanjo regime, abandoned by Jonathan and later hurriedly empanelled by Stella Odua even with a commissioning plague indicating that the project was commissioned by President Jonathan. The job was so hurriedly and haphazardly done that today the Airport is blown by the wind and stands as an eye-sore and a sorry edifice. The Airports in Jalingo and Bauchi are just white elephant projects serving no purpose at all. As a matter of fact, Governor Danbaba Suntai built Jalingo Airport as part of an ego trip as a Governor-Pilot. Only his private plane uses the Airport before it crashed; and when it crashed, the project simply became a waste. The Airport in Bauchi was only used by Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu. Even the current Governor who is a former Minister of Aviation never used the Airport. Gombe Airport is the only one in operation, and it was initiated, built and commissioned by Senator Danjuma Goje, one of those who left the PDP for the APC because of lack of Fairness, Equity and Justice. The Airport in Maiduguri has been unfairly and unjustly closed down by the Jonathan Regime operating only when the President’s friend visits Maiduguri. As for peace in the North-East, Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu should fear God and sympathize with us in the region. Our communities have been ravaged, our people wantonly killed, our schools and places of worship destroyed, our children abducted, our people displaced and our lives shattered; yet leaders like Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu say we have peace. Which peace? Whose peace? What manner of peace and where is the peace. …
Ahmad Sajoh writes from Wauru Jabbe, Kofare, Jimeta-Yola.