Indications
are strong that President Goodluck Jonathan has turned the nation’s apex seat
of power into the unofficial secretariat of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP). This is owing to the frequency of Jonathan’s hosting of all sorts of his
party’s activities in the Presidential Villa.
Critics have observed that several PDP meetings that ought to be
held in its Wadata House headquarters are being held in the Villa with the
President himself sometimes presiding over such.
For instance, the election of the Chairman of the party’s Board
of Trustees (BoT) was held in Aso Rock, even as several of its meetings are
usually held in the Presidential Villa. The practice which started during the
tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo continued through the administration
of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, with President Jonathan maintaining the
tradition.
Again, the decision to form the PDP Governors’ Forum, though
supposedly a party affair, was consummated at the Presidential Villa.
Significantly, the emergence of the Akwa-Ibom state governor, Godswill Akpabio,
as its Chairman was announced not in the Wadata House but in Aso Rock.
It was equally observed that members of the party’s National
Working Committee chaired by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur are regular visitors to the
Villa, probably to get instruction from the President, critics have alleged.
But the party’s NWC meetings and its National Executive Council
(NEC)’s meetings are always held at its headquarters. Courtesy visits to the
party leadership and other administrative affairs are also done in the party
secretariat.
However, of recent, most of the party’s meetings are also being
held in the Abuja private residence of the PDP’s National Chairman just as some
others are being held at the party’s Legacy House Campaign office.
Efforts to reach the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief
Olisa Metuh, on phone to comment on the matter proved abortive as several calls
made to him could not get through.
Reacting to the issue, the National Publicity Secretary of
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Lai Mohammed, said it is symptomatic of the
crisis which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is having.
He emphasized that the party is already very sick, adding that
the sickness facing the party is a terminal illness which nothing can heal.
Speaking further, Mohammed said that PDP is not a party but a rigging machine,
assuring that in due course people will come to understand the true nature of
the party.
Also speaking, the National Publicity Secretary of Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC), Rotimi Fashakin, said if PDP has decided to run its
party like a cult which it is, that does not worry the CPC.
He regretted that Nigeria has become a state where people do things
with impunity because they are in power, saying that CPC is only concerned
because the average Nigerians have been reduced to slaves in their country.
“If they have decided to run it like a cult, which it is, that
is their business. PDP has an overwhelming power which has made it operate like
a cult,” Fashakin said.
In addition, he observed that the decision of the Presidency to
be holding the meetings in the Aso Villa is party of his ploy to emphasise and
underscore his desire for 2015.
Moreover, he observed that same people are being recycled in the
party just to enable the party have advantage over other parties, adding that
in the zoning agreement of the party was bastardized by President Jonathan, in
his bid to be the President.
An All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Board of Trustees
(BoT) member, Willy Ezeugwu, called on President Jonathan to understand that
the Aso Vills is not a party office, but the seat of power.
He explained that in the United States, the Democrats can not
hold their party meetings in the White House, saying that once a President is
elected, he is no longer a party President, but Nigeria President, who should
not give national privileges to his party.
“If President Jonathan is no longer Nigerian President but PDP
President, he should tell Nigerians,” he said, adding that Aso Villa is a place
where any party can occupy, and therefore should not be converted to party
office.
Ezeugwu, who is also the National Secretary of Conference of
Nigerian Political Party (CNPP), also lamented that impunity has become high
under President Jonathan, saying that Nigerians are not happy with he is doing.
He said that even if the President is doing it to have his way
on national and party issues, Nigerians do not care, hence the Aso Villa is not
the party’s secretariat.
Responding, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa
Metuh, said BoT meeting is being held in the Villa for security reasons.
He said: “Being the party in power, it is not out of place for
the party to hold it’s BoT’s, the highest advisory body, meeting in the
Presidential Villa. It would be awkward for the party leader, especially the
President, who maybe exposed to insecurity, to hold meetings at the PDP
secretariat,” he said.
Source: Peoples Daily
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