Nigeria Content Online

From
all indications, ripples from the last wave of the crisis rocking the
People’s Democratic Party in Adamawa State have not come to a halt.
Even though party leaders have insisted on a no- crises claim, the
obvious however, indicates otherwise.

Recently, Bamanga
Tukur, a member of the acting president’s Presidential Advisory
Committee and one-time governor of the old Gongola state, joined
several others to voice his anger and frustration on the state of the
party under its chairman, Umaru Mijinyawa Kugama.

Mr. Tukur told newsmen in Yola that the PDP in Adamawa State has been hijacked and its activities are now shrouded in mystery.

“Kugama and his
people,” Bamanga Tukur said, “have taken the PDP out of the public
domain, because we can no longer see the PDP. Maybe they have gone to
lock it somewhere in Mayo-Belwa, I don’t know.

“On a serious note,
as a chieftain of the party myself, I don’t know where the party is, I
can’t see it and I don’t know why. But if you like, this view is shared
by many. So, we are waiting to see Kugama’s magic wand that would give
the party electoral victory without coming to the public domain,” he
said.

Mr. Tukur, who is
also the Chairman of African Business Roundtable, accused the party
hierarchy in the state of high-handedness and called on the national
secretariat of the party to intervene and wrest the party before it
collapses.

Expectedly, Mr
Kugama was not amused. He described Mr. Tukur’s utterances as
unfortunate and wondered why the elder statesman would stoop low to
castigate his leadership.

“I am not wont to join issues with elders,” Kugama said. “His Excellency, Bamanga Tukur is a father to me.

But it is quite
amusing for highly placed elder statesmen to say that the party has
been taken out of the public domain. Our party, the greatest political
party in Africa, is about the most conspicuous institution in Adamawa
state. How on earth would somebody say the party is inaccessible when
opposition parties in the state have all melted into the PDP?” The
party chairman said hardly would a day pass when his leadership do not
receive decampees in their hundreds.

“As a matter of fact, receiving decampees has of recent been added to our daily chores, that is a fact,” he said.

Boni Haruna stays in AC He is not far from the truth.

Recently, some
members of the Action Congress crossed to the PDP in their thousands.
Saleh Kingir, a governorship aspirant in 2006, for instance, led
thousands of his supporters from the northern senatorial zone to defect
to the PDP.

No fewer than seven
out of the nine AC members in the state assembly are also said to have
dumped their party for the PDP. Leader of the defecting legislators,
Gidado Sajo Gella,

representing Mubi
South, said their decision is linked to the leadership style of the
Murtala Nyako-led PDP government in the state.

“Our former party,
the AC, has lost focus and that is why our leader, the immediate past
governor of the state, Boni Haruna asked us to return to the PDP
because that is where we belong,” he said.

However, political
pundits say they could not make head or tail out of Mr. Gella’s sudden
change of opinion about the Nyako government, seeing as he recently
described it as an epidemic.

Mr. Gella confirmed
that former governor, Boni Haruna and his political mentor and former
Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, have parted ways.

“Tell everyone in
clear terms; Boni Haruna has left Atiku, having discovered that Atiku
is a selfish man,” he said. “Boni, if you like, is the most loyal
governor I have come to know. I mean, you have been in this country,
you know what happened between Atiku and former President Obasanjo and
how Boni stood the chance of gaining presidential favours if only he
had betrayed Atiku, but he stood and fought to the end”.

Mr. Gella said Mr. Abubakar’s visit to Mr. Obasanjo dealt the death blow to the relationship between Messrs Haruna and Abubakar.

“Boni Haruna had
warned Atiku, pleading with him not to visit Obasanjo in Otta farm, but
he would not listen because he was driven by his blind desperation to
rule Nigeria by all means.” Mr. Abubakar eventually made good his
return to the PDP last week at a public ceremony in Abuja.

Abubakar’s local opposition

A PDP source in
Yola said Mr. Abubakar is being drafted into a grand plot to scuttle
the presidential ambition of former military president, Ibrahim
Babangida. Yet, a return to the PDP might be the easiest of the hurdles
to Mr. Abubakar’s own ambition. Mr. Kugama told journalists in Yola
that Jibril Aminu, Grace Bent and Mohammed Mana (senators from the
state) and other stakeholders have unanimously agreed not to allow the
former VP from re-entering into the party.

As the dust of
Atiku’s return continues to settle, facts are emerging as to why Mr
Haruna, who presently holds the reins of the AC structure in the state,
might have decided to revolt against his political godfather. A source
said when the former governor was docked by the EFCC on allegation of
misappropriating about N80 million, Mr. Abubakar did not care to come
to his rescue or even commiserate with him while in detention.

It was popularly
held that Mr. Haruna’s meticulous records keeping got him off the EFCC
hook when he tendered documents that implicated a lot of people,
including some family members of Nuhu Ribadu.

“Boni”, says a
source, “took his laptop to the EFCC and showed how prominent citizens,
including Ribadu’s family members, benefited from the alleged
misappropriation.” In Michika, Mr. Haruna’s local government of birth,
the entire AC structure, led by the duo of the immediate past Deputy
Speaker of the state assembly, Adamu Kamale and former Commissioner,
Rhoda Buggi, decamped to the PDP and were received by Mr. Kugama at a
colorful ceremony at Marwa Square.

Eyes on the governor’s seat

However, from
within its fold, the PDP has continued to grapple with various
contending forces. Mr. Kugama explained that the bedlam within the
party is understandable. “You know, politicians have for a long time
become used to booty sharing once a government is formed,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the present governor does not understand that language.
He believes that state resources are for the collective good of all
citizens.” The PDP in Adamawa state so far, appears to have been
shredded into several camps, each jostling for the Dougirei Government
House. With the election year drawing closer, several such camps are
strategizing in order to wrest the party structure.

Former governor,
Mr. Tukur, was alleged to have insisted that his son, Auwal D. Tukur,
has waited for too long to govern the state and therefore must be given
a chance to take the reins of power in 2012. For Jibril Aminu, the cap
fits only one man – his political godson and minister of state for
Foreign Affairs, Aliyu Idi Hong.

These and several
others, jostling for the same seat, see Mr Kugama as an impediment
owing to his loyalty to the incumbent governor.

One of the key
contenders, Abuja-based Umar Ardo, has been in the vanguard of battling
the Kugama-led party executive. To this end, it is alleged that
virtually all party members who became disgruntled are organizing
around Mr. Ardo. These people are insisting that the state executive is
illegitimate and called for its dissolution and the immediate
reconstitution of another one.

As various
aspirants and their cronies strategize to wrest power, it appears smear
campaign is the veritable tool for outwitting each other.

The party’s secretary in the state, P.P. Elisha, said the PDP
membership cards revalidation exercise carried out recently was not
aimed at prosecuting any group. He said the party is only replacing
expired cards and not necessarily issuing new membership cards. Mr.
Abubakar and his aides were however able to procure new membership
cards for Sanusi Alhaji Musa Hong, a party stalwart, “The hullabaloo
needs not to be. What is important, at the moment is that the political
class should close ranks and support the present government,” said
another leader of the party in the state, Sanusi Alhaji Musa Hong.