The much expected but surprise and hasty merger of the breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (new PDP) with Nigeria’s newly registered main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), may have caused sharp disagreements among the seven founding governors of the nPDP.
The G7 Governors include Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers).
Blank NEWS Online can reveal that among the G7 Governors of New PDP, Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), have bluntly dissociated themselves from the merger, swearing that they remain PDP members and that the merger plot is still on-going.
The two governors, according to Blank NEWS Online findings, have hinged their grievance with the nPDP’s hasty merger with APC on failure to heed the advice of former Military Head of State and Civilian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to move over to the APC only in January 2014.
Obasanjo, a former Board of Trustees (BOT) chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, despite their different political leaning, are said to have given the seven governors their tacit support to move over to the APC and pledged to support their political aspiration in the new party.
Governor Babangida Aliyu of NigerState, had while speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Danladi Ndayebo said :
“Media reports purporting that Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu has moved to the All Progressives Congress is not true. It is false, it is unfounded.”
“We are aware that talks are ongoing with the president and until the talks are exhausted, Governor Babangida Aliyu remains a member of the PDP.”
“Let me also add that we are shocked at the announcement of the merger even before a final decision is taken on the matter.”
Also Governor Lamido, one of the original nine founders of the PDP has dissociated himself from the merger.
Governor Lamido speaking through the Director of Press, Jigawa State, Mallam Umar Kyari said:
“We remain in PDP, Governor Lamido is going nowhere, he is not leaving a house that he built. He was among the first nine persons that conceived the PDP, that is the G9, which transformed to G18 and then to G34. So, he cannot leave the house that he founded and will make sure that justice is done in PDP.”
But in a swift reaction to the development, the nPDP chairman, Abubakar Baraje denied any split in the ranks of the G-7, insisting that the Niger State Governor, Aliyu Babangida and his Kwara counterpart, Ahmed Abdulfatah, who went out before the end of the meeting, took permission to travel and were duly permitted to leave.
“You have observed that some of our members took permission to go out of the meeting; they did not walk out. You have seen the governor of Kwara, you have seen the governor of Niger; they all took permission to travel”, he has said.
Announcing the merger, Tuesday, the nPDP leader, Abubakar Baraje, said the two parties agreed “to work together in order to rescue the fledgling democracy of the nation, adding that the formal signing of the merger Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will take place next Tuesday.
The “unholy” merger is reported to have witnessed the admission of the nPDP governors into the APC under the watchful eyes of the Interim APC Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and General Muhammadu Buhari.
Meanwhile, a statement issued to Blank NEWS Online by the nPDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze on Tuesday, November 26, 2013, has urged Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan to prepare his hand-over notes following the defection of the PDP governors to APC.
The statement reads:
Late this morning, at about 11:46, the National Chairman of the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, formally announced the merger of the party with the All Progressives Congress (APC). The merger was contained in a communiqué which Alhaji Baraje read to journalists at the end of a meeting between the leadership of New PDP and that of the APC held at the Kano Governor’s Lodge in Abuja. The communiqué signed by Bisi Akande the APC National Chairman and Kawu Abubakar Baraje the National Chairman of NPDP reads, “A meeting of the leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC, and the new PDP met this morning at the residence of the Kano State Governor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, in Abuja and after exhaustive deliberations the two parties agreed to merge in order to rescue our fledgling democracy and the nation”
With this development, the G7 Governors of New PDP, namely, Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), are now members of the APC.
The merger thus shoots up the number of APC State Governors to 18 while PDP’s shrinks to 16, with All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Labour Party having one governor each. A similar permutation exists in the National Assembly where we now have the majority with PDP and its allies in minority.
The simple meaning of this is that APC is now the majority party in the country while PDP has become a minority party. In the circumstances, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan must now start writing his handover notes because his ambition to maouevre the party structures so as to get a third term in office in 2015 has suddenly collapsed.
What a sudden change of fortune! What a sad day for the PDP, a party which we laboured to build, which was viciously taken away from us but which, out of our great love for it, we did everything humanly possible to save but were frustrated by the unpatriotic elements that have usurped the leadership of the party.
Nigerians could recall that several meetings had been held between the APC leaders and the leaders of the New PDP. The APC had visited each of our seven New PDP governors in their states to convince them to join its fold but all these notwithstanding while the PDP Leadership on their own side were plotting on daily basis on how to frustrate us out of the party we suffered to nurture.
The fact remains that we did all within our powers to reconcile with PDP to no avail and sadly our dear President allowed the hawks within the Presidency and PDP Leadership to convince him to abort our last Sunday’s meeting that would have brought a last peace to our party which the PDP leadership under Alhaji Bamanga Tukur frustrated, so we have no other option than to formally announce the death and burial of PDP. Day and night we cried out, begging whoever loved PDP to join us to rescue the party from imminent doom but we were conveniently ignored and abused. Just last night, we issued the last in a series of passionate appeals to PDP Elders to take urgent steps to save the troubled party in the face of their unbelievable silence in the face of the chain of developments instigated by factional National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, which has put the party at the edge of the precipice.
Now, we have reached the stage that we can only say: “PDP, your sinking ship has been abandoned to you! You brought this misfortune upon yourself, now you must bear it alone!”
As for us, we are happy to belong to the APC, where our value is appreciated, where we are made to feel truly wanted, and where we can now join forces with like minds in our struggle to liberate Nigeria from PDP’s misrule, which is soon to end.
Among those at the Tuesday’s historical merger meeting were APC leader and former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu; APC National Chairman, Bisi Akande; Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso: former Kwara governor and serving senator, Bukola Saraki; former Nasarawa governor and serving senator, Abdullahi Adamu; former Bayelsa governor, Timipre Sylva; and Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako.
Others were former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Masari; Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi; National Secretary of the PDP, Olagunsoye Oyinlola; former Abia governor, Ogbonnaya Onu; former PDP vice chairman, Sam Jaja; Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed; and Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu.
Long live NPDP!
Long live Nigeria!!!
Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze
National Publicity Secretary, NPDP
