Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, and Chairman, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum has debunked the notion that former President Goodluck Jonathan and his erstwhile Vice President Namadi Sambo are no longer members of the party.
Fielding questions on Channels Television programme, Politics Today on Thursday night monitored by Newsmata.com.ng, the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) who was reacting to the dumping of the party by prominent members, namely Jonathan, Sambo and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, also spoke on his relationship with the incumbent FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, admitting a strain in their friendship.
Emphasising that membership of the party is at the discretion of a member, he however said “the level of participation of the member will be determined by the activities he does, his loyalty, his discipline, and his contribution”.
Explaining why President Jonathan had not been active, Governor Mohammed argued that “You don’t expect a former president to be an active member because he has become a Statesman, unless he wants to come back to active politics. Normally, when they become former presidents, they go back and become fathers of the nation, and that’s what President Goodluck (Jonathan) is.
“And for the vice president Nnamadi Sambo, he’s still an active member of the party because he has denounced the fact that he has left, and he is also a father of the party”.
Taunting former Vice-President Atiku who dumped the party for the opposition coalition, the African Democratic Party, (ADC) Governor Mohammed inferred that he had apparently jumped from the frying pan into fire as the problems in his new party are more than the ones he ran away from.
According to him, “As for his Excellency, the vice president Atiku Abubakar, he has the discretion to leave, and some of those leadership problems was what drove him out, and of course, we are trying to navigate to ensure that, yes, there were issues, but certainly, we will not run away and leave the problems.
“Where he has even gone, there are more problems for him. And so, of course, wherever you go in politics in Nigeria, you will meet problems and all you need to do is to show leadership and solve the problems”.
Commenting on his relationship with Wike, the governor said “he was a good friend of mine, and of course we had altercations, but I have been spoken to by leaders of the party to stop all this. And he, too, has been spoken to. As a former governor and the leader of the party, there was no need”.
Senator Mohammed however expressed frustration in dealing the conduct of Minister Wike who insisted he’s still a PDP member yet working against the interest of the party.
“Yes, it is managing a very difficult situation where somebody is somewhere serving somebody that we want to remove, and at the same time being a member. But this is what makes us strong.
“To manage such sensibilities and perception, issues of discipline, or indiscipline, confirmation that loyalty has shifted here and there. It is the dynamism of participatory politics that we are managing, and we decided to shut down just like the Chinese have done in their Mandarin Spirit to solve their problems, and they came out strong, and that’s what we are doing as PDP”.
Positing that there was no need for the to be washing its daily linen in the public, the governor believed that “The best thing is for us to go back and make sure, behind the scene, we solve of our problems rather than playing to the gallery the way and manner the party in power would want us.
“So, definitely, I don’t have any much problems with Wike. The only thing is that our closeness has reduced, and we are no longer friends that we were before because he believes in one thing and I don’t believe in what he believes in, and maybe he doesn’t believe in what I’m doing. But as a leader of the party being the chairman of the Governors’ Forum, it has always but been like that. We contribute to the day-to-day running of the party, and we look at the challenges.
“The same thing with (Ilya Umar) Damagum because he came as acting national chairman and there was a vacuum. And of course, the issues had to do with the right of the North Central to produce the next person as per our constitution and the court judgement. We believe in the rule of law.
“Damagum got a court judgement that he could act, and he has acted. And you can see, voluntarily, all the members of the national working committee agreed to go at the end of their tenure. That is auspicious; we respect them, we appreciate them. And they conducted Congresses in so many state chapters without any rancour and this problem did not degenerate to our state chapters.
“That is also a mark of capacity by the national working committee and some of us. So, definitely, there is no problem within the party”.