…As PDP Reconciliation committee submits report.
By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
Kaduna and Katsina states may experience new dynamics in political leadership following the purchase of Governorship Expression of Interest and Nomination forms by Sen. Shehu Sani and Arc. Ahmed Yar’Adua for both states respectively on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking with journalists at the party’s Headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday after the procurement exercise,Yar’Adua who is a cousin to late President Umaru Yar’Adua said that the failures of the present
administration gave rise to the escalation of terrorism and banditry in the state. He added that even as the incumbent President Muhammadu Buahari hails from the State, some parts of the state are still occupied by terrorists.
He pointed that the local government election which will take place in the state in a few days time will be a clean sweep for the PDP if there is a level playing ground.
He said, “The 2019 election was just a joke. Actually it is the PDP which won Katsina State. The president now is from Katsina. We contested election with him in 2003, we won.
“The local government election is coming up soon, I believe next week. Maybe some of your colleagues in the state can tell you what is going to happen. Unless they write the results, it will be PDP which will take over.
“They may have an incumbent party, but we were incumbent once, but we lost. So they will lose again because it’s about what the people believe. We can do better, much, much better. We have competent people around us. PDP is a party. The APC is not a party. It’s just a collection of people aspiring for something and they have got it, now they’ve lost it or they will lose it. So we believe we can” the aspirant declared.
Yar’Adua said that the security startegies adopted by the governor of the state, Hon. Bello Masari which included dialogue with bandits has been counter productive. He said that banditry and terrorism is the product for a long neglect of the people by government.
“Has the negotiation of Aminu Masari gotten us anything. What it got is more and more terrorism. The bottom line of this banditry is the total neglect of governance”.
The aspirant said that his personal competence rather than his blood relationship with the Yar’Adua family is what stands him out for the job.
“I have been in public service most of my life. I have worked in the state service, I rose through the ranks to permanent and secretary to the state government. I was also managing director National Inland Water Authority.
“So I believe I have the qualification to do so because of my experience in the public service and because of my passion for public service in general. I believe our party has a good chance, because the President’s party which is leading the state government has messed up everything. All the progress we have recorded in the last, or the first 16 years of PDP in Katsina state have now gone comatose” Yar’Adua lamented.
Furthermore, former Senator that represented Katsina Central Senatorial District, Sen. Shehu Sani has pledged to restore unity between the Muslim and Christian communities in Kaduna state if he emerges as the next governor of the state.
Sen. Sani who spoke with journalists after picking his Governorship Expression of Interest and Nomination forms at the PDP headquarters on Wednesday said that Kaduna state is a multi religious state. He accused the insensitivity and incompetence of the Mallam Nasiru el’Rufai administration which according to him, made the state to degenerate into a hotbed of banditry and terrorism.
“Kaduna” he said “is a multi religious or multi ethnic state. You will need a bridge builder, one that will cement the relationship and restore the cordial and harmonious relationship that exists between the predominantly Muslim northern part of the state and the predominantly Christian southern part of the state.
“I intended to unfold a program that will address the issues of health, education and also youth development. My basic interest in vying for this position is how I can uplift the standard of living of my people and contribute to national development.
“Kaduna to the knowledge of each and every one has become a serious spot for terrorists and bandits. We need a leader that will lead the people at the front, that will lead the battle that will present and implement programs and policies that will make it impossible for this terrorists to turn our state into their own home. I’m here for serious business” Sani assured.
Meanwhile, the Sen. Abubakar Bukola Saraki led National Reconciliation and Strategy Committee has charged the party’s leadership to ensure that internal democracy and a level playing ground is available at all time during every leadership selection process to avoid rancour and defection of aggrieved members.
Sen. Saraki made the demand when he presented the report from the committee to the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) on Wednesday at the PDP headquarters in Abuja.
“We want to advise that the party leadership should at all times adhere to the principles of equity, justice, fairness, good conscience, and inclusiveness. The leadership should always be transparent in taking decisions such that those not favoured by the decision can at least see that they have been given a fair hearing and those whose cases prevail can see that they won on merit, therefore having to be magnanimous in victory.
“We urge you, Mr. Chairman, and other members of the NWC to ensure a thorough and extensive scrutiny process in the selection of the people who will be sent to go and conduct the primary elections in the various states as we prepare for the 2023 elections. They must be people who will be fair to all and adhere strictly to democratic tenets. Sanctions should be meted out to those of them who by their actions create a crisis in any state” Saraki said.
Responding the Chairman of the Party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu assured that the report will, in no small measure strengthen the party and reunite members.
The National Reconciliation and Strategy Committee (NRSC) was established at the 90th meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of PDP on November 23rd, 2020, chaired by its former Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.
Other members include: former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; former Governor of Cross Rivers State, Senator Liyel Imoke; former Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema; former Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo; and former Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, with Hon. Linus Okorie as Secretary.
