Governors elected on the platform of the PDP met recently in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, to review the state of the nation. LEON USIGBE writes on the resolutions they reached.
THE outcome of the recent PDP Governors Forum meeting that held in Makurdi was like rallying cry, a declaration of resistance to the perceived shenanigans of President Muhammadu Buhari and his APC, a sort of nudge for the ruling party to do the right things, and as well to put it on notice that 2023 will be a different ball game. Yet, the meeting was held under a cloud of uncertainty, particularly over the disposition of some of its members who have come under increasing pressure to join the APC.
The questions were, therefore, would the meeting succeed? Would these governors who have, at times, been the subject of blackmail tactics succumb and switch camps? Would they attend the meeting? In the end, it was just Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River state that was absent in Makurdi. His Bauchi state counterpart, Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state was represented by his deputy, Senator Baba Tela. Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state arrived late to the Benue state capital and missed the session. But his presence at all has been interpreted as a statement of intent.
The Benue state meeting was the first time the PDP governors would be meeting physically outside Abuja since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sleepy Makurdi airport was brought alive with the arrival of the various state chief executives for the meeting in different chartered aircrafts with Governor Sam Ortom shuttling several times between Government House and the airport to personally lead the welcoming party. The residents of Makurdi city had their routine life patterns altered for the three days that the important visitors came in and returned home as they had to deal with the constant sound of siren-blaring long motorcades snaking their ways through the state capital.
The Makurdi meeting was called to review the state of the nation and as well assess the condition of the main opposition party with a view to evolving strategies to tackle the challenges ahead. Before its commencement, the Director General of the PDP Governors Forum, Honourable Cyril Maduabum, had stated: “It will also review the state of the party, PDP and fine tune strategies on how to strengthen it to serve as a vanguard in the patriotic task of rescuing the nation from the rudderless APC administration that has plunged the country into the current avoidable crises of governance.” Apart from the governors, the national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, attended and made submissions to the meeting.
The governors rose from the Makurdi meeting, expressing their anger and consternation over how President Buhari and his APC had carried on, speedily running the country down a steep hill. They posited that given the precarious state that the ruling party had left the country, devolution of power and its restructuring would be required to avert another civil war.
This position was contained in the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting read by the PDPGF Chairman and Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal, where they affirmed that the country is drifting at an alarming rate that could lead it to a failed state if not checked. Similarly, the governors expressed deep concern and alarm at the deteriorating relations between various groups in Nigeria, saying: “Indeed, all our fault lines and differences are being stretched to the limit by a government that clearly lacks the capacity to govern.” The governors observed that this has given rise to ethnic and tribal tensions, religious divisions, and various forms of social and political cleavages and, therefore, concluded that Nigeria is in dire need of leadership at the federal level to avert the looming disaster.
They also expressed concern that security of lives and property of Nigerians is no longer guaranteed under the present government as a result of leadership incompetence and mismanagement of the nation’s affairs. While conceding that state governors have a role to play in the handling of some of the worsening situations, they regretted that “their hands are tied behind their backs as the entire coercive authority in the country is monopolised by the APC federal government.” The governors stressed the need to take advantage of the ongoing Constitution Amendment process to decentralise the security architecture of Nigeria and involve states and local governments.
The communiqué added: “Consequently, the Governors reaffirmed their conviction that an urgent devolution of powers and restructuring of the country in a way that brings together various groups and tendencies in the country appears to have become imperative and timely now as Nigeria cannot afford another civil war. We call on the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to send a new Revenue Allocation Formula that allocates more resources to states and local governments to Mr President for National Assembly’s action. It is a scandal that 21 years after the 1999 Constitution came into being, no new Revenue Formula is in place. Furthermore, the meeting called for a more transparent and accountable running and operation of the NNPC.”
On the ruling APC’s attitude, the PDP state chief executives condemned the intimidation of opposition sitting governors by the ruling party through the use of all sorts of weapons like security agencies, unequal access to federal resources, promotion of divisions in the opposition political parties with fake promises and falsehoods. The communiqué added: “We significantly condemn the double standards that are applied by the APC-led federal government to intimidate PDP controlled states. To this end, we call on Mr. President to lift the so called ‘No flight Zone’ and other intimidating tactics, imposed on Zamfara State as similar measures have not been extended to similar states with security challenges like Kaduna, Borno, Katsina, Yobe and others. This is mostly politically motivated to ensure that the governors move over to APC.”
The PDP governors further noted that the APC has been unable to even have a democratically-elected National Executive Committee (NEC) as required by the Nigerian Constitution, adding: “A political party that operates by military fiat with an appointed and unelected Executive Committee at all levels from ward to national has no business running the affairs of our country. APC cannot deliver democracy to Nigeria; even to constitute a Board of Trustees has been an impossible task for the party since inception. It further expressed surprise that the APC is interested in playing politics and jockeying for power in 2023, when they have done an abysmal and terribly poor job of their current questionable mandate.”
The governors were distressed that Nigeria is now officially the country with the highest unemployment rate in the world at 33% under “the disastrous leadership of APC,” noting that this is following on the heels of yet another feat of being the country with the second highest poverty rate in the world. “For APC, it is indeed a race to the bottom,” they declared.
The meeting commended the governors of PDP-controlled states for “their innovative approaches to governance in many fields, especially infrastructure, education, health, women and youth initiatives and the timely delivery of developmental projects, across the country. “It is these Legacy Projects being undertaken in many PDP-governed states that will be presented to Nigerians as our scorecard at the appropriate time,” they affirmed. The governors thanked Ortom for hosting the first meeting of the PDP governors in recent times outside Abuja and “for holding the party together not only in Benue state but in the entire North Central Zone.”
In the end, they were convinced that the intimidation and blackmail of their members will be in vain and that they will remain solidly knotted as the nation edges towards 2023.
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