Sultan’s younger 2015: Fashola, brother emerges Obanikoro renew APC chair in rivalry over Ilubirin Sokoto housing project/ Olisa Metuh’s dangerous political game on APC
One year to the 2015 general elections, the political atmosphere in Nigeria has become charged. No thanks to sudden change in the tactics being used by the National Publicity Secretary of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, who has been using ‘dangerous’ religious toga to describe the leading opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). Besides, Metuh has linked the APC and some of its key figures to violence and the ongoing insurgency in Nigeria.
APC agenda
His latest tactics started on January 7 this year when he said that an Islamic cleric, Ambassador Yusuf Garba and the Religious Equity Promotion Council (REPC) exposed the evil plot by the APC to balkanize Nigeria nation along religious lines by imposing an Islamic agenda just like the Egypt Muslim Brotherhood.
He said the revelation which purportedly came even from Muslims went to confirm PDP’s earlier stand that the APC is a party of bloodthirsty, religious and ethnic bigots averse to the unity of the country and the peaceful co-existence of people.
But in swift reaction, APC Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed warned the PDP against plans to use religion as a trump card in the run-up to 2015 in its desire to stay in power at all cost.
Not bordered by this warning, Metuh, in a statement issued the following day, said the PDP stood by its statement and challenged APC to name its 35 interim officials and their offices, having known that key officers of the leading opposition party are Muslims.
The APC interm national officers were hurriedly constituted in order to fulfil the guidelines set out by the electoral body and avert collapse of the merger which pundits say is being secretly pursued by top officials of PDP.
A key official of APC Osita Okechukwu once told Sunday Trust that the interim APC leadership was formed in haste, noting that a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance
wants to impose Islamic (APGA), which joined the merger and which has its core members from the South-East, also nominated a Muslim from Gombe.
“INEC said they needed the Interim Leadership that would cover 35 offices that we have in the APC Constitution. In a hurry, we do that. There was no time to cross-check. One of the persons nominated by APGA is from Gombe. They said they did it because they talked to their members across the country. APGA also tried to be national in their distributive profile.We can’t tell APGA to forget their members in other zones. Their nominees do not come entirely from the South-East,” Okechukwu said.
APC wants to take Nigerians back to Egypt
Exactly one month after this Islamic agenda allegation leveled against the APC, Metuh also addressed a press conference in Abuja, accusing the opposition party of planning to “use a particular membership figure, running into tens of millions, which it intends to use as a justification to fault, dispute, reject and subsequently take to violence when it loses the 2015 general elections”. He said the APC wanted to take Nigeria back to “Egypt”.
APC manifesto as a product of “Janjaweed ideology”
When APC released its manifesto on March 6, 2014, the PDP described the manifesto as a product of a “Janjaweed ideology”, a roadmap to anarchy which is typical of all antidemocratic coalitions.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP said the manifesto which “gave no clue as to its preparedness to tackle terrorism was a tacit acknowledgment that the APC may be benefiting from the mayhem and knows more than meet the eyes about the spate of terror attacks in the country”.
Pundits say his decision to use “Janjaweed ideology”, derived from a militia that operate in Darfur, western Sudan, and eastern Chad, is in continuation of PDP’s plan to use ethnicity and religion to divide the nation in order to gain electoral success in 2015.
Insurgency sponsored by APC to stop Jonathan
Two weeks after the use of “Janjaweed” terminology, the PDP went further by saying that the insurgency was sponsored to stop President Goodluck Jonathan.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP on March 18 said it was beyond conjecture that the Nigerian version of terrorism was the product of a narrow political persuasion that defied logic and reason.
“After a careful examination of the trend and character of the spate of insurgency and sectarian violence in the country, the PDP has submitted that these acts of terrorism were being sponsored by unpatriotic elements whose aim is to discredit the person, office and administration of President Jonathan.
“We accept the reality of terrorism as a global phenomenon, however, the peculiar trend of the Nigerian version which subsists on a welter of nebulous demands and masked identities, hacking down innocent Nigerians -women, children and the elderly in an awful scorch earth fashion, and in an obstinate ridicule of dialogue, defies all reason and logic and only summarizes a well considered agenda of national destabilization for a purely selfish political cause. We pointedly finger the opposition.
“We recall statements by some politicians, vowing to make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan on the eve of the 2011 general elections, and therefore adjure Nigerians to rise against this brute ideology of violence from which a tiny clique of the political class intends to benefit ultimately. It is the climax of wickedness only heard of the Lucifer in the distant bosom of hell fire,” he stated.
Jonathan is being persecuted for being a Nigerian from the minority
The statement further declared that it was clear that President Jonathan was being persecuted for no other reason than being a Nigerian from the minority, arguing that no leader in the history of the country had faced the height of persecution that the President had been subjected to since he assumed office.
But the APC was quick to tell the PDP that Jonathan was not the first Nigerian President from the minority tribes, citing a former head of state Yakubu Gowon and late General Sani Abacha.
But in response to APC two days later, the PDP said it punctured an attempt by the APC to dismiss its complicity in the rising wave of insurgency and its concomitant adverse effects on national governance by drawing comparison between a democratically elected presidency and the defunct military dictatorships.
Another statement by Metuh said the comparison by the APC was a tacit acknowledgment that the opposition party was planning to take Nigeria back to dictatorship.
“The APC has never left the nation in doubt of its preference. It wants a return to barefaced tyranny, to dictatorship as previously unleashed on the nation by a hue in its top leadership. But Nigerians have handed the party a shocker - we have crossed the red sea and shall never go back to Egypt,” the statement said.
The ruling party said it was a preposterous distortion of facts and history to compare the Jonathan presidency to either Gen. Gowon’s or Gen. Abacha’s even though the three of them come from the minority ethnic group because the two former Heads of State were unelected and operated a purely undiluted military dictatorship that brooked no opposition.
The party argued that though it was common knowledge that insurgency in the north predated the present administration, it was not a mere coincidence that the attacks gain ricocheting tempo each time the President moved notches higher in his transformation programme, saying “this clearly betrays the shameful efforts by those in the masks and their sponsors to frustrate the efforts of government.”
On March 22, the PDP insisted that the actions, utterances and body language of the APC had continued to give it away as the face behind the ugly mask of insurgency in parts of the country.
A statement by Metuh also said it was an outright coup against democracy for the APC to employ deceit, lies and insurgency as means of achieving political control.
“When we accused the APC of being behind insurgency, we did not speak in vain and when we summarized the manifesto of the party as a product of Janjaweed ideology, we have verifiable reasons,” PDP said.
The statement argued that it was not a coincidence that after General Muhammadu Buhari beckoned on his supporters to go on lynching spree should he lose the 2011 presidential election, an unprecedented violence broke out, claiming the lives of hundreds of innocent Nigerians. It claimed that
the Sheik Lemu committee which investigated the carnage established Buhari’s culpability.
“Besides, the allegory of the bloody monkey and baboon in respect of the 2015 election, which is still way ahead, by the same General, is still very fresh in the minds of Nigerians.
“The serial threats of violence should President Jonathan contest in 2015 including the most recent prophecy of violent deaths and destructions in 2015 by Nasiru ElRufai are not slips from elements at the periphery but snips from characters who know more than ordinary Nigerians, the reasons behind the mindless carnage in the country,” the statement added.
Janjaweed ideology behind APC’s attacks on female ministers
According to the ruling party, the gender insensitivity of the APC is a direct fall-out of its Janjaweed ideology, hence the relentless vicious attacks on the female members of the Federal Executive Council and others in sensitive positions.
“It is not for nothing that all the persons that the APC wants to resign from the federal cabinet or similar positions are females- Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Diezani Alison Madueke, Arunma Oteh. In the APC’s Janjaweed ideology, no woman, no matter how brilliant should be heard or seen.”
Buhari, Atiku, El-Rufai, Kaita, Amaechi, Shettima, Nyako fuelled violence
On the bomb attack which claimed the lives of innocent Nigerians in Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja on Monday, April 14, Metuh maintained that it was politically motivated and could be traced to the utterances and comments of desperate persons who sought to undermine and discredit the present administration and make the nation ungovernable for President Jonathan by instituting a reign of terror against the people.
A statement issued by Metuh reads in part, “We stand by our earlier statements that these attacks on our people are politically motivated by unpatriotic persons, especially those in the APC, who have been making utterances and comments, promoting violence and blood-letting as a means of achieving political control.
“Nigerians are also aware of utterances by certain APC governors which have been aimed at undermining our security forces and emboldening insurgents against the people.
In another statement issued the following day, PDP insisted that APC’s body language and utterances promoted insurgency, naming politicians it thought their actions fueled the crisis.
The party, in the statement from Metuh, said inflammatory utterances by certain key politicians against the emergence of President Jonathan, sparked off hatred against the administration by their followers, while attracting impudent insurgents, who started demanding the ouster of the President with threats to cripple the system through acts of terrorism.
“When the PDP said that the APC is responsible for the spate of terror in Nigeria, many had an emotional response, but it is now time to dispassionately focus on the facts in order to stop the carnage on innocent Nigerians.
“Whilstweconcedethatinsurgency existed in the nation before the advent of the current administration, we wish to point out that inflammatory utterances from leaders, many of whom by design or otherwise are now chieftains of the APC have succeeded in emboldening them to launch large scale attacks, maiming and killing our people, believing their actions enjoy the approval of such leaders”, the statement said.
It claimed that these key figures never condemned acts of terrorism and the killings until well-meaning Nigerians started pointing accusing fingers at them. “They rather blamed government for not reaching out to pacify the terrorists instead of helping to find solutions. They relished in comments which inspired violence and embolden insurgents against the system” the statement said.
The party insisted that the 2011 post election crisis was caused by Buhari, saying “Not satisfied with the enormity of the mayhem and bloodletting of 2011, Buhari on the 14th of May 2012 said, “If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.
“Nigerians have not forgotten that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in a spirited bid to stop President Jonathan from contesting the 2011 election declared on the 14th of December 2010 that “those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable”
“Atiku’s statement was collaborated by one his close associates, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, who in October 2010, while rejecting the emergence of a President from the South, also said, ‘the North is determined, if it happens, to make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan or any other Southerner who finds his way to the seat of power…. Even if he uses incumbency power to get his nomination on the platform of the PDP, he would be frustrated out.’
“On the 23rd of January 2014, APC Deputy National Secretary, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, said “The next election is likely to be violent and many people are likely going to die. And the only alternative left to get power is to take it by force; this is the reality on ground.
“Are we not now witnessing a foretaste of the bloodbath promised by Buhari and El-Rufai? Is this not the “violent change” promised by Atiku? How many people have to die before Nigerians call a spade a spade and not a farming implement?
“We were not surprised when Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi now a leader in the APC, in inciting his followers recently said, ‘I came to Bori to prove to you that you don’t need to run away from violence. If a man is chasing you with AK-47, you should carry machine gun and the man will call for peace.’
“We also recall recent statement by the Borno state governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima wherein he posited that the insurgents were better armed and better motivated than our security forces. This was deliberately directed at weakening and undermining the security forces while emboldening insurgents. No wonder that after Shettima’s statement, insurgents were encouraged to launch more deadly attacks on our security forces and staged a comeback to the Federal Capital Territory. This is in addition to statements by Governor Nyako of Adamawa State who continually, ridicules the office and person of the President to portray the administration as weak in fighting terrorism”, the statement said.
It said that its earlier statement which again linked the Nyanya bombing to the utterances of the opposition was a clear stand and a warning that the PDP would henceforth go beyond shedding tears at each carnage, to exposing the enemies of the nation, so as to limit all reckless statements which had been fueling insurgency.
“It is easier to stop at shedding tears after each carnage. This, the PDP has severally done. The difficult part however, lies in attempting to limit reckless statements which fuel violence. We believe this will go a long way to stopping those who instigate violence through utterances and shed crocodile tears thereafter,” it said.
But in a swift reaction to the barrage of attacks, the former head of state and a chieftain of the APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, issued a sevenday ultimatum to the PDP to retract its wild accusation linking him with the Boko Haram terrorist acts, tender an unreserved public apology to him or face a legal action.
In a statement he personally signed in Kaduna Gen. Buhari said, “I cannot sit back and allow my image, and that of my political party be smeared by falsehood in the name of politics.”
He said the widely publicized and very serious allegations made against him by the PDP and its spokesman, Olisa Metuh, to the effect that his utterances were responsible for the current state of insecurity and terrorism bedeviling Nigeria, were absolutely without basis. APC boycotted security meeting Apparently unperturbed by this threat, Metuh issued a statement on April 17, accusing APC governors of boycotting a security meeting with Mr President when Governor Godswill Apkabio of Akwa Ibom State had called it a meeting of PDP Governors Forum.
Reactions from PDP stakeholders to Metuh’s statements
Analysts say PDP National Publicity Secretary’s decision to choose words like “Islamic agenda”, “Janjaweed ideologies”, “back to Egypt”, “Muslim brotherhood” in his statements to attack APC may be, intentionally or unintentionally, attract the anger of some Nigerians who may misconstrue it as an attempt to set people of different faiths against one another.
Sunday Trust sought the views of PDP officials across the States on Metuh’s controversial statements.
In Benue State, PDP officials, who spoke with our correspondent, expressed mixed feelings over Metuh’s choice of words on the APC.
The Deputy Chairman of the State PDP, Joseph Nyam told our correspondent in Makurdi that it was difficult for him to take a concrete stand on the matter since he was not acquainted with the basic fact of the allegations against the APC.
“I cannot categorically take a position for the state chapter. My impression is that Metuh has facts that may not be available to me. So, it will be wrong for me to take a position to comment on the matter,” Nyam said.
But, the State Publicity Secretary of the party, Godwin Ayihe described the exchange of words between the two parties as, “garbage in, garbage out”, saying that the national officer’s outburst was propelled by the insult PDP had received from the national chairman of the APC Bisi Akande on countless occasions.
However, a chieftain of the PDP in the state, Chief Abu King Shuluwa called for caution and self restraint on both parties so that maturity could thrive in the country’s democracy.
The Kwara State chapter of the PDP also backed the national leadership of the party for linking the APC to the insurgency in the country.
Speaking with our correspondent, the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Rex Olawoye said it was only natural for PDP to blame the insurgency on APC for allegedly making “horrible” comments about the insurgency in the country.
The PDP spokesman noted that the PDP’s suspicion on APC had further manifested in the opposition’s call on President Jonathan to cancel the Adamawa rally slated for this week, saying, “That is why we feel they want to cow Mr. President when such interest is becoming very glaring”.
The Niger State Chairman of the PDP, Abdulrahman Enagi, also backed the National Publicity Secretary, saying “by party discipline, state chapters are bound to accept all decisions taken at the national secretariat.”
However, the PDP Secretary in Imo State George Egu as well as both Chairman and Publicity Secretary of the party in Sokoto State, Abdullahi Santali and Alhaji Abubakar Dankantoma refused to comment on the matter.