Former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday raised the stake in the
political crisis plaguing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with
a warning that “that those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable.”
His warnings were also echoed by former
military President, Ibrahim Babangida who alerted that the party will
lose credibility and may be perceived as lawless if it ignores its own
rules, particularly on zoning.
They insisted that it is the turn of the North to occupy the Villa.
Babangida
warned at a national stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja that taking the
Presidential ticket away from the North will portend danger and send the
signal that rules and laws can easily be ignored.
Said
he: “Any attempt to disrupt this arrangement therefore portends ominous
prospects to the electoral fortunes of the party, but more seriously
endangers orderly political transition in the nation.
“The
way I see it is that our task has now been clearly set; that is to do
whatever is lawfully possible to ensure that our party, its organs, and
officials do what is right for the long term interest of the party and
the larger interest of our nation.
“To
do otherwise is to send the message that we are not ready to abide by
our own rules and cannot be trusted by the larger society to adhere to
its own.
“This
is one message we cannot afford to communicate to the people of this
country upon who we depend to acquire political power; or indeed even to
the larger international community.”
Babangida
argued that the rotation of power is beyond the North, and certainly
beyond the PDP as a political party, rather, “It is simply a national
challenge to come up with an arrangement that guarantees to all sections
of this country a sense of belonging.
“Jettisoning
this arrangement, regardless of the excuse that is being bandied
around, endangers not only the prospects of orderly political transition
in the country but also its progress towards evolving into a single
indivisible nation. “
Atiku,
the consensus Northern Presidential aspirant in the PDP, added: “We
have some elder statesmen on consensus building. It is about the rule of
law, due process and standing for what is right. I am an instrument for
realising these values.
“I promise that by the grace of almighty God, we shall bring this country back to the part of honour.”
He
warned that if the PDP “does not reform, it stands the risk of making
itself irrelevant. Let me again send another message to the leadership
of the PDP that those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent
change inevitable.”
Former
Senate President Iyorcha Ayu urged the gathering “to ignore the
Nigerian history of the 60’s that produced coups and counter coups with
its leaders as Northerners. It was not conspiratorial on the part of the
Northern political leaders, it was accidental.
“When
we had opportunity, we not only brought out former President Olusegun
Obasanjo who was in prison for treason, but the North made him President
even when his immediate community rejected him.
“It
was the highest show of solidarity by the North. The least our brothers
from the South can do is to demonstrate and reciprocate the goodwill.”
