Send EmailAzazi unsettles PDP
National Security Adviser AzazIBefore the second South-South Economic Summit, the unity of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hung on a thin rope. But with the can of worms opened by National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, General Andrew Owoeye Azazi, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, reports that cracks within the party have widened. Can PDP survive the threat?
National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, General Andrew Owoeye Azazi, may not have envisaged the upsetting effects his comments would have on the Peoples Democratic Party when he openly accused it of being directly responsible for the activities of Boko Haram and the increased violence in the country.
But The Nation investigation reveals that since the General made that bold comment in Delta State, during the recently concluded South-South Economic Summit, some top members of PDP, including, but not limited to members from the northern part of the country, have strongly condemned both the comment and what one of them described as “the unfair reasoning that informed it.”
For example, a top member of the party from North-East geo-political zone, who, for obvious reasons, pleaded anonymity, informed that he and many other PDP leaders in the zone were highly disappointed that a top national official like the NSA would make such a statement in public and seem to be enjoying the support and protection of the top leadership. “If, as it seems, the General merely echoed the president’s feelings, then, it is unfortunate because it shows we have a deeply divided PDP,” he said, adding that the northern PDP leaders are still examining the statement and the way the presidency would handle it before they will take a position.
Already, zonal and caucus PDP meetings have been held across the country to examine the statement and determine how it would affect the various interest groups. In one of such meetings, held this week in Yola, Adamawa State, a source said members agreed that the statement did not reflect the personal opinion of the NSA, but also that of the president. The members therefore not only condemned it but also agreed to watch future development before making statements.
We also learnt that another of such meetings was held somewhere in Asokoro Abuja, where members of the caucus, allegedly blamed Azazi’s delivery of the message but decided that calls for the NSA’s resignation was borne out of mischief and ignorance of the security challenges facing the country.
In Yenagoe, the state capital of the President’s State, a source said one of such meetings, planned by a caucus, could not hold because of undisclosed reasons.
Even as concerned stakeholders and the government move to manage the possible negative effects of the statement on PDP on one hand and on the polity as a whole; sources said Aso Rock was “truly rattled by the development and have moved swiftly to settle every hurt interest.”
The first indication to the damage control measure was President Goodluck Jonathan’s initial reaction, which was a carefully tempered comment suggesting that Azazi may have been misunderstood.
Azazi, an important member of the President’s kitchen cabinet, who also hails from the President’s side of the country, speaking at the second South-South Economic Summit in Asaba, had said: “The issue of violence did not increase in Nigeria until when there was a declaration by the current President that he was going to contest. PDP got it wrong from the beginning. The party started by saying Mr. A can rule, and Mr. B cannot rule, according to PDP conventions, rules and regulations and not according to the Constitution.
“That created the climate for what is happening. Is it possible that somebody was thinking that only Mr. A could win, and if he did not win, he could cause a problem in the society,” he asked?
In his initial reaction to this obvious bombshell by his adviser against his political party, President Jonathan had defended: “I don’t believe undemocratic practices in the PDP could give rise to Boko Haram or any other groups. So, probably people need to ask NSA to explain what he really meant.”
At this point, the brewing crisis within the ruling party had become quite visible, given that the bold statement clearly unearthed the division within the PDP, which had hitherto been hidden and artificially buried since Jonathan emerged its candidate in the last presidential elections, amidst protests and intrigues from some top members, who felt short-changed.
Coming at the time the Boko Haram attacks have clearly gone out of hands, added to the belief of majority of Nigerians that the PDP-led federal government had not done enough to contain the security challenge, Azazi had received bashes and commendations, from experts who faulted his approach and the opposition which saw his revelation as a confirmation of their belief that PDP is the problem of Nigeria. In fact, many have since called for Azazi’s sack. Former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, for example, was forthright as he demanded that the NSA must resign and save the Federal Government more embarrassment. He was quoted as saying: “The remark credited to the NSA, Gen. Azazi, that the PDP was responsible for the insurgence of Boko Haram through their zoning arrangement could be true based on intelligence available to him, but the public utterance by the NSA is irresponsibly faulty. The only honourable option left for him is to throw in the towel and resign. He has no business in government. He even appears not interested or dedicated to his job.
“Rather than open his mouth too wide, we expected the NSA to advise the President and the Federal Government on this rather than go public, an act which is capable of not only over heating the polity but also encouraging Boko Haram and their sponsors to continue in their nefarious acts,” he said.
Also, some members of the top leadership of PDP, according to impeccable sources, last week, hinted at suggestions to the presidency that Azazi must step aside to preserve the integrity of the party. Although close associates of the president, denied such suggestions, it is obvious that PDP leadership was unsettled by the NSA’s statement.
Though, like Jonathan, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, tried to sound moderate, the anger and irritation of the party could not be mistaken. “Appointees of government should navigate only on the terrain where their authority would not be humbled by superior knowledge so as to avoid attracting undeserving and unnecessary ill-feelings for their principal,” he said as part of the party’s reaction to the statement.
While PDP chieftains and security experts are angry over Azazi’s public comment, other politicians, especially opposition politicians, have officially hailed what they described as Azazi’s honesty and courage to blame PDP for the nation’s current security problems.
Both the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) described the development as embarrassing but said it vindicated their position that PDP is the major problem of Nigeria today.
National Publicity Secretary of CNPP, Osita Okechukwu, said in a statement: “We have no doubt that General Azazi, as a core trained, intelligent officer must have closely observed how, since inception, PDP had manipulated its primary elections and indeed general elections, alienated its members and a critical segment of the polity, contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
These undemocratic and unconstitutional acts, without doubt, breed acrimony and simulate insecurity. This is the General’s message.
“In this context, we caution the PDP to neither dump the message nor the messenger; rather PDP should carefully dissect, analyze and reflect on the message placed on marble by Gen. Azazi. How can PDP innocently claim to be the strongest catalyst for unity and progress of Nigeria when the security and welfare of the people have nose-dived, the society is polarized down the line and Nigeria is dangerously sliding into a failed state? The PDP should please peruse the National Bureau of Statistics 2009 Report to determine whether Nigerians in spite of unprecedented oil revenue is better today than in 1999,” CNPP lashed.
The opposition party also said “In sum, President Jonathan should look at the mirror, do soul searching and reflect in order to stamp out the Boko Haram and other anti-democratic elements in his cabinet, the legislature and the judiciary as he once told the world. This is Gen. Azazi’s message.”
ACN’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in his own statement, said, ‘’We have said it several times that the PDP and the government it controls at the centre are clueless, confused and totally incapable of piloting the affairs of this nation. Is there any better evidence of this cluelessness than what Nigerians are witnessing now?
“It does not matter how much the President tries to engage in damage control over the statement credited to his NSA, or the ever-so knee-jerk and poorly-thought-out reaction of the sinking behemoth called the PDP, the reality is that the NSA’s shocking comments reflect the thinking in the highest echelon of the Jonathan administration, that the crooked politics of the PDP is behind the Boko Haram crisis, and that it has escalated because a son of the South-South is sitting in Aso Rock.”
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