Muazu’s appointment hasn’t resolved PDP crisis, says Atiku

‘APC will defeat PDP in 2015’ FORMER Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, has said that the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not ended with the appointment of the new National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, alleging that the critical issue of polarisation in the party is still lingering. Atiku, who was interviewed by the Liberty Radio, Kaduna yesterday, said he was optimistic that the ruling PDP would be defeated in 2015 general election by the All Progressives Congress (APC). The former vice president, who expressed dissatisfaction with how the PDP is being run, said the party has lost all it takes to resolve the problems of the nation and put Nigeria on a part of real development. Doubting President Goodluck Jonathan’s political sagacity to hold the proposed national conference to address the nation’s ills, Atiku said: “There is nothing wrong for Nigerians talking to each other, but I do not see the Jonathan administration having the capacity to conduct elections and the national confab in the same year.” He ruled out sovereign national confab as a good model in addressing Nigeria’s problems, saying “we cannot have the sovereign conference when there is an existing constitutional arrangement ... you either set aside the constitution or else, because the SNC cannot take place alongside an existing constitution”. Atiku decried the political turmoil in Rivers State, saying there was absolutely no need for the Federal Government allegedly using the police to undermine the state administration in a democratic situation. On the APC’s directives on opposition party members in the National Assembly to block the passage of the 2014 budget, the former vice president called for calm and advised that there are other legislative processes that they could adopt to bring the government to order. According to Atiku, the government had exhibited so much impunity to the extent that the legislators could do anything when they were pushed to the wall. “There is nothing new in clamping down on the government, it happened in the United States. Government had to be shut down for a couple of weeks. We saw that politicians can resolve their differences, sometimes it may be necessary for that to happen if other politicians can sit down and say, look do we have to take this country in this route to resolve our differences?” On why he is still in PDP and whether the trouble in the party would end with the departure of Bamanga Tukur, he said “No, I don’t think so. The troubles in the PDP are still going on, yet to come. I don’t think Bamanga is the issue.” When also asked if, as a founding member of the PDP, he will assist Muazu, he said : “If I’m requested to, no problem but let me say this, first of all I did not leave the PDP, I was pushed out of the PDP by my former boss. Ever since I returned four years ago, PDP has not communicated to me and I have not communicated to PDP. “I have not attended any of their meetings and they have not invited me. I’m supposed to be a member of Board of Trustees, I’ve never attended. I’m supposed to be a member of NEC, I have never attended meeting. I’m supposed to be a member of caucus by convention, because when we were in office, we said the President should always nominate the vice president. That was why Alex Ekwueme was nominated, but I‘m not in the caucus. Actually, at every level of the party, I’m four years today, but I’ve never participated. I’m just looking at them. If you don’t participate in a process, how do you contribute your experience, your expertise and so on in resolving problems of the party?”