A former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said it is certain that the newly-appointed National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, cannot resolve the crisis confronting the Peoples Democratic Party.
Abubakar, at an interaction with newsmen in Lagos on Thursday as part of his nationwide consultation on his next political move, said the crisis facing the PDP was beyond what Mu’azu can resolve.
He said he made this clear to Mu’azu when he visited him before he was pronounced the new national chairman of the PDP.
Abubakar said like the immediate past National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Mu’azu can never be in charge of the party.
Rather, he said it is the Presidency that will be directing the affairs of the party, with the chairman as a figure head.
He said a day before the August 2013 Special National Convention of the party at the Eagle Square, Abuja where he and seven governors elected on the platform of the PDP staged a walkout, it had become apparent that Tukur was not in charge of the convention.
Rather, it was the script of the Presidency that was just going to be read and acted out, he said.
He said this became apparent at the convention venue, leading to the walkout.
On the denial by the Presidency that President Goodluck Jonathan was not culpable in the crisis rocking Rivers State, Abubakar said the contrary was the case.
He said that Jonathan cannot deny involvement in the Rivers State crisis.
He said only one example would suffice: the reversal of the transfer of the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Police Command, Mbu Joseph Mbu.
He said but for presidential intervention, it would not have been possible for Mbu, who was already on his way out of the state on transfer, to have returned to his seat.
Abubakar said he is a strong believer in the two-party system.
He said where there is only one dominant party, the tendency towards dictatorship is always high.
He said this is the situation with the PDP that is moving towards dictatorship daily.
He said his dissatisfaction with the PDP has nothing to do with Jonathan but the inherent contradictions in the management of the party.
He said whereas the party claimed to be practicing democracy, autocratic rule had taken root in the party since the coming to power of the present regime.
He added: “In all of these, my major concern is about democracy.
“Let there be a democratic process in all that we do.”
Abubakar is expected to be in Bauchi, Bauchi State on Friday in continuation of his nationwide consultation.
This will be for the North East geopolitical zone.
He was in Ibadan, Oyo State on Thursday where the consultation for the South West was held.
While in Lagos on Thursday, he met with Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State.
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