Polls: PDP chieftains demand Mu’azu’s resignation

As part of the fallout of the Peoples
Democratic Party’s failure at the
last general elections, top party
men are calling for the resignation
or removal of the party’s National
Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu.
PDP stalwarts who spoke with
SUNDAY PUNCH said it behoves on
Mua’zu to turn in his resignation
letter even without since he had
been unable to take the party to
victory.
The PDP not only lost the
presidential election to the
opposition, All Progressives
Congress, it also lost its National
Assembly majority status and
governorship seats including state
Houses of assembly.
But the embattled national
chairman, Mu’azu, has said he
would not resign despite the loss
of the party he leads.
Mu’azu said it was also wrong for
anyone to call for the sacking of any
member of the party’s National
Working Committee because of
what happened to the ruling party
during the elections.
PDP chieftains including a former
National Vice-Chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Edet
Nkpubre, former Senior Special
Adviser to President Goodluck
Jonathan on Political Affairs, Mr.
Ahmed Gulak, state chairmen and
stakeholders who spoke with
SUNDAY PUNCH, have demanded for
the ouster of Mu’azu.
Nkpubre, who said this in a
telephone interview with one of
our correspondents in Abuja on
Saturday, said Mu’azu should resign
as the party chairman.
The former national vice-chairman,
who is from Akwa Ibom State, said,
“If you led a nation to a war, and
you failed, you should resign.
Mu’azu should resign. He allowed
the PDP Governors’ Forum to take
over the party. The chairman of that
forum was virtually directing the
party and imposing his will and the
will of the so-called governors on
the President through the party.”
Nkpubre the PDP governors’ forum
should be disbanded, adding that
unpopular candidates were
imposed on the party
He stated, “The PDP should be
reorganised and you cannot
reorganise that party with Mua’zu
still there. I predicted that there
would be protest votes and that is
what is happening today. Jonathan
lost because many people were
aggrieved. Governors were given
unlimited powers and they trample
on everybody.
“They imposed candidates from
state house to the House of
Representatives and the Senate as
well as their successors.”
Gulak also told SUNDAY PUNCH in an
interview: “There is no party
chairman of the PDP since 1998 that
has led the party to such a
disastrous outing. As a result, the
national chairman should consider
himself one of those that have to
give way for the new party to come
up. In fact, he doesn’t need to be
told to turn in his resignation.”
A chieftain of the party and
governorship aspirant in Ogun
State, Mr. Kayode Amusan, also
added his voice to the removal of
Mua’zu.
Amusan, a former member of the
House of Representatives, said with
the poor performance of the PDP in
the last general elections, the most
honourable thing for Muazu to do is
to resgin.
He said, “Look at performance of
the party in the whole of the North.
He is a chairman that cannot deliver
his state. He should cover his face
with his hands and resign.”
Similarly, the Ogun State PDP
chairman, Mr. Adebayo Dayo, said in
some other climes when a political
party suffered such a defeat that
PDP suffered in the recent general
elections, the leadership of the
party should be considering the
option of resigning.
Dayo, did not exonerate himself,
but said at the state level, the
executive council tried its best for
the party.
He said, “I am not aware of the call
for he resignation of the national
chairman of the party, Adamu
Mu’azu, but it must noted that in
any good clime where a political
party suffered such a defeat as we
witnessed in our party, the
leadership should think about
resigning. Even including myself.”
But Mua’zu, speaking through his
Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Tony
Amadi in a telephone interview
with one of our correspondents in
Abuja on Saturday, said rather than
quit, he was going to stay behind
and reform the troubled party.
He accused those who had defected
from the PDP to the APC of being
impatient, wondering where they
were when members of the
opposition were building the party.
Amadi said, “Those who are asking
him to resign, why are they not
asking the President to resign
immediately he lost election? The
chairman will stay back, serve his
tern and rebuild the party.”
He denied the allegation of
imposition in the party, saying
many of those making the
allegation were not popular in
their wards.
He vowed that the PDP would
remain a formidable opposition
“but will not fight dirty.”
But one of the founders and PDP
chieftain in Oro Federal
Constituency, Akwa Ibom State,
Sylvester Akaiso, said Muazu has
failed the party.
According to him, prior to elections,
there had been complaints about
imposition. He added that instead
of Mu’azu addressing the issue, he
waved it aside as the party’s affairs.
He said it was the imposition that
gave birth to people defecting from
the party which ultimately resulted
in the PDP’s misfortune in the last
elections.
A former governorship aspirant of
the party in Kwara State during the
just concluded governorship
elections, Mr. John Dara also said
Mu’azu should resign owing to the
poor performance of the PDP at the
just concluded polls.
Dara said Mu’azu should resign as
he presided over the party’s
conduct in an election in which a
sitting President, Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan was defeated.
He also said Mu’azu should not be
the only PDP leader to resign or
leave his office, he added that the
Board of Trustees and the National
Executive Committee of the party
should be dissolved while the party
should be reorganised.
Dara described Mu’azu’ tenure as
disastrous.
Dara said, “I believe that
reasonable thing for Mu’azu to do is
to resign. When you preside over a
project and it turns into this kind of
calamity, it will be honourable to
resign. If he does not want history
to judge him as someone who
killed or contributed to the
destruction of the PDP, I think he
should just go and show that he
accepts responsibility for what has
happened.”