By Sadiq Umar, Abuja.
Former Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Ghali Na’Abba, has announced his resignation from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), urging Nigerians to elect new leadership that would be more truly “transactional and transformative and which have more competence and capacity to govern.”
Na’Abba who was the Speaker of the PDP-controlled House of Reps of the 4th National Assembly, said he is quitting the party because it has failed to offer the desired leadership for Nigerians.
Specifically, the former speaker, in his resignation letter dated, March 15, 2015, lamented that the leadership of the country under President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP have opted to work with shady characters rather than with altruistic party members.
“It has today become incontrovertible that cartels and shady characters are becoming visible, important and indispensable factors in Nigeria’s governance. It appears those at the helm of affairs are more comfortable with such characters of easy virtue than with patriotic and altruistic Nigerians. No doubt, in our Country today, the quality of governance is going down by the day,” he said.
Adding that, “Critical National Institutions that unify and weld Nigerians together have been dragged into politics, contrary to wise counsel and political correctness. No administration has used religion and ethnicity to divide Nigerians more than the current adminis
tration under the leadership of Mr. Goodluck Jonathan. The ultimate test of any leader is looking at what has remained after he is gone.
The former speaker said such political behavior should under no circumstances be tolerated by all who subscribe to decent and conscionable political practice.
He said he had relentlessly pushed for reform of the internal policies of the ruling party individually and collectively, without success, noting that it was obvious today that all critical members of the Party have been made irrelevant.
Na’Abba further argued that the PDP has been losing “its sons and daughters including so many of its founding fathers and members by the day”.
He cited examples of founding members of the PDP whose advice have one time or another not been heeded, adding that there were so many of the party national chieftains like Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Malam Adamu Chiroma, Dr Shettima Mustapha, Alhaji Asheikh Jarma Dr. Victor Odili, Mr. Isaac Shaahu among others who were living with frustration.
“The country’s and the party’s leadership have become canalized to the extent that while Nigerians are aware that they have a President in the person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, they are at the same time at a loss as to who governs their country.
“Both Nigeria and the PDP are left to drift. In the sixteen years the Party has been ruling at the center, the Party’s leadership has failed to lead by example.
“Instead, it has left us with the conventional wisdom that people cannot succeed in life unless they are ruthless and unprincipled. The Party has become characterized by corruption and impunity in the way and manner candidates for elective positions are being selected to the extent that in almost twenty states, crisis has engulfed the Party over the gubernatorial primaries and the manner other candidates for other elective positions emerged”.
Na’ Abba further observed that the party and the country’s leadership have failed to consolidate democratic gains for sister African countries and other transition countries to follow, instead, under the current leadership, Nigeria is suffering from loss of esteem, “as we are now most often consigned to the back seat of international relations.
“Most worrisome is the current anxiety of most Nigerians as the regime wobbles and tumbles toward the oncoming election,” he added.
“Members who are pliant and who lack principle and who stand for nothing are always more trusted by the leadership to carry out party assignments. Such members are said to be “loyal”. Such loyalty is nothing but a euphemism for people who stand for nothing.
“Their faces are today so familiar to the eyes of Nigerians. As a politician with political science background, it is obvious to me that PDP is both self-destruct and irredeemable. Coupled with the regimes divisive and unpatriotic disposition, Nigeria has become a bye-word for “touch and go”, if examples of contemporary nations are anything to go by.
“In its place, Nigerians deserve not just a good President, good governors and other political office holders, but true and exemplary leaders.
Na’Abba advocated for a new leadership “that is more truly both transactional and transformative and which have more competence and capacity to govern.”
He then declared that Nigeria needs leaders with a clear vision for the future and who would lead not from the back side or front but from within, as well as leaders that would provide courageous and moral leadership, the dearth of which has led to the weakening of political and economic institutions throughout the country.
