Gombe PDP Defectors Lack Ideology – Kera: Mallam Dahiru Hassan Kera is the North East vice chairman of Northern Youths Grand Alliance. In this interview with JONATHAN NDA-ISAIAH, he posits that defectors in the state are political liabilities and who have no relevance to PDP in Gombe state. There was a cyclone of defections and cross-carpeting on the country’s political scene in which your state Gombe is not an exception. What is your take on this? It’s obvious that we had in recent times political gladiators changing tents from one party to another, but you can bear me witness that it’s not a new thing in our political system, though a bit different this time around. The issue of cross-carpeting is a component of a democratic setting. But the only problem here in Nigeria is that our political class defect to actualize their selfish desires which they feel cannot be accomplished in their former political parties. In civilised democracies, precisely the United States of America, politics has core values and ideologies which are not obtainable in our political system. Therefore, it is merely regarded as a season of transfer like in football and other sports. You can see players transferring from one team to another during free season or off season, therefore, experiencing same in Gombe politics does not amount to anything, it’s the same ball game. It was speculated that all the stakeholders including the former governor and now a serving senator and some special advisers of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe State have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). How true is this? I don’t know who you consider as stakeholders, but to me their defection is just like throwing garbage into a garbage can or dustbin. They are political liabilities to the PDP in the state and the nation because most of them were behind the lingering crisis in the party. Their defection is to realize their selfish political interest to the detriment of their supporters and that is a function of the fact that defections as today celebrated in Nigeria, lack ideology. It’s obvious that the former governor and one Sani Dugge defected from PDP to APC recently and it is apparent that their defection portrayed their selfish motives. You and I firmly believe that PDP made Goje to be where he is now and if the party which under its platform he was appointed a federal minister, two-term governor and presently a senator will be dumped for a newly registered party, then the principle and ideology based politics will be counted out; brazen abuse of democratic principles is demonstrated here. Goje was recently quoted in the international media as saying; he is the father of PDP in Gombe State and if a father will dump his family for any reason, what will be the fate of the adopted family in times of crisis? And for Sani Dugge, his claim of Dankwambo not being accessible to politicians does not hold water as his defection is not different from that of his former boss. Do you mean Goje and other political heavy weights’ defection poses no danger to Dankwambo’s political future? You see, we should not shy away from the fact that, the electorate should be the determining factor and above all, God gives power to who He wishes. Therefore, those who were seeing or believing their ouster from PDP is changing anything on Dankwambo’s future should think again. Ganging up by few individuals against Dankwambo is different from ganging up of the electorate against him. The antecedents of the gladiators are nothing to write home about as some of them were given opportunity but they failed to deliver. What we need essentially as a progressive state is what we’re reaping as dividends of democracy under the present administration and we can’t be deceived by the pretense of APC. There was criticism that the government recently prevented the aircraft conveying some APC officials to Gombe from landing. What really transpired? The problem is we play politics with everything. I am not a staff of the airport, who should answer your question. However, allowing or denying aircraft from landing at the state owned airport is not the direct responsibility of Dankwambo but the management of the facility. If for any reason, the plane was denied landing, the issue should not be politicized by the opposition. It may be due to technical problem and if anything happens, it’s the same people who will accuse government of complicity. What strategy is PDP adopting to prevent further defection of its members to APC in Gombe? Exposing strategy and plan will give privileged information to your opponents. Although I am not one of the state party officials but the internal crisis rocking the APC in Gombe is a clear manifestation of selfish motives by the defectors. It’s obvious that in recent times there were criticisms against Goje and his political acolytes and loyalists for hijacking the party structures in the state. The merging parties were crying of being marginalized by Goje’s leadership and some on many occasions had published advertorials on the crisis in many newspapers. Hon. Mailantarki as the only serving member of the National Assembly from the legacy party has on several occasions accused Goje of double standard. You see, with the prevailing situation the opposition is engulfed by internal crisis capable of consuming them even before the elections. The defectors are mainly power seekers and it may be hard on them to compromise their ambition for the party’s progress and this will not augur well for the party in the very near future. There were proclamations from Goje and Bayero Nafada that, APC will oust Dankwambo in 2015, does that portray the real situation? Goje, Bayero and whoever may join their sinking ship, have lost ground in Gombe State’s political ecology. Their decamping from the party that promoted them to their present positions demonstrates desperation in pursuit of personal interest rather than the interest of the populace. How could the person who served as a deputy speaker in the House of Representatives under PDP and failed to bring any developmental project to his local government, constituency or the state dream of confronting Dankwambo, whose achievements are visible? Therefore, the statements from the duo are merely to deceive the people. Finally, has the present government delivered on its campaign promises? Nobody, on whatever basis including his perceived opponents will deny Dankwambo’s performance beyond his campaign promises. In fact, the transformation projects embarked upon and accomplished by the incumbent administration under the purposeful leadership of Talban Gombe is comparable to the two terms tenure of his predecessor. The restoration of human value system, youths empowerment, water reticulation, health care service delivery, roads and infrastructure, improved agricultural sector and other sectors of the economy had within three years of Dankwambo’s stewardship been revived. Anybody who left the state before the coming of Dankwambo had to be guided to his destination as roads were opened up in all the nook and cranny of the state and its entire local government areas. Stay up to date, follow us on Twitter; @LeadershipNGA Original link Read More elotitv/easyblog/entry/gombe-pdp-defectors-lack-ideology-kera (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:51:23 +0000