Shuaibu
By Tony Ezimakor, Abuja
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Comrade Philip Shuaibu, former Deputy governor of Edo State has commended as bold and courageous the action taken by Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC), declaring that he ( Shuaibu) has been vindicated.
The Delta State governor in a dramatic and shocking move earlier this week moved the entire government and chieftains of the Peoples Democratic party in Delta State, including Ifeanyi Okowa, his predecessor and a large following of members of the State Assembly to the opposition APC handing over the state to APC.
Comrade Shuaibu, commenting on the development in Abuja said he was not in anyway surprised by the massive movement and decision of the governor to quit the party noting that the PDP as a party had long lost course owing to the ambition of some critical leaders of the party.
Recalling his experience during his three years sojourn in the party he said leaders of the party wilfully circumvent constitution and rules of the party leaving members in the lurch .
“When I was leaving PDP to return to APC about a year ago, I recall warning that if the (PDP)party leaders do not take steps to rebuild the party and curb the excesses of some of its ambitious members, the party would in no distant time be concined to the dustbin of history. I think I have been vindicated “.
He alerted that more governors and PDP chieftains north and south of the country would soon follow in the footsteps of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and Delta State PDP chieftains to the APC , maintaining that a fewer than five PDP governors may well remain with the party in the build up to 2017 general election.
“I am so excited for what happened yesterday and is not surprising anyway in my short stay in PDP for about three years before my exit and even while I was in PDP the issues of all the quarrels and all the abnormalities that took place, if you recall in the first six months I rejoined PDP I made a statement the way I have been hearing, the name that is given to the party, Peoples Democratic Party, I saw that the players in the party were not democratic, the leadership were not democratic and I shouted and I was asked to keep quiet. And when the issue of primary election started, I made a statement that if the leadership this party refuses to obey their own constitution and do the needful, in the next one year they may not be PDP. The players in the party, the way I see things happening in the party do not reflect what the PDP stand for in terms of the name, the acronym and the mission.
“When I was leaving APC some of you asked me why I was leaving and I said I did not see a future in PDP in Nigeria and because the way the players are handling the party, is not about the party but about the players and when you don’t feel belonged, when certain cabal feel they are in charge, nobody can claim ownership of any party in Nigeria because at any particular given time leadership emerges.
“I also said that even the governors that I see I’m not seeing most of them remaining in the party because some of them I am close to them I share the same feeling with them. I see more governors leaving, any progressive governor cannot remain in PDP and the is why when I saw the meeting in Oyo State it was already late.
I like the governor of Oyo State he is one of those progressive governors that say it the way it is. He refuses and made it categorically clear that he will not be part of this process. If you check his utterances they are positive to rebuild the party.”
