The Northern Democratic Alliance (NDA) frowns at the crisis rocking the People’s Democratic Party and urges the gladiators to sheathe their swords and embrace peace in the interest of the nation.
NDA will not tolerate any attempt by political buccaneers masquerading as democrats to truncate our hard earned democracy ahead of 2015 presidential election.
We urge politicians to be patriotic, imbibe issued-based politics and be guided by their parties’ constitutions. The horrors of the Wild Wild West that led to military intervention and civil war in 1960s are still fresh in our memories.
NDA is worried by the actions and inaction of Vice President Namadi Sambo that contributed to the political upheavals in PDP. We are saddened that most of the actors in the party imbroglio are from the Northern part of the country. The inability of Arch. Sambo to use his good offices to arrest the drift to anarchy has emboldened and empowered the dissidents led by Atiku Abubakar and Abubakar Kawu Barage.
We call on Namadi Sambo to wake up from slumber and act fast to save his sinking party from its perilous course to self-destruction.
NDA urges Vice President Sambo to be more patriotic in allotting public offices zoned to the North equally to its three geo-political zones. We are amazed that most vacant public positions are filled by Sambo’s nominees from the North West zone, including heads of CBN, NDIC and Customs. It is justice juxtaposed and unfair to other northerners that looked up to him for equity and fairness. This is the essence of federal character principle as provided in the 1999 constitution. We also urge governments at all levels to be guided by this constitutional provision in filling vacant public offices.
NDA has always supported Sambo’s political ambition but strongly opposed his bias in favour of candidates/nominees from northwest zone at the detriment of those from north east and north central. This must be corrected in future federal appointments and developmental projects under his watch.
It is this bias by Sambo that the Southern Kaduna Liberation Movement strongly condemned in their recent statement published in some national newspapers on Governor Danbaba Suntai’s health condition vis-à-vis his ability to govern which the group accused Sambo, nine state legislators and a cabal of fueling religious sentiments at the expense of due process and constitutional provisions in an attempt to remove the governor from office.
Vice President Sambo is not a political spare tyre in the presidency; he should sit up and effectively represent the north’s three geo-political zones by nominating qualified people for public offices, attract developmental programmes, quell dissidents’ activities in PDP and generally deliver democracy dividends to long suffering Nigerians as a statesman. By so doing he will engrave his name in gold in Nigeria’s hall of fame. The myopic infamous northwest champion he is today should be consigned to the dust bin of history as we march forward to the centenary celebrations.
Alhaji Mahuta Saidu
Chairman, Northern Democratic Alliance
