Dr. Josef Onoh is the spokesman for the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he is seeking the 2023 governorship in Enugu state. He was in the Enugu state House of Assembly during the leadership of Dr Chimaroke Nnamani in the state and has since remained a close friend of the former Governor of Enugu state.
In this interview, Onoh spoke from Kofo Abayomi’s residence in Victoria Island Lagos state on the recent suspension of Senator Nnamani by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP for alleged anti-party activities, saying it was too unfair to have. slammed Nnamani in a harsh manner without due process, worse when PDP leaders such as the Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state and even the National Chairman of the party, Iyorcha Ayu have been accused of doing worse anti-party activities than Senator Nnamani.
What is your immediate reaction to the suspension of Senator Chimaroke Nnamani from the PDP?
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and political parties are clear on the need to ensure sectional, ethnic and religious balance in the recruitment of Nigerian leaders. The relevant provisions are Sections 14(3)(4), 15(1)(2)(3d)(4) and 17(1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended and Section 7(3)(c) of the PDP Constitution supplemented by Section 20(v) of the APC Constitution. Paragraph 2(d) in the preamble of the PDP Constitution expressly establishes the PDP’s resolution to conform to the principles of power transition and power sharing by rotating the major political offices among the various nationalities of the country. The party incorporates this provision in the body of the Constitution in Section 7(3) (c) where the party reminds its members to achieve their goals and objectives by adhering to the rotation and zoning policies of the party and public elective offices. for the principle of equality, justice and fairness. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar by contesting the election in every election shows that he has disregarded the above provisions. It is even more instructive when one observes that the current President in office is fulfude saying Northern Fulani Muslims like Atiku. The great President Muhammadu Buhari will complete eight years of governing Nigeria in May 2023. Therefore, any vote for Atiku will destroy every idea of our federal character, change of power and rotation and deal a decisive blow to the unity and cohesion of our country. This is the biggest anti-party activity.
What is the threat of this delay to Chimaroke Nnamani who already has PDP ticket to re-contest for Enugu East Senate?
It is not ridiculous that the PDP suspends, expels and threatens innocent members of the political party, including the G-5 Governors, who insisted that the Constitution of Nigeria and the PDP must be obeyed and release Atiku Abubakar, Iyorcha Ayu and Tambuwal who are the main leaders. perpetrators of anti-party activities in the PDP.
If PDP refuses to do the right thing by suspending Atiku and co, Nigerians should do the right thing by voting to save our country from collapse. The more vague the word ‘anti-party activities’ in any constitution, the more interpretations and implementations against perceived political opponents are carried out with impunity. In the PDP, Section 58(1) (f) simply states: ‘Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Party shall have the authority to discipline members who engage in anti-party activities’.
The APC then added to this section when it stated in Article 21 (A) (ii) of the Constitution that ‘Offences against the Party shall include anti-Party activities or any conduct that may be embarrassing or disrespectful. effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule or disrepute.’ The Labor Party (LP) has a similar provision in the Constitution as stated in Article 19 (B) (2) which states ‘Anti-Party Activities by acting in a way that can embarrass the party or cause hatred, contempt, ridicule or contempt by any means.’ It further includes carrying out anti-party propaganda as one of the offenses under Article 19(B) (5).
One general provision common to all political parties is that members of the party who engage in anti-party activities must face the disciplinary committee and the Committee must ensure natural justice that ensures a fair hearing for the accused on the principle of audi alteram partem literally meaning hearing the other side or so that the other side can also hear.
Did you know that Nnamani is going to court to challenge the suspension?
As I said before, the more vague this provision is, the more likely it is to lead to impunity. Nothing can be interpreted as anti-party activities in PDP. No wonder why the party is the worst example of a party with impunity. The PDP suspended Senator Chimaraoke Nnamani from Enugu State and some PDP Stalwarts in Ekiti state for anti-party activities, but Senator Chimaraoke has protested the suspension, saying that the right to fair hearing has been allegedly violated. He also noted that he was never informed of any petition or complaint against him or informed of the reasons behind the decision of the PDP NWC to suspend him from the party.
He is also not invited to any meeting, proceeding, or listening to the NWC of the party where the offense is discussed. The PDP expelled Senator Chimaraoke Nnamani, who was obviously not given a fair hearing contrary to the express provision in the Party Constitution to be vindicated in all consequences if he proceeded to court to seek justice.
Aren’t you also afraid that PDP may also visit you with a suspension letter or have you officially resigned from PDP?
Provision of anti-party activities has become an instrument to intimidate members without a godfather. However, the godfather and his successors carried out the worst anti-party activities without being reprimanded. This unfair treatment is the cause of a series of crises in Nigerian political parties.
Some party members are simply beyond the law. If anti-party activities are defined as any actions, which can embarrass or have a bad influence on the party or make the party hate, despise, ridicule or belittle, then these major political parties adhere to the party Constitution and use the big stick in all violations or amend the Constitution to redefine what it means to be anti-party. It started with the PDP presidential election which Hayatu-Deen described as an unscrupulous aspirant.
The winner of Atiku Abubakar emerged after the candidate from the ethnic, religious and sectional background, Aminu Tambuwal, was allowed to publicly violate the PDP presidential primary rule by speaking twice on the podium when all his colleagues spoke only once and he came twice. to conspire with Atiku to manipulate the election to vote for Atiku. He declared his support for Atiku publicly and even asked the voters to vote for Atiku when he comes second time. Using the same podium dedicated to candidates to send a manifesto to members to approve and campaign for other friends to replace other aspirants is the height of anti-party activity because of its shameful behavior and has a bad effect. party and bring the party to hatred, contempt, ridicule and disrepute.
Instead of taking such disciplinary measures, the National Chairman of the party, Iyorcha Ayu, carried out more anti-party activities by visiting Tambuwal’s house after the presidential election to present him as a presidential hero. primary election to betray other candidates in favor of the Fulani Northern Muslim relative and frustrated the power of the president moved South, which even Atiku admits there is something right.
The tragedy of this miscarriage of justice has not ended in PDP, and our party is here suspending candidates for not joining them in impunity, PDP is useless to give me back, it is a party that will die out after February and will only struggle to survive by joining with other political parties to form an opposition party, they cannot suspend me because I suspended them when I joined Asiwaju and Batified. So who is fooling who?
Don’t you think the PDP presidential candidate has a better chance of winning the election before Tinubu?
Atiku Abubakar has continuously engaged in anti-party activities throughout his political career. When his tenure as Vice President was about to end in 2007 and his PDP party found him ineligible to contest the 2007 presidential election due to his corruption tendencies judged by the administrative justice panel formed by the PDP government.
He was accused of corruption with indisputable evidence; Michael Achimugu, Atiku’s media assistant, this year supported all the evidence of corruption brought against Atiku by the Administrative justice panel set up by the PDP in 2007. In the evidence presented publicly by Achimugu, Atiku Abubakar admitted with his voice that he created companies like Marine Float, called Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) named after trusted party officials, which are used to siphon off Nigerian resources and money by paying exorbitant consultancy fees to themselves and their families to satisfy their appetite for corruption. .
Instead of accepting this verdict and retiring from politics permanently, Atiku, as the Vice President of the PDP, did the worst anti-party activity by joining another political party, the Action Congress (AC), which accepted him and even gave him a ticket to contest the Presidential election. . It is not surprising that the politician accommodated Atiku when he ran away from the party due to corruption.
Tinubu who is the leader of ACN can then prove that things are not fair. The PDP government declared his position as Vice President vacant and sacked him from the government. Instead of accepting his fate, he went to court to challenge all actions of the PDP without exhausting all internal mechanisms to resolve the conflict. This is another horrible anti-party activity. It is important to note that the court did not acquit him of corruption or justify his actions of participating in the election of another party when he was the Vice President of another party; indeed the court to punish is morally wrong.
However, the court ruled that only the National Assembly can remove Atiku as Vice President, not the party or the President. It also stated that the court that has the power to punish Atiku Abubakar and bar him from contesting, is not the Administrative Judicial Panel. So serial losers can’t come today and win Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has a track record of political submissions and success.
Can this ‘sin’ of Atiku continue in the current situation?
Of course yes. My heart went before the election contest and lost. He has run for President in every election since 2007. He has run five times and the 2023 general election will be his sixth. This is another anti-party activity. This is contrary to the PDP Constitution which clearly states that presidential power should shift between the North and the South after every eight years and rotate between the geopolitical Zones.
There is no way that it was the intention of the framers of the Nigerian constitution and the PDP Constitution that power would remain with the Atiku religious, ethnic and sectional groups forever because this would be the biggest route to political instability in Nigeria. Atiku even supported the transfer of power from the South to the North and the exit of the sitting PDP President, Goodluck Jonathan, when he could not get it in 2015. He did another anti-party activity with Tambuwal by joining the APC in 2015 to defeat him. former Party, PDP, after forming NPDP faction while still in PDP.
Atiku has emphatically stated that PDP is irredeemable and has become a party of corruption, insurgency and unemployment. So it is natural that he repeated his normal pattern of being a serial loser by losing the presidential election in February this year. My quote, Tinubu is miles ahead of them all.