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Indiscipline is bane of ANPP, says Ibrahim
By Chuks Ehirim
Correspondent (Abuja)
and Haruna Abdul
Special
Correspondent
(Maiduguri)
Contrasting
fortunes still face members of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), even as
its National Executive Committee (NEC) has re-appointed the National
Reconciliation Committee (NRC) to paper the cracks.
One of the tasks
is for the NRC, now renamed the Peace Committee, is to bring the feuding
members back to the fold. Yet, the NEC meeting in Maiduguri at the weekend also
mandated all state chairmen to begin the process of expelling those considered
indisciplined, a problem Yobe State Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim says is the
bane of the party.
He, however,
poured cold water on the speculation that six of the seven ANPP governors are
about to join the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He described the
PDP as a sinking ship which everybody is running away from. “This is a
sinking ship. Everybody is running away from that party. Why should we go into
PDP which everybody else is deserting?”
Ibrahim is the
Chairman of his party’s Peace Committee.
He said in
Maiduguri: “You can see that part of our problem in the ANPP today is
indiscipline. If we have discipline, even if you disagree with your national
chairman, there are ways to follow. If he has to be removed there are still
ways to follow in doing so. He is a human being.
“Now that
we have a fundamental crisis in the party, nobody is talking about the other
person’s faults, failures or short-comings because the problem we are
facing is so fundamental and it is affecting the corporate existence of our
party. So, obviously, we cannot delve into that at the moment. Now that we
believe we have successfully saved our party from breaking up, we can go into
this issue.
“And we
have identified, during the NEC meeting, most of our problems which we have
been glossing over. I have predicted that the party will come out much stronger
than it was before the crisis”.
On the effort he
will put into bringing Sokoto State Governor Attahiru Bafarawa and acting Board
of Trustees Chairman Jerry Useni back to the fold, Ibrahim said since the party
has identified its problems, agreement will be reached at a round table to
reunite the disputants.
“The
Maiduguri NEC meeting, attended by 131 bonafide members of ANPP NEC, has not
only saved the party but also helped us to be stronger in our collective will
at opposition. And I assure every one that we will bring back Bafarawa and the
others. We will bring back Bafarawa. Is he not my friend?” he asked.
ANPP National
Chairman Don Etiebet has described the NEC meeting - attended by six of
the seven ANPP governors, over 36 members of the National Assembly, 22 state
chairmen and 131 of the 150 NEC members - as a great success.
“The crisis
that rocked our party was really God-sent. And after this meeting we have been
able to identify our various problems and differences, and we are now
repositioned to present a new ANPP which is going to be a national party that
will form the next government in Nigeria”, Etiebet said.
Despite such an
optimism, however, it is likely that many party members could be expelled in
the coming months, following the resolve of the party leadership to curb
indiscipline.
Part of the
resolution of the meeting in Maiduguri empowered party organs at all levels
“to take immediate, necessary disciplinary steps under the constitution
to check acts of indiscipline in the party”.
It enjoined party
leaders “to be firm but fair in the enforcement of discipline at the
appropriate levels of the party to bring members under check”.
Party sources
insisted that the resolution will trigger off a wave of disciplinary measures that
would lead to either expulsion or suspension of top members considered to be
disloyal.
Ibrahim confirmed
this when he told newsmen after the NEC meeting, when he said one of the causes
of the wrangling is indiscipline, an issue that was “ignored because of
the fundamental problem that has to do with the crisis”.
Targets of the
mass purge, it is said, are likely to include those loyal to Useni.
The 22 state
chairmen who were in Maiduguri have been mandated to start the process that
would lead to the purge.
On why ANPP
governors would not defect to the rival party, Ibrahim said the over five years
of PDP rulership has only witnessed greater suffering for the people in spite
of the increased revenue to the country.
“This is a
country where the PDP government has been in power for over five years, we are
getting more and more money, more and more dollars everyday and Nigeria’s
problems are multiplying everyday. What are we going to do in PDP?” he
wondered.
According to him, millions of Nigerians are looking up to
the ANPP for succour “and the party would give that to them”.
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