There seem to be
no love lost between the Punch newspaper Publisher/Editor-in-Chief and
Ali Sheriff.
Readers generally
ought to be aware there are two Sheriffs in town right now both of whom share some similar characteristics:
1.
Buhari and Ali
Sheriff are Northern Muslims. Ali Sheriff would not support killings such as
Shiittes & IPOB NOT being a hater of any religion or region.
2.
Ali Sheriff’s
father Galadima Modu Sheriff was a business tycoon.
3.
Ali Sheriff is sixty Buhari is at least twelve years older both are in-laws.
4.
Ali Sheriff
attended London School of Business where
he studied Insurance, Banking and Finance.
According to Wikipedia he was also MD of his Dad’s company and was to
later register his own company Meroil Organisation and Union Chase Wikipedia
says.
5.
Buhari’s school is controverted and
controversial.
6.
Now, Wikipedia
reports Ali Sheriff was a member of the Constitutional Conference and chaired
the committee on states and local governme
7.
Ali Sheriff is
wealthy and you see with all his wealth Buhari has no beef with Ali Sheriff.
Whereas Bode George can’t say he is free of PMB
one-sided list.
8.
Ali Sheriff was
elected as Senator under NRC, his opponent was Kolo Kingibe, wife of the SDP
chairman, Babagana Kingibe. He beat a woman to become a Senator. Oh
No. Although Ali Sheriff calls on men and women for support, he should also
support women particularly a female candidate from the South West to fill the
office of PDP National Secretary on May
21, 2016, a female lawyer who once lost
her legislative seat in 2015 to a male contender and at the Tribunal Hon. Mulikat Adeola
Akande’s lawyers, a SAN, filed her reply to the respondents’ pleadings a day or
two late before the Tribunal was a Technical loss. However as House Leader,
first female to become the Leader of a National House – House of
Representatives conservative women
lawyers, radical women lawyers, Christian women, Muslim women, youth, students,
everybody, Hon Mulikat Adeola Akande the Great Ife Alum, everybody’s choice!
9.
Read Ali Sheriff
– ‘We Will Kick APC out of office 2019 and nothing will stop us’. http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/198604-well-replace-buhari-in-2019-nothing-will-stop-us-pdp-chairman-sheriff-vows.html
10.
Critics say Ali
Sheriff is a Boko Haram sponsor at the time he was a founding member of APC . If
true he must know how to combat a
political party he helped found. Of Buhari and Blood please click. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/05/2015-ll-be-bloody-if-buhari/
11.
Ali
Sheriff’s energy, enthusiasm wax stronger
even as Buhari’s energy wanes off a change agenda that he is far from
delivering to expectant masses and that may be APC’s Albatross.
12.
Conclusion: Whether PDP or APC the nation desires positive energy for the happiness of the
greater majority of Nigerians, a party poised towards taking women as
development partners.
Thank you
CA
http://www.punchng.com/national-convention-pdp-faces-break/
May 7, 2016
-
Niyi Odebode, Samuel Awoyinfa, Olusola Fabiyi and Eniola
Akinkuotu
There were strong indications on Friday that despite the
peace moves of its leadership, the Peoples Democratic Party was facing an
imminent break-up ahead of its national convention scheduled for May 21.
Saturday PUNCH reliably gathered on Friday that at the South-West meeting
attended by some chieftains of the party in Akure on Wednesday, those who were
opposed to the bid of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to become substantive chairman
gave a condition to support him.
It was learnt that although the chieftains at the meeting had
agreed to cede the PDP chairmanship seat to Sheriff, he must relinquish the
post in 2017. The Akure group had insisted that the PDP chairmanship should be
zoned to the South-West.
It was gathered that Sheriff’s supporters in the zone,
including the Senator representing Ogun East, Buruji Kashamu, had not accepted
the condition.
The crisis, investigations showed, was worsened by the fight
for national offices zoned to the South-West by the Akure group and party
members led by Kashamu.
The South-West zonal leaders, including the Ondo State
Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko and a member of the party’s Board of Trustees,
Chief Bode George, had met in Akure on Wednesday.
Another faction of the party in the zone, including Kashamu
and the National Vice-Chairman, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, met on the same day
at Ijebu-Igbo, the home town of the Ogun East senator.
A member of the party, who attended the Akure meeting, said,
“For peace to reign, we are going to support Sheriff on the condition that he
put it down in black and white that he will leave in 2017. We do not want
verbal agreement.
“We have not completely accepted Sheriff. We are looking at
reaching a compromise. The arrangement now can remain till 2017 March. That is
when a fresh exercise will be done. The zoning now is not the proper one.
“Already, all leaders in the South-West have agreed. The
agreement will be written and stated. We will sell that idea to our colleagues
and it must be written and accepted. So, we have accepted among ourselves in
the South-West and we hope it will be accepted.”
Although the condition had not been tabled at the national
level, feelers from Sheriff’s backers in the South-West zone indicate that they
will not accept it.
A party chieftain from Oyo State, who confided in Saturday
PUNCH, said, “We have heard what those who were in Akure said. We will not
encourage Sheriff to abide by that condition. There will not be any written
agreement. If Sheriff performs creditably, he will continue after 2017.”
It was gathered that besides the party chairmanship, another
issue tearing the party apart in the South-West was fight over national offices
zoned to the area.
The posts of national auditor, national publicity secretary
and the national secretary have been zoned to the South-West.
Currently, most, if not all national officers from the
South-West including Ogundipe, are believed to be loyal to Kashamu,
who is said to be the main financier of the party in the zone.
We can only align with trustworthy leaders –Ex-Lawmaker
A chieftain of the PDP in Ogun State, Mr. Fasiu Bakene, said
the Akure meeting was the authentic one because it was attended by the only two
governors of the party and ex-ministers in the zone.
Bakene, who attended the meeting, stated, “For somebody to
say he is not aware of the South-West elders meeting in Akure, such a person is
being economical with truth.
“A meeting attended by the only two governors of the PDP in
the South-West, former ministers, ex-state chairmen and a host of others cannot
be pushed aside. It is advisable to stand and identify with the path of honour
by aligning with the two trustworthy and reliable governors.”
Ex-ministers set to defect
It was learnt that some former ministers, who served under
the PDP-led Federal Government, had vowed not to remain in the party.
They insisted that Sheriff did not have the moral right to
lead the main opposition party in the country.
A minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Saturday
PUNCH that all was set for their defection from the former ruling party.
They said that it was impunity like this that made the party
to lose the presidential election in 2015.
I am still consulting—Deputy National Publicity
Secretary
When contacted, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary
of the party, Alhaji Ibrahim Jalo, also said that he was consulting on whether
to leave the party or not.
Jalo, who spoke in an interview with our correspondent in
Abuja, insisted that he had not made up his mind yet on what to do, but he said
he remains not satisfied with happenings in his party.
He said, “I told you I might leave the party on moral
grounds. I have yet to change my mind.”
Jalo, who claimed to be the chairman of a pressure group
known as House to House in Gombe State, said if he decides to defect, he would
do so with his supporters.
“I’m the chairman of the House to House in Gombe State and we
did a lot in assisting the state governor to win election. In all the local
governments, I have structure. If I’m leaving, I’m leaving with my supporters,”
he added.
Parallel national convention looms
A group, the PDP Northern Elders’, had on Wednesday night
called on Sheriff to vacate office on May 21.
The group led by a former Minister of Information, Prof.
Jerry Gana, also urged the chairman to postpone the national convention.
It was not clear on Friday if Sheriff would heed the advice,
but it was gathered that anti-Sheriff forces might boycott the May 21
convention and later hold theirs at a later date or the same day.
“Sheriff should listen to the words of wisdom. If he does not
step aside and goes ahead to hold convention on May 21, we would hold another
one the same day,” a party leader from the North, who confided in Saturday
PUNCH, said.
My opponents left the party in limbo—Kashamu
But when contacted, Kashamu said he was not aware of
any plan to hold a parallel convention.
He said any such plan was totally uncalled for and an
exercise in futility, because according to him, there is only one PDP from the
ward to the national level.
He said, “There is only one PDP from the ward to the national
level. You should ask anyone who say I am the problem, why he said so.
“Before those who called the Akure meeting began to meet, the
constitutionally recognised Zonal leadership of the party, under the leadership
of the National Vice-Chairman, Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe, had called two
meetings – the first was in Abuja on the 17th of March, 2016; the second was in
Ibadan on the 30th of March, 2016.
“The meeting in Ijebu-Igbo was the third and it had been
fixed before theirs. I did not call the meeting. I was just one of those who
facilitated it alongside other well-meaning and functional leaders of the party
in the South-West.
“If they could hold their meeting in Akure, why can’t the
zonal exco hold theirs wherever they deemed fit?
“I think the question should be: why did they decide to hold
another meeting in Akure outside the one called by the zonal leadership of the
party? Could any of them have allowed such when they were in office as zonal or
national officers?”
He denied imposing himself as a leader of the party in the
zone, wondering where such was coming from. Rather he said he had contributed
immensely to build the party.
He said, “I have only been supporting my party as much as I
can. Ask our leaders what has been their contributions to the growth and
sustenance of the party in the zone.
“They are the ones trying to impose all the national
executive positions on us. If I am on the same side with most of the statutory
and automatic delegates, that is, the zonal executive and at least four of the
State Excos and majority of their members, it shows to who has been there for
the party, in and out of politics.
“Most of those calling us names left the party in limbo after
we lost the elections. Some people stayed back to keep the party afloat. It is
true that leaders emerge. But it is also true that leadership is earned and it
comes with a high sense of responsibility.
“I don’t t know what they mean by money politics because
politics everywhere in the world cannot be done without money. But rather than
give to the party and its members, most of those calling us names are used to
taking from the party.
“That is why many of them have been indicted in the ongoing
anti-corruption fight and a lot of them will still be indicted, including
serving governors in the South-West.”
Kashamu was however optimistic that PDP would not break up.
No comments:
Post a Comment