Former Kano State governor and current senator in the House of Asembly, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has been called to order by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for making “incendiary utterances,” which according to the PDP, are capable of disrupting the National Assembly (NASS) and jeopardizing the political tranquility the nation is currently enjoying
This cautionary warning was issued in a statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, on Tuesday, June 16, 2015 in Abuja.
The party expressed surprise at what they described the hate statement by Kwankwaso which contained “offensive language” against the party and its members in the NASS.
Senator Kwankwaso’s statement had frowned on PDP’s Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s emergence as Deputy Senate President even though the party was a minority. He asserted that the election was wrong and that the former ruling party wasn’t helping its cause. He alluded that PDP’s action was capable of altering the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.
In the statement released by Metuh, he said the party was quite “taken aback by the venom and bitterness in the statement, especially coming from a former governor, an elected senator, a highly respected former member of the PDP, who also benefited hugely from the party as minister and two-time state governor.”
The PDP, Metuh said, did not wish to join any issues with politicians, most of which had grown under the party’s political profile regardless of decamping, but regrets that “Senator Kwankwaso went too far in declaring the party dead just because he is aggrieved that the Senate Presidency did not go his way.”
He said it was “indecorous, mischievous and misleading for anybody to declare a party, with an enviable history as the PDP, with 14 state governors, 47 Senators and hundreds of members in the House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly dead.”
He added, “Where was Senator Kwankwaso when a party he claimed was dead defeated his choice candidate in the Senate? Was it a dead party that was able to do what, according to Kwankwaso, no other party could do in the 16 years of PDP’s control of the National Assembly?
“Indeed, we found it very baffling that such unguarded statement came from a person who contested the high office of the president of Nigeria.”
He added that should such high profile personalities want to make statements, they should take care for the statements to focus on national interest, be decorous and statesman like as opposed to brewing acrimony and diving among the polity.
“This unfortunate outburst is well below Senator Kwankwaso’s character and status and we urge him to desist from such,” Metuh added.
He also asserted that Kwankwaso and the APC leaders should be grateful to the PDP lawmakers for their discipline and not using their position to take over the entire leadership of the Senate at the inauguration. He said this due to the emergency meeting of APC lawmakers which was fixed for the same time the inauguration was to commence.
Kwankwaso’s claims that the PDP was only trying to erect road blocks before President Buhari to irritate him were labelled frivolous, unsubstantiated and unfounded. He reiterated the party’s promise to provide a robust and constructive opposition so as to help President Buhari’s government.
However, Metuh said that the baseless complains from the APC would not distract Nigerians from holding the President Buhari APC led administration accountable for their campaign promises. He dismissed Kwankwaso’s claims that everything was working well in the nation since President Buhari was sworn in as laughable.
He, however, credited the conducive atmosphere and stability in the nation to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s concession of defeat, amid electoral irregularities.
