Aug 4, 2014
2015: North Will Confront Jonathan — Lawal Kaita (PDP)
An elder statesman and chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, has hit hard on the party over its recent convention which, he said, fell short of the dreams and aspirations of its founders.
Kaita, who described the emergence of the Bamanga Tukur-led NWC of the party as a grand ploy by President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential race, said the north would ensure he never succeeds.
“We hear rumours all over that Jonathan is planning to contest in 2015. Well, the north is going to be prepared if the country remains one.
That is, if the country remains one, we are going to fight for it. If not, everybody can go his way,” he told LEADERSHIP in an exclusive interview in Katsina. Lawal Kaita said the recent stand of the party on consensus was a total negation of the motive behind forming the party.
“They are running away from election. This entire consensus thing doesn’t make sense. For us who formed the PDP, we regret what is happening now. Ten candidates, overnight, all stepping down for one person! All the candidates were renowned and each of them is capable of running the party, but they all withdrew…”
Kaita, who was a governor of the old Kaduna State, insisted that the just concluded national convention of the PDP was devoid of excitement, noting: “Tukur is a highly qualified person but the fact that he allowed himself to be used as Jonathan’s candidate is what has lowered his status.”
Culled from Leadership Newspapers
KAITA’S INCENDIARY OUTBURST
Tribune
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
ELECTION time is a period if excitment, when contenders for political offices cudgel their brains to outwit me one another in their efforts to win the sympathy of the electorate. It is a season of promises, arguments, claims and counterclaims. This, unfortunately, has not been the case in the run-up to the 2011 general election. There have been verbal exchanges but they are not aimed at convincing prospective votes about the capability of political aspirants to get Nigeria out of the woods. It should be a matter of considerable public concern that the debilitating effects of subject of arguments on the political arena. The part of the country, and by extension, the ethnic group that should produce the next president has been the focus of attention.
- Related: NewsRescue-TRUTH: It Was PDP That Promised To Make Nigeria Ungovernable in 2011, Buhari Never Did!
THE various aspirants for the presidential ticket of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have virtually relegated the very essence of governance to the background. The pressure groups within the party have been hurling political brickbats at one another. The aspirants’ campaign organisations have not been addressing the issues of massive unemployment, pervasive corruption and other problems that have rendered the economy prostrate. The focal point of their concern is the geo-political zone that should produce the president.
A former governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Lawan Kaita recently took the agitation for a “northern president” in 2011 to a worrisome dimension. He was reported as saying that the North would make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan if he emerged the winner of the forthcoming election.
“ANYTHING short of a northern president is tantamount to stealing our presidency. Jonathan has to go and he will go. Even if he uses incumbency power to get his nomination on the platform of the PDP, he will be frustrated out,” he was quoted as saying. He further said that the North should not be blamed for the calamity that would befall Nigeria if Jonathan emerged as the president.
IT is highly disappointing that such an unguarded statement has emanated from a man of Kaita’s age and experience in partisan politics. It is as reprehensible as it is irresponsible. To make Nigeria ungovernable is to destabilise Nigeria. The logical inference that can be drawn from this reckless statement is that a “northern presidency” is more important to Kaita than Nigeria itself. It is apparent that Kaita has failed to bring to bear his chronological age and decades of experience on the history of political leadership in Nigeria. If he had done this, the probability of a Southerner winning the presidential election in 2011 would not have been as insufferable to him as it is. If he had endeavoured to reflect on the trajectory of Nigerian politics and access to political power in the last 50 years, he would have been less desperate in his disposition and less intemperate in his utterances.
THE position of Kaita and others of his ilk is predicated on the assumption that the emergence of a PDP candidate as president of Nigeria in 2011 and after is a fait accompli. They see Nigeria more as a one-party state than a multi party democracy. They have foreclosed the likelihood of another political party or coalition of political parties securing the mandate to govern Nigeria even in the distant future. They see the rotation of the presidency from one geographical area to another as a programmed event that will take place with mathematical precision and in virtual perpetuity under the PDP’s zoning arrangement. This mindset could have been informed by failure to take cognizance of the fact that they are dealing with rational human beings who have freedom of choice which can always be exercised whichever way is most beneficial to their collective and individual interests. Such a mindset could also have resulted from the belief that the people’s right to choose their own leaders can always be trampled upon. The sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in one of his seminal books had identified the desperation of the then Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) to cling to power forever as one of the causes of the 1966 crisis.
THE apocalyptic utterances of Kaita provides ample evidence of desperation for political power for sectional benefits and personal aggrandisement rather than for the good of the people. Nigeria is in its eleventh year of uninterrupted civilian administration. The country should by now be showing signs of improvements in the observance of the principles of democracy. A rabid desire to either rule or ruin the system is unbecoming of a politician and unacceptable in Nigeria of today. At this age and stage of his, Kaita should serve as a good example to the younger generation of politicians and not as a rabble-rouser. His outburst was totally uncalled for.
http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/editorial/12020-kaitas-incendiary-outburst