Senator Bala Mohammed’s interest in completing the term of Ahmed Muazu as PDP chairman has started receiving support from some concerned citizens and members of his party.
The latest to canvass for a PDP chairmanship headed by Senator Bala Mohammed is Mr. Emma Agu, the publisher of Zest Traveller Magazine and one-time chief press secretary to the Head of Nigeria’s Interim National Government (ING), Chief Earnest Shonekan.
Agu in a piece published by The Nation on Thursday, August 13, said that Sen. Bala Mohammed fits into the leadership profile that can set the party on the right track considering his years as a top civil servant and politician with bankable political capital.
“Bala Mohammed’s entry into the PDP chairmanship race fuels enthusiasm to the extent that, from what we know, he fits the leadership profile that can restore the party’s unity and bounce. Through years as a top civil servant and politician, the former minister of the federal capital territory, FCT, has been able to accumulate politically bankable capital all over Nigeria.
“And the fact that he was always entrusted with strategic party responsibilities, albeit of an ad hoc nature, demonstrates the confidence reposed in him by the party. Yet, he cannot be said to have been tainted by the corrosive and destabilizing divisions that had become the hallmark of the elected party executives. This is significant because the party needs a unifier, a father figure, a role that the former minister can play very well in spite of the fact that he is still under 60,” he said.
Agu also said the antecedents of Sen. Mohammed who was a former minister during former president Jonathan’s regime has ‘carved the image of a nationalist with the vision of a country where every Nigerian could feel at home.’
He said: “It is important here to recall his patriotic action when, at the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Ardua, against all odds, he galvanized his Unity Forum group in the Senate to unify in conferring legitimacy on the floundering authority of Goodluck Jonathan.
“Such gestures are rare in a highly ethicized Nigeria. But the message was not lost on many Nigerians; that a new political ferment was brewing where, with time, in the words of our former National Anthem, Nigerians can be truly committed to a country.
“We saw that in the doctrine of necessity. It also played out in the last presidential elections where a paradigm shift in electoral alliance saw the south west and the north collaborating electorally for the first time to cause a change in government at the federal level.
“Put succinctly, Bala Mohammed and like-minded fellows have ignited a new political ferment that has engulfed Nigeria for the better. PDP stands to reap immense political capital from the goodwill that Bala Mohammed acquired in the various political stations he has been privileged to occupy.”
Commending Senate’s minority leader, senator Godswill Akpabio and his colleagues for pledging support to president Buhari, Agu said Bala Mohammed’s leadership of the PDP will complement Akpabio’s promise of bi-partisan support for the president.
“Perhaps a third important consideration should address the relationship between the APC-led government and the leadership of the opposition. Here commendation should go to Senator Godswill Akpabio who, even as minority leader on the platform of the PDP, with his colleagues, has pledged the support of the 49-strong PDP membership of the Senate for President Muhammadu Buhari.
“There is no doubt that Akpabio’s promise of bipartisan support for the President will be richly complemented by Bala Mohammed’s leadership of the PDP. Let the truth be told: PDP cannot reverse its dented image by the gangster method that it has adopted trying to ridicule every step of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“From feelers, the electorate is not amused by these shenanigans. Let us concede that some of Buhari’s actions are irksome, even downright indefensible; yet, courtesy demands that the opposition should accord him the respect he deserves by speaking truth to authority with some level of decorum,” Agu posited.
Agu described Mohammed’s strongest point in the PDP leadership race as his taciturn demeanour saying he has the ability to drive his point home without sounding abrasive yet, like the well trained boxer, tailor his punches to land on target with destructive effectiveness.
“Besides, from all indications, the former minister still commands the respect of his former colleagues in the defunct All Nigeria Peoples’ Party, one of the four legacy parties of the APC. We can only appreciate the significance of this point when the role of an opposition party is put in its proper perspective, away from the impression that opposition simply means to frustrate or pull down the ruling party. No. That is not correct.
“While opposition parties plan to succeed ruling parties, the former are duty bound, by logic and patriotism, to openly support policies and actions of the government that translate to the greatest good of the greatest number. Incidentally, it takes a man with the maturity, patriotism and humility of Bala Mohammed to soar from the nadir of jaundiced partisan spectacles to this zenith of sublime statesmanship,” Agu said.
The PDP has struggled in the few weeks of being in the opposition following the different crises rocking it. The party has made it look like it was not ready to be out of government, even the spokesman, Chief Olisa Metuh said in an interview with an online news portal that being in the opposition is not easy. “It is cold here,” he said.
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