Atiku, IBB Draw Battle Line With President Jonathan

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday raised the stake in the political crisis plaguing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with a warning that “that those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable.”

His warnings were also echoed by former military President, Ibrahim Babangida who alerted that the party will lose credibility and may be perceived as lawless if it ignores its own rules, particularly on zoning.

They insisted that it is the turn of the North to occupy the Villa.

Babangida warned at a national stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja that taking the Presidential ticket away from the North will portend danger and send the signal that rules and laws can easily be ignored.

Said he: “Any attempt to disrupt this arrangement therefore portends ominous prospects to the electoral fortunes of the party, but more seriously endangers orderly political transition in the nation.

“The way I see it is that our task has now been clearly set; that is to do whatever is lawfully possible to ensure that our party, its organs, and officials do what is right for the long term interest of the party and the larger interest of our nation.

“To do otherwise is to send the message that we are not ready to abide by our own rules and cannot be trusted by the larger society to adhere to its own.

“This is one message we cannot afford to communicate to the people of this country upon who we depend to acquire political power; or indeed even to the larger international community.”

Babangida argued that the rotation of power is beyond the North, and certainly beyond the PDP as a political party, rather, “It is simply a national challenge to come up with an arrangement that guarantees to all sections of this country a sense of belonging.

“Jettisoning this arrangement, regardless of the excuse that is being bandied around, endangers not only the prospects of orderly political transition in the country but also its progress towards evolving into a single indivisible nation. “

Atiku, the consensus Northern Presidential aspirant in the PDP, added: “We have some elder statesmen on consensus building. It is about the rule of law, due process and standing for what is right. I am an instrument for realising these values.

“I promise that by the grace of almighty God, we shall bring this country back to the part of honour.”

He warned that if the PDP “does not reform, it stands the risk of making itself irrelevant. Let me again send another message to the leadership of the PDP that those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable.”

Former Senate President Iyorcha Ayu urged the gathering “to ignore the Nigerian history of the 60’s that produced coups and counter coups with its leaders as Northerners. It was not conspiratorial on the part of the Northern political leaders, it was accidental.

“When we had opportunity, we not only brought out former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was in prison for treason, but the North made him President even when his immediate community rejected him.

“It was the highest show of solidarity by the North. The least our brothers from the South can do is to demonstrate and reciprocate the goodwill.