It's getting hot in here! Read the piece from Femi Fani-Kayode below...
On the 16th of February 2016, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) adopted Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (aka SARS), a two-time ANPP
Governor of Borno state, a former ANPP senator, the former Chairman of
the All Peoples Congress (APC) Board of Trustees and the indisputable
founder of Boko Haram as its Acting National Chairman. Modu-Sheriff is
also the erstwhile godfather and sponsor of Governor Shettima Ali, the
present APC Governor of Borno state (until they fell out),
He is a
man that has a very deep and profound relationship and association with
Idris Deby, the President of Chad and he is a man whose son is married
to the daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari. Many have argued that his
allegiance is more to the Republic of Chad than it is to Nigeria, that
he is an agent of the Chadian intelligence agencies and that he is a
Chadian citizen who often flaunts his Chadian passport. I cannot confirm
the veracity of these assertions but one thing that I know is that most
of Modu Sheriff's funding and stupendous wealth emanates primarily from
the Republic of Chad and that that country is as much a home to him as
is Nigeria. Yet it is not his connection with Chad that give me cause
for concern. Rather it is his role in the establishment of Boko Haram.
The
truth is that appointing him as our Acting National Chairman is like
appointing Jack the Ripper as the leader of the Conservative party in
Victorian England. Kudos must go to the elders in the PDP Board of
Trustees, a number of State Party Chairmen and a number of key
individuals in the PDP Ministers Forum for taking a courageous and noble
stand by rejecting and resisting the imposition of this abominable
monstrosity. What Ali Modu Sheriff stands for and represents is utterly
repugnant to every fiber of my being. Yet I have no objection to his
being a member of the PDP simply because politics is a game of numbers.
It is a game in which everyone, no matter how big or small, counts.
If
you want your party to grow and make progress you must accept the good,
the bad and the ugly. To this end when he left the APC and joined the
PDP sometime back, I was one of those that gladly welcomed him into our
ranks and defended him in the public realm. This was at a time when
others criticized the party for accepting him.
There is however a
world of difference between accepting him as one of the many leaders of
the PDP and appointing him as the Acting National Chairman. Others may
seek to justify such a course of action but I cannot, in good
conscience, do so.
To me it is a matter of principle. If we
accept this then on what moral grounds did we condemn or oppose the APC
or the APC-led Federal Government during the course of the last
Presidential election? If we are comfortable with the likes of Ali Modu
Sheriff leading us then on what basis did we criticize and oppose
President Muhammadu Buhari for appearing to support Boko Haram when he
said ''an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the north''? If we insist
on Ali Modu Sheriff being our National Chairman then we may as well go
and apologize to the APC for all our past criticisms and condemnations
and join them. On what basis can we accept as our National Chairman a
man who established, encouraged, supported and nurtured an organisation
that later metamorphosised into Boko Haram?
This is a terrorist
organisation whose ultimate objective is to turn Nigeria into an Islamic
fundamentalist state by the use of terror and the force of arms? On
what basis can we accept a man to lead us whose Commissioner of
Religious Affairs when he was Governor of Borno state, one Alhaji Buji
Foi, was the de facto operational commander of Boko Haram. The man was
later murdered by those closest to him after investigations into who and
how Boko Haram was founded commenced. On what basis can we accept as
our National Chairman a man who helped to create an organisation that
wishes to establish sharia as the norm in our country, repeal all our
criminal and civil laws, ban all our civil liberties and human rights,
proscribe the teaching of western education in our schools, turn our
women into 6th century sex slaves and abrogate the secularity of our
state.
On what basis can we accept as our leader a man who
supported a group that wishes to suspend our constitution, wipe out the
Christian faith and the practice of moderate Islam in our country and
create an evil ISIL-type empire in our nation? I really do wonder
whether those that made this decision have lost all sense of
rationality? I wonder whether they have lost their ability to see reason
properly and to exercise their discretion in a logical, responsible and
lucid manner? I wonder whether they have lost their fear of God? I
wonder whether they have forgotten the evil that was visited on our
people, and is still being visited on them, over the last seven years by
Boko Haram?
I wonder whether they know at whose instance it was
that Mohammed Yusuf, the erstwhile leader of Boko Haram, was killed by
our security forces whilst in police custody in 2009 just so that he
wouldn't live to tell the whole world who gave him the funds to set up
his murderous cult? I wonder whether they have forgotten the terrible
havoc that Boko Haram unleashed on our citizens? I wonder whether they
have forgotten the tears, wailing and suffering of the bereaved.
I
wonder whether they have forgotten the slaughter of the innocents. I
wonder whether they have forgotten those that were beheaded, those that
were chopped to pieces and thrown down wells like dog meat and those
that were burnt alive? I wonder whether they have forgotten the savage
and bestial rape, murder and abduction of the Chibok girls and all the
other little girls that suffered a similar fate in recent times? I
wonder whether they have forgotten that our nation is still at war with
the bloodthirsty barbarians that committed these atrocities?
Since
when did we, as a political party, lose our memories and jettison our
moral compass in this way? Since when did we become so callous,
shameless and insensitive? Since when did greed and the lust for power
and money determine and motivate our every course of action? Since when
did we throw away caution, decency and principle? Since when did we
become so barbarous and uncivilized? Since when did so few make a
decision that will affect the lives and fortunes of so many in a
profoundly negative way? Have we forgotten about the priests and
servants of the Living God that were crucified by Boko Haram at their
own church alters?
Have we forgotten those that had their homes,
schools, churches, mosques and properties pillaged, robbed and burnt to
the ground by this group of godless Phillistines? Have we forgotten that
the international community, through the International Terror Index,
has rightly described Boko Haram as the ''most deadly terrorist
organization in the world''? Have we forgotten those gallant young
military officers that were killed at the war front whilst fighting this
evil plague, all in their quest to keep us safe, to secure our borders
and to protect our property and people?
Does all that count for
nothing? Is this the way to pay them back for their great sacrifice and
their noble courage? Are we prepared to throw away all decency and
morality just to seek favor with a handful of misguided mortals and in a
futile attempt to win political power? Simply put has the leadership of
the PDP gone completely mad or are they working for elements outside
the PDP? Are they suggesting that you need a godless Haramite to run the
affairs of the party before we can ever win power at the center again?
Where is the patience and fortitude that is required from true leaders?
Where is their faith in God? Where is their sincerity of purpose? Does
the leadership of the PDP really believe that it has kept faith with the
founding fathers of the party, those that trusted them with power and
those that bestowed them with leadership? There were so many other
people that they could have chosen to lead our party from the
north-east.
There were people like Mohammed Wakil, Nuhu Ribadu,
Bala Mohammed, Wilberforce Juta, Aliyu Modibbo, Ahmed Gulak and so many
others that could have been appointed. These are all committed people
with impeccable records of public service, high moral standing and good
character.
Instead of doing so the leadership of the party chose
to impose the most controversial, intellectually-challenged,
morally-depraved and despicable character that they possibly could to
lead us and when asked why they did so we were told that it was because
''he has plenty of money to spend on the party'' and no less than ''5
private jets'' to lend out to those who needed a free plane ride.
Evidently we have sold our birthright and heritage, not just for a mess
of pottage like Esau, but rather for a free ride on a private jet. This
is what a party that was once led by successive groups of seasoned and
formidable intellectuals and great men of power, vision, courage and
good character has been reduced to.
This is what the party that
was founded and once led by giants like President Olusegun Obasanjo,
Chief Tony Anenih, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Aliyu Gusau,
Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, General T.Y. Danjuma, Vice President Abubakar
Atiku, President Umaru Yar’adua, President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Bode
George, Col. Ahmadu Alli, Chief E.K. Clark, Professor Jerry Gana, Dr.
Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Ken Nnamani and so many others has degenerated to?
What a pity! What a monumental tragedy! This is a party that once
boasted of having in its ranks many promising and dynamic bright young
stars that were collectively capable of shaking the very foundation of
the civilized world and creating new frontiers and greater hope for the
future of our people and our beleaguered nation.
How are the
mighty fallen. What on earth has happened to us? As the Book of
Galatians in the Holy Bible asks, ''who has bewitched us''? Over the the
course of the last 17 years, in terms of the quality of party
leadership, the PDP has gradually descended into the unceremonious
cesspit of mediocrity. Worst still, with the recent appointment of Ali
Modu Sheriff as our Acting National Chairman, we have chosen to spit in
the wind, sleep with the dogs, dance on the graves of our fallen heroes,
piss on the blood and bones of the slaughtered innocents and wallow in
the filthy pool of compromise, deceit, doublespeak and shame. As a
consequence of this calamitous decision we have, literally overnight,
become a shell, nay a shadow, of what we used to be.
Unfolding
events will prove my assertion true. I have no doubt that time will
eventually prove me right and vindicate me. The bitter truth is that
this arrangement is an affront against the Living God and it cannot
stand. Yet if it does stand the party will pay a heavy price for it
because it will inevitably lead to the end of the PDP as we know it.
Imposing Ali Modu-Sheriff is an insult to all those that have fought
for, led, served, defended, supported and risked everything for the
party, at every level, over the last 17 years. Only the deeply
malevolent can be comfortable with such an arrangement. It is evil. It
is godless. It is indefensible.
It is shameful and as long as it
stands the PDP does not have the moral standing or authority to
criticize or condemn others. Those that made this decision behind closed
doors and without proper or wide consultations have murdered sleep.
They have not only betrayed the confidence that the rest of us bestowed
upon them but they have also prepared the coffin for our great party and
dug its grave. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions and I have
little doubt that God will judge them for what they have done.
http://www.metronaija.com/2016/02/ffk-rejects-ali-modus-appointment-as.html
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