By JACOB KUBEKA –
Former Nigerian High Commissioner to Canada, Professor Iyorwuese Hagher, has observed that the Flag-off of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign in Benue State on Monday was significant proof that the party was big and strong enough to absolve internal shocks and contrarian forces without breaking apart.
In a statement he issued today in Abuja, Prof Hagher said the event was also significant because “Benue State is a poster child, of the Nigerian security agenda and a testimonial of colossal APC failure to secure the lives of Nigerians.”
Prof Hagher, who is the Director, Election Management in the PDP Campaign Organization, noted that the mammoth crowd that gathered at the IBB Square in Makurdi on Monday at the Flag-off was unprecedented in quantity and quality.
He said: “The National Chairman of the party Dr lyorchia Ayu and five PDP governors: Nyeson Wike, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Okezie Ikpeazu, Seyi Makinde and the host Samuel Ortom added special spice to the colourful flag-off.
“Ayu, was represented by his deputy, Ambassador Umar Damagum who mingled with the five governors and the party hierarchy in Benue State with diplomatic suavity bringing down the false heat generated on the PDP political crises.
“The speakers were down-to-earth, friendly and cohesive.
“With a flag-off like yesterday, the PDP is ready to clinch victory in all the elections next year, from the election of president Atiku Abubakar to the last member of the state assembly in Benue State.”
According to Hagher, “the five governors’ assurance of PDP victory in Benue and in all their states has proven that the PDP is not divided but dynamic.
“The Flag-off is also significant that the time for tame and tepid legislators is gone. The sad case of Nigeria failure in governance has been more of legislative failure than executive incompetence. With the election of fearless, dare-devils legislator like Samuel Ortom and others in the PDP senate and other legislators next year, we should expect an end to a comatose, corrupt and compromised legislature. It is indeed everybody’s hope that finally Nigeria will be able to stand as a nation where democracy works due to the separation of powers and independence of the legislators and Judiciary.”
He noted that Governor Ortom had demonstrated his firm grip of the Benue grassroots contrary to the impression the public has of Ortom as pulling down the PDP house.
“Ortom must be understood as a pillar of presidential democratic ideals which is characterized by freedom of expression. There is a flawless synergy between Ortom – Ayu Suswam -David Mark-Abba Moro-Orker Jev and all other PDP structures in the state. He is a master at political histrionics and even his supposed tirades against the PDP flag bearer are merely designed to bring the former vice-president down to earth,” Hagher said.
He argued that Nigerians were not electing a super-human flawless being “like we voted president Buhari who ran one of the worst governments in Nigerian history,” stressing that Ortom had been campaigning for an active president “who ought to be less an ethnic irredentist like Buhari and more of a Pan-Nigerian President in whose political veins, flow Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo,Tiv and other bloods.”
“The Benue flag-off was also a window of how subtle diplomacy and mature politics can resolve and untangle complicated political knots like the Wike Saga,” he added.
“In the Tor Tiv’s palace both Atiku and Wike are honorary Benue and Tiv sons. Ortom and Wike are indeed the best vote catchers for the PDP and Atiku presidential elections when the chips are down and the votes tallied next year,” said Prof higher.
He noted that in Benue, the PDP could hammer again on the nail to the APC coffin by latching on the collective failure of all APC leaders who have strayed from democratic ethos by refusing o toe the democratic imperative of law and order.
“Most of the APC primaries were conducted int he breach of the new INEC laws for the conduct of the Nigeria elections,” he pointed out.
He said: “The APC as a party is now merely a cartoon case awaiting its final tragic denouement when the nation massively rejects their presidential candidate, and rout the party with consequential loss of power.
“No party has so much destroyed the nation’s economy and quality of life and shed so much human blood and not been punished.
“APC has no hiding place, neither bullion vans, for rigging, nor courts of law will prevent it from reaping the reward of its bad behavior as reckless and irresponsible managers of Nigeria.
“The PDP Flag-off in Benue State was hugely successful.”
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