Dabiri-Erewa Vs Pantami: A Mark Of Buhari’s Failure To Provide Organised Leadership, Says PDP

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the internal squabbles in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressive Congress (APC) including the recent verbal exchange between the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, and the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami over the forced eviction of NIDCOM staff from their office at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

In what it described as “cancerous, disorganized and chaotic,” the PDP said the Buhari-led Federal Executive Council (FEC) and his party are incapable of driving an organized, result-oriented system and as such should be disbanded”.

In a statement by signed by Kola Ologbondiyan on Tuesday, the opposition party noted that its position is predicated on “the degenerated hostilities among officials in the Buhari Presidency, including Presidential aides, ministers and heads of agencies, which have further exposed a scandalous breakdown of the administration’s central command system”

The party listed several internal squabbles in the administration to include the newly appointed Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) over the sack of former Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr. Usman Mohammed, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen Babagana Monguno and the late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, the First Lady Aisha Buhari and the President’s cousin, amongst others.

The PDP noted that a situation where officials are constantly at daggers drawn among themselves in unending clashes, backbiting, betrayals, leakage of sensitive documents and internal bickering over pecuniary and political interests in manners not different from street skirmishes of common cult groups, is unacceptable to our nation.

The party therefore asserted that the situation is a mark of failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC to provide organized leadership for our nation.

It further counselled the President to re-direct the course of the Nation’s tides by disbanding his poorly assembled and dysfunctional federal executive council.

The statement reads: “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Executive Council (FEC) has become cancerous, disorganized, chaotic, and incapable of driving an organized, result-oriented system and as such should be disbanded.

“The party’s position is predicated on the degenerated hostilities among officials in the Buhari Presidency, including Presidential aides, ministers and heads of agencies, which have further exposed a scandalous breakdown of the administration’s central command system.

“Our party asserts that this situation is a mark of failure by the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressive Congress (APC) to provide organized leadership for our nation.

“The PDP said a situation where officials are constantly at daggers drawn among themselves in unending clashes, backbiting, betrayals, leakage of sensitive documents and internal bickering over pecuniary and political interests, in manners not different from street skirmishes of common cult groups, is unacceptable to our nation.

“It is indeed shocking that the acrimony had sunk to a situation where the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, reportedly evicted the staff of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) from their allocated office, with guns, while the Chairman of the Commission, Abike Dabiri, was on official assignment with the President.

“Currently, the newly appointed Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, are said to be at each other’s throat, with the SGF reportedly querying the decision of the President to sack the former Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr. Usman Mohammed. The situation had degenerated into serious confusion in the federal executive.

“Nigerians can recall the bitter wrangling, wherein the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen Babagana Monguno, earlier this year, alerted that Presidential responsibilities, including presiding over sensitive security matters, have been hijacked by late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, thereby frustrating the fight against insurgency and acts of violence ravaging our country.

“Furthermore, the power sector is still under the stress of squabbling between the SGF and the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, with the SGF, reinstating some officials who were sacked by the minister in December last year.

“The nation has also not forgotten the embarrassing public fight between the First Lady, Aisha Buhari and President Muhammadu Buhari’s cousins, over rooms in the Presidential villa, which further exposed the chaotic situation in the President Buhari-led administration.

“Before then, the First Lady had alerted the nation that a cabal had hijacked the federal executive and taken over governance of our nation.

“It is sad that presidential hostilities had resulted in escalated cases of internal sabotage including the leakage of sensitive documents as exposed by the Head of Service, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan and recently witnessed in the embarrassing leakage of President Buhari’s draft COVID-19 speech.

“Nigerians can now see how vulnerable our nation has become and why it is extremely difficult for our country to witness any progress under the Buhari Presidency, which has also ruined all the gains achieved under the PDP.

“Indeed, no nation can achieve meaningful development under a rancorous and shambolic federal executive council as currently constituted, with the height of irredeemable division among them.

“Such a situation never obtained under the watch of the PDP in the glorious years of our nation.

“Our party therefore counsels President Buhari to re-direct the course of our Nation’s tides by disbanding his poorly assembled and dysfunctional federal executive council.

“He should foreclose the parochial posturing of his administration by engaging more competent hands to run the affairs of our nation.”