Seemingly now in the good books of the presidency, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardo has said that the growing nationwide tide of opposition against the party can be reversed if the national leadership adopts the right strategies and takes the right actions.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP on Sunday, Ardo said the party must hit at the heart of the rebellion, which was the group of five PDP governors who defected to the opposition APC and stem the tide of opposition.
He said, “As the whole country is keenly watching how the rebel governors and legislators will fare politically, there are many others elected under the platform of the PDP now sitting on the fence, waiting to see what happens with the G5. PDP must make an example and show that rebellion does not pay.
“If the G5 governors are seen to get comfortable with their new political associates, in their new party and in tune with their constituents, then those governors and legislators sitting on the fence naturally under pressure from their constituents will be forced to defect. If this happens then PDP will irreversibly lose power in 2015. This can be forestalled, but clear, concrete and immediate actions are needed.”
Ardo named several PDP states whose governors and legislators were feeling the heat because they did not seem to share the political leanings of their constituents, but were still holding on and watching how events unfolded.
The states, he mentioned, include Bauchi, Gombe, Kebbi, Katsina, Kaduna, Benue and even Jigawa and Niger.
Ardo said to make an example, PDP must ensure that those who defected paid a political price, particularly those with good cases in court against them.
“To discourage rebellion, it must be shown that rebels don’t sleep on feather beds,” he said rather angrily.
Ardo, a well known critic of the PDP and the presidency, seemed to have recently got support from the presidency when the political adviser to the President, Mr. Ahmed Gulak said at a PDP rally in Yola last month that Ardo’s case currently in the Supreme Court challenging Gov. Murtala Nyako’s nomination as the party’s flag bearer in the 2012 gubernatorial election in Adamawa State was a good case for the party to use to remove Nyako as governor.
