As clueless as Jonathan’s government was perceived by some Nigerians, under his watch, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was fragmented with both factions living in their own domain.
Jonathan didn’t give order to security agencies to demolish the other faction’s secretariat, in whatever guise.
Likewise, the National Labour Congress (NLC) is factionalized and each of the two segments is carrying out their separate activities. But the government has never prejudicially used its power against the two disputing groups. Even in Anambra state, this is not the way “Willie Obiano” is treating the other faction of APGA.
In all honesty, the demolition of the APC’s factional secretariat by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state is a clear act of tyranny, and unwise!
Haba, Your Excellency! Were you not the one who did the same to “Inuwa Abdulkadir”, the APC zonal chairman North-west, just because of his political stance? You ordered the demolition of his house under the pretext of violating the plan of Kaduna state Urban and Regional Development Agency (KASUPDA).
If APC’s factional secretariat would be demolished based for violation of KASUPDA rules, then, why were their neighbourhoods not affected? What about the other thousands of illegal buildings erected without complying with the KASUPDA’s rules? And why did the exercise come into effect at the time when the APC’s stalwarts in the state are in conflict?
If the government’s claim is true that the factional secretariat didn’t pay their ground rent for “eight years”, then 90 percent of the houses in Kaduna deserve the same treatment. It is just coming to my knowledge that there is something called “ground rent” in our state, Kaduna.
Does the governor or KASUPDA have the jurisdiction to demolish the houses of the offenders who refused to pay ground rent or the court of law?
When I was in school, a friend told our student’s Union Government President (SUG), who happened to be my course mate, that there was life after SUG and there was life after school, admonishing the president not to be sentimental and biased in steering the affairs of the union.
Therefore, El-Rufai should understand that there is life after governance. I thought El-Rufai has learnt a lesson from his trial during the Umaru Yar’Adua administration, which forced him into exile.
One of the most beautiful things about power, especially in Nigeria’s context, when someone is not in the leadership, his successor would treat him like an ordinary person who didn’t even sit in the same office like the Kwankwasiya and Gandujiyya’s case.
The excessive use of power in a democratic system is a big foul play because it’s as simple as throwing yourself in another jungle, which could give hunters the opportunity to hunt you in the same way they did to the eatable animals in the bush, when you’re not king in your domain.
Jabir T. Usman,
Kaduna South, Kaduna
