Anayo Okolie
Former Minister of Education, Alhaji Dauda Birmah on Saturday said the removal of the former National Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was responsible for the poor performance of the party in 2015 general election.
Birmah, a one-time presidential aspirant of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), also expressed belief that re-organisation of the party would be a failure because the party has exchanged its ‘gold for monkey’ at the market.
Tukur, Birmah said wanted the best for the party, adding that the former wanted democracy in the real sense of the word.
According to him, “The milestone of my falling apart with PDP was when Bamanga Tukur was removed as the national chairman. They did not want him to continue because his stance was contrary to the characteristic stance of the PDP as they always wanted three or four people sitting in a smoke-filled room to decide what people should ordinarily decide in conventions or primaries.
“That was the point I parted company spiritually with the PDP. “
In the PDP I was elected a national delegate from my local government, but it was surprising that when we wanted a congress to nominate the governor in Adamawa, they moved the congress from Yola and brought it to Abuja and almost all the delegates were jettisoned and left in Yola, while the PDP came to Nyanya and collected political prostitutes who were given peanuts to come and pose as delegates.
“I was a national delegate and I did not know when the nomination was done. So I did not participate in nominating the governor and the president. If with my status in the party that can happen, then I should not continue to stay in the party. So when elections came I did not vote for the PDP, I did not vote for the PDP but General (Muhammadu) Buhari as president and Jibrilla Bindow as governor, because PDP turned its back on me and I also turned my back on them.”
In 2011, Birmah said: “I participated in the presidential primaries in Abuja. It was clear at that time that the ANPP was in the strangle-hold of state governors and they decided what would happen irrespective of what anyone had done.
“So I decided that there was no room for self-actualisation in the ANPP based on the conduct of the governors. Then two things happened, Sanusi Daggash, who is like a son to me was appointed a minister in the PDP government. It would be inappropriate to be opposing the PDP when my son was a cabinet minister. Secondly, Mohammed Goni, who was my classmate for 15 years and a long-time friend was nominated governorship candidate of the PDP in Borno State.
“I am someone with duel state citizenship, I was born in Adamawa but grew up in Borno, and thus the bulk of my political and social association is in Borno. Thus there was no way Goni would be a governorship candidate in PDP, Sanusi Daggash a cabinet minister in the PDP and I would continue with opposition in ANPP.
“So I decided to go to the PDP because all the battles I wanted to fight in the ANPP were fought and lost, so I joined the PDP in 2011. Immediately I joined the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur became the national chairman. In his attempt to emerge the national chairman, Tukur made me the chairman of the North-east campaign committee. The bulk of the campaign was in the North-east since the chairmanship was zoned to the North-east”, he added.
