Not True Ahmadu Alli
By Dr. Bankole Jimoh, Kwara State.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
|
•Ahmadu
Alli
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
|
I am a foundation member of the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) and one of those who helped in formulating the
mission and vision of the party. The PDP was intended to be
a party of decent, honest and fair-minded men and women. One
of the core values of the party was unalloyed commitment to
the truth, no matter, the circumstances and the consequences.
Today, these ideas are being eroded and rubbished by those
who came from nowhere. The PDP is fast degenerating into a
party of "anything goes", a party bereft of honour
and integrity.
Or how else would one appraise the recent interview published
by the Punch Newspaper on December 4th, 2007, in which the
National Chairman of the PDP and Ambassador-designate, Senator
Ahmadu Ali, made a number of statements, most of which are
factually incorrect?. In particular, Dr. Ali commented on
the "palace coup" that led to the emergence of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo as Chairman of the Board of Trustees
of the PDP.
In seeking to justify the turn of events and proceedings of
the meeting of Wednesday, June 27th, 2007, Dr. Ali said that
Obasanjo "begged NEC to allow the meeting to start at
10.00 am, so that, he could return to his farm that day and
NEC granted the request." Note that it took almost six
months for Ali to concoct this rather disingenuous explaination,
from which he drew the conclusion that the "meeting where
Obasanjo was installed BOT Chairman was fixed by NEC,"
and that the former Chairman of the BOT, Chief Tony Anenih,
"was aware of all this, because he "was at the meeting
where the decision was taken".
Of course, the whole scheming started in 2006 with a constitutional
amendment- through a memo crafted and presented by Dr. Ali
to fit no other person, than Obasanjo. Characteristically,
the same Ali now seeks legitimacy for the constitutional amendment
claiming that it was Chief Tony Anenih who initiated it.
What a shame!
I cannot hold brief for Chief Tony Anenih for he is capable
of speaking for himself. However, event watchers and those
who attended the BOT meeting have sworn categorically, that
Dr. Ali’s claims are all fabrications. Isn’t it
baffling that a one-time Senator of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, Chairman of Africa’s largest party and Ambassador-designate,
can descend so low as to tell such blatant lies? Except Ali
equates himself with the NEC of the party, those who ought
to know are unequivocal, in saying that there was never a
decision by the NEC of the party to change the schedule of
that particular BOT meeting or shift its time from 8.00 pm
to 10.00 am.
One is therefore, amazed at Dr. Ali’s limitless capacity
for lying about an event that was widely publicized a few
months ago and universally accepted as a "palace coup"
by Nigerians. At a certain stage in a man’s life, his
word should be his honour. But not so with Ali, who, at will,
can turn black into white and vice versa. Yet, this is the
man whose responsibility it is to represent Nigeria, in the
eyes of the entire world.
Senator Ali could not have forgotten so soon, that most Nigerian
Newspaper published details of the so-called BOT meeting of
June 27. Was there any doubt that he, Obasanjo and other party
officials, manipulated and changed the time of the meeting
from 8.00 pm to 10.00 am without the knowledge of the former
BOT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, whose responsibility it was
to approve the schedule of BOT meetings? Was it not public
knowledge that Obasanjo coerced, maneuvered and dragged President
Umaru Yar’ Adua to the meeting? And, were there where
no protest from respected BOT members such as Major-General
David Jemibewon (Rtd.), Arch. Ibrahim Bunu, Prof. E. C. Osamor,
Senator Onyeabo Obi and others, who could not stand the petty
and shameful intrigues? More importantly, was it not true
that out of about 100 members of the BOT, only 22 were present,
and that this number did not constitute a quorum?
The likes of Ali fueled the unfortunate impression that politics
is a dirty game. They are Machiavellian in style and play
the game with greed and crudity, always believing that the
end justifies the means. And, very often, they end up winning
only vain glories and time-bound possessions, but with a heavy
moral burden that lives with them through out their life time.
To lie with impunity, as Dr. Ali has done in that interview,
is to insult the collective intelligence of Nigerians, who
know all the intrigues that led to the emergence of Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo as Chairman of BOT of the PDP. Most Nigerians,
especially members of the PDP, still feel offended by the
gangsterism of the Obasanjo era, as reflected in the findings
of the Alex Ekwueme Reconciliation Committee. Ali must not
rob salt on this injury.
|
