Femi Fani-Kayode has written a piece to air his disgust at the recent emergence of Sheriff as the acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Read the piece below:
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On the 16th of February 2016, the leadership of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) adopted Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (aka SARS), a
two-time ANPP Governor of Borno state, a former ANPP senator, the former
Chairman of the All Peoples Congress (APC) Board of Trustees and the
indisputable founder of Boko Haram as its Acting National Chairman.
Modu-Sheriff is also the erstwhile godfather and sponsor of Governor
Shettima Ali, the present APC Governor of Borno state (until they fell
out).
He is a man that has a very deep and profound relationship and
association with Idris Deby, the President of Chad and he is a man whose
son is married to the daughter of President Muhammadu Buhari. Many have
argued that his allegiance is more to the Republic of Chad than it is
to Nigeria, that he is an agent of the Chadian intelligence agencies and
that he is a Chadian citizen who often flaunts his Chadian passport. I
cannot confirm the veracity of these assertions but one thing that I
know is that most of Modu Sheriff's funding and stupendous wealth
emanates primarily from the Republic of Chad and that that country is as
much a home to him as is Nigeria. Yet it is not his connection with
Chad that give me cause for concern. Rather it is his role in the
establishment of Boko Haram.
The truth is that appointing him as our Acting National Chairman is
like appointing Jack the Ripper as the leader of the Conservative party
in Victorian England. Kudos must go to the elders in the PDP Board of
Trustees, a number of State Party Chairmen and a number of key
individuals in the PDP Ministers Forum for taking a courageous and noble
stand by rejecting and resisting the imposition of this abominable
monstrosity. What Ali Modu Sheriff stands for and represents is utterly
repugnant to every fiber of my being. Yet I have no objection to his
being a member of the PDP simply because politics is a game of numbers.
It is a game in which everyone, no matter how big or small, counts.
If you want your party to grow and make progress you must accept
the good, the bad and the ugly. To this end when he left the APC and
joined the PDP sometime back, I was one of those that gladly welcomed
him into our ranks and defended him in the public realm. This was at a
time when others criticized the party for accepting him.
There is however a world of difference between accepting him as one
of the many leaders of the PDP and appointing him as the Acting
National Chairman. Others may seek to justify such a course of action
but I cannot, in good conscience, do so.
To me it is a matter of principle. If we accept this then on what
moral grounds did we condemn or oppose the APC or the APC-led Federal
Government during the course of the last Presidential election? If we
are comfortable with the likes of Ali Modu Sheriff leading us then on
what basis did we criticize and oppose President Muhammadu Buhari for
appearing to support Boko Haram when he said ''an attack on Boko Haram
is an attack on the north''? If we insist on Ali Modu Sheriff being our
National Chairman then we may as well go and apologize to the APC for
all our past criticisms and condemnations and join them. On what basis
can we accept as our National Chairman a man who established,
encouraged, supported and nurtured an organisation that later
metamorphosised into Boko Haram?
This is a terrorist organisation whose ultimate objective is to
turn Nigeria into an Islamic fundamentalist state by the use of terror
and the force of arms? On what basis can we accept a man to lead us
whose Commissioner of Religious Affairs when he was Governor of Borno
state, one Alhaji Buji Foi, was the de facto operational commander of
Boko Haram. The man was later murdered by those closest to him after
investigations into who and how Boko Haram was founded commenced. On
what basis can we accept as our National Chairman a man who helped to
create an organisation that wishes to establish sharia as the norm in
our country, repeal all our criminal and civil laws, ban all our civil
liberties and human rights, proscribe the teaching of western education
in our schools, turn our women into 6th century sex slaves and abrogate
the secularity of our state.
On what basis can we accept as our leader a man who supported a
group that wishes to suspend our constitution, wipe out the Christian
faith and the practice of moderate Islam in our country and create an
evil ISIL-type empire in our nation? I really do wonder whether those
that made this decision have lost all sense of rationality? I wonder
whether they have lost their ability to see reason properly and to
exercise their discretion in a logical, responsible and lucid manner? I
wonder whether they have lost their fear of God? I wonder whether they
have forgotten the evil that was visited on our people, and is still
being visited on them, over the last seven years by Boko Haram?
I wonder whether they know at whose instance it was that Mohammed
Yusuf, the erstwhile leader of Boko Haram, was killed by our security
forces whilst in police custody in 2009 just so that he wouldn't live to
tell the whole world who gave him the funds to set up his murderous
cult? I wonder whether they have forgotten the terrible havoc that Boko
Haram unleashed on our citizens? I wonder whether they have forgotten
the tears, wailing and suffering of the bereaved.
I wonder whether they have forgotten the slaughter of the
innocents. I wonder whether they have forgotten those that were
beheaded, those that were chopped to pieces and thrown down wells like
dog meat and those that were burnt alive? I wonder whether they have
forgotten the savage and bestial rape, murder and abduction of the
Chibok girls and all the other little girls that suffered a similar fate
in recent times? I wonder whether they have forgotten that our nation
is still at war with the bloodthirsty barbarians that committed these
atrocities?
Since when did we, as a political party, lose our memories and
jettison our moral compass in this way? Since when did we become so
callous, shameless and insensitive? Since when did greed and the lust
for power and money determine and motivate our every course of action?
Since when did we throw away caution, decency and principle? Since when
did we become so barbarous and uncivilized? Since when did so few make a
decision that will affect the lives and fortunes of so many in a
profoundly negative way? Have we forgotten about the priests and
servants of the Living God that were crucified by Boko Haram at their
own church alters?
Have we forgotten those that had their homes, schools, churches,
mosques and properties pillaged, robbed and burnt to the ground by this
group of godless Phillistines? Have we forgotten that the international
community, through the International Terror Index, has rightly described
Boko Haram as the ''most deadly terrorist organization in the world''?
Have we forgotten those gallant young military officers that were killed
at the war front whilst fighting this evil plague, all in their quest
to keep us safe, to secure our borders and to protect our property and
people?
Does all that count for nothing? Is this the way to pay them back
for their great sacrifice and their noble courage? Are we prepared to
throw away all decency and morality just to seek favor with a handful of
misguided mortals and in a futile attempt to win political power?
Simply put has the leadership of the PDP gone completely mad or are they
working for elements outside the PDP? Are they suggesting that you need
a godless Haramite to run the affairs of the party before we can ever
win power at the center again? Where is the patience and fortitude that
is required from true leaders? Where is their faith in God? Where is
their sincerity of purpose? Does the leadership of the PDP really
believe that it has kept faith with the founding fathers of the party,
those that trusted them with power and those that bestowed them with
leadership? There were so many other people that they could have chosen
to lead our party from the north-east.
There were people like Mohammed Wakil, Nuhu Ribadu, Bala Mohammed,
Wilberforce Juta, Aliyu Modibbo, Ahmed Gulak and so many others that
could have been appointed. These are all committed people with
impeccable records of public service, high moral standing and good
character.
Instead of doing so the leadership of the party chose to impose the
most controversial, intellectually-challenged, morally-depraved and
despicable character that they possibly could to lead us and when asked
why they did so we were told that it was because ''he has plenty of
money to spend on the party'' and no less than ''5 private jets'' to
lend out to those who needed a free plane ride. Evidently we have sold
our birthright and heritage, not just for a mess of pottage like Esau,
but rather for a free ride on a private jet. This is what a party that
was once led by successive groups of seasoned and formidable
intellectuals and great men of power, vision, courage and good character
has been reduced to.
This is what the party that was founded and once led by giants like
President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Tony Anenih, General Ibrahim
Babangida, General Aliyu Gusau, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, General T.Y.
Danjuma, Vice President Abubakar Atiku, President Umaru Yar’adua,
President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Bode George, Col. Ahmadu Alli, Chief
E.K. Clark, Professor Jerry Gana, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Ken Nnamani
and so many others has degenerated to? What a pity! What a monumental
tragedy! This is a party that once boasted of having in its ranks many
promising and dynamic bright young stars that were collectively capable
of shaking the very foundation of the civilized world and creating new
frontiers and greater hope for the future of our people and our
beleaguered nation.
How are the mighty fallen. What on earth has happened to us? As the
Book of Galatians in the Holy Bible asks, ''who has bewitched us''?
Over the the course of the last 17 years, in terms of the quality of
party leadership, the PDP has gradually descended into the unceremonious
cesspit of mediocrity. Worst still, with the recent appointment of Ali
Modu Sheriff as our Acting National Chairman, we have chosen to spit in
the wind, sleep with the dogs, dance on the graves of our fallen heroes,
piss on the blood and bones of the slaughtered innocents and wallow in
the filthy pool of compromise, deceit, doublespeak and shame. As a
consequence of this calamitous decision we have, literally overnight,
become a shell, nay a shadow, of what we used to be.
Unfolding events will prove my assertion true. I have no doubt that
time will eventually prove me right and vindicate me. The bitter truth
is that this arrangement is an affront against the Living God and it
cannot stand. Yet if it does stand the party will pay a heavy price for
it because it will inevitably lead to the end of the PDP as we know it.
Imposing Ali Modu-Sheriff is an insult to all those that have fought
for, led, served, defended, supported and risked everything for the
party, at every level, over the last 17 years. Only the deeply
malevolent can be comfortable with such an arrangement. It is evil. It
is godless. It is indefensible.
It is shameful and as long as it stands the PDP does not have the
moral standing or authority to criticize or condemn others. Those that
made this decision behind closed doors and without proper or wide
consultations have murdered sleep. They have not only betrayed the
confidence that the rest of us bestowed upon them but they have also
prepared the coffin for our great party and dug its grave. It is a
tragedy of monumental proportions and I have little doubt that God will
judge them for what they have done.
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