Quit Anpp, Ume-ezeoke Tells Buhari

Quit ANPP, Ume-Ezeoke tells Buhari    
Written by Leone Usigbe    
Monday, 22 September 2008  
There seems to be no end in sight in the feud between the hierarchy of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and its candidate in the last presidential election, Major General Muhammadu Buhari as the party has now indicated its wish for the former presidential candidate to leave the party.
The National Chairman of  ANPP, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke who gave the hint yesterday in Abuja while on a visit to the national headquarters of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) however noted that even though Gen. Buhari had allegedly been engaged in acts detrimental to the ANPP,  the party would not on its own expel him.

According to him, “we will never expel anybody. The reason is that it is a political party. If he doesn’t want what we are doing, he will simply on his own walk away. But to expel him, not only him, anybody at all, we will never expel anybody from the party.”

The party chairman advised the former presidential flag bearer of the party to take a cue on party supremacy from the incidents in the African National Congress (ANC) which recently ordered President Thabo Mbeki to resign and he obeyed.

“No man is greater than his own party. However much the influence you have, if you decide to go into a political party, you behave according to the rules and regulations of that political party. Any time you don’t want any more, you wash your hands and you walk away.

“You either form your own party or you go into another party but you cannot be there telling us who is where in a party that you know you have no interest,” Chief Ume-Ezeoke maintained.

He recalled that ANPP’s reconciliation committee had written to Gen. Buhari on the possibility of coming to resolve his differences with the party but he snubbed the committee, adding, “of course, he said he wouldn’t like to see them or look at their faces, talk less of talking to them. How can the house be in order with those sorts of people?”

The party chairman further remarked, “we are praying God that he may find another party or he may eventually decide to form his own party.”      

Gen. Buhari had maintained in a recent interview that Chief Ume-Ezeoke and a chieftain of the ANPP, former Zamfara State governor, Sen. Ahmed Sani Yarima were in fact members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and were thus, working for the interest of the PDP instead of the ANPP which they lead.

Speaking yesterday on the claims by Gen. Buhari, Chief Ume-Ezeoke debunked the allegation saying that Nigerians did not need Gen. Buhari to inform them of his membership of the PDP as it would be obvious for them to see if indeed he had returned to the party which he left in 2002.

He remarked that the former head of state had been calling him (Ume-Ezeoke) names ever since he as the national chairman of the party stood against an attempt to involve the ANPP in a mass action following the declaration of the 2007 presidential election results which gave PDP the victory.

Gen. Buhari was also miffed by the decision of the ANPP to participate in the PDP-led Government of National Unity (GNU), a decision strongly defended by Chief Ume-Ezeoke.

“Ever since I left PDP, I never wanted to have anything to do with them. Don’t forget the invitation to go to Government of National Unity was given by the President (Umaru Musa Yarádua) on behalf of the Federal Government. You have to draw a clear distinction. If it were PDP, I won’t go there,” he stated.

On the visit to the PPA, he stated that it was in line with the ANPP’s determination to strengthen the alliance among the opposition parties towards unseating the PDP in power as he noted that the ruling party had failed to meet the yearnings of Nigerians.

Also speaking at the occasion, the National Chairman of the PPA, chief Clement Ebri expressed the hope that the opposition could ignite a “political revolution” that would take over government from the

PDP, saying that even though the PPA was in the GNU, the marriage had not been smooth.
He regretted the level corruption in the country in which he observed everything had been compromised adding that “we are out to make a difference and add value to politics in the country.”

 
source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/17562/43/

Buhari should leave the party and join another of form his own party. You cannot be part of something you are criticizing, that is called hypocrisy.