PDP reacts to perceived hostilities among Buhari top aides

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to the perceived hostilities among top aides in the presidency, describing the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Executive Council (FEC) has disorganized and chaotic.

In a statement on Tuesday by its national spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP said disagreement between Abike Dabiri-Erewa and Isa Pantami over the purported ejection of staff of Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) from an office complex in Abuja, and several others that has become public, has further exposed “a scandalous breakdown of the administration’s central command system.

Dabiri-Erewa, who is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NIDDCOM, had last week accused, Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, of using armed security personnel to chase the NIDCOM staff away from the office complex offered to them by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).

Ologbodiyan in the statement described the unfolding drama as a mark of failure by the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to provide organized leadership for the country.

“A situation where officials are constantly at daggers drawn among themselves in unending clashes, backbiting, betrayals, leakage of sensitive documents and internal bickering over pecuniary and political interests, in manners not different from street skirmishes of common cult groups, is unacceptable to our nation.

“Currently, the newly appointed Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, are said to be at each other’s throat, with the SGF reportedly querying the decision of the President to sack the former Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr. Usman Mohammed. The situation had degenerated into serious confusion in the federal executive.

“Nigerians can recall the bitter wrangling, wherein the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen Babagana Monguno, earlier this year, alerted that Presidential responsibilities, including presiding over sensitive security matters, have been hijacked by late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, thereby frustrating the fight against insurgency and acts of violence ravaging our country.

He also pointed out that the power sector is still under the stress of squabbling between the SGF and the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, with the SGF, reinstating some officials who were sacked by the minister in December last year.

“The nation has also not forgotten the embarrassing public fight between the First Lady, Aisha Buhari and President Muhammadu Buhari’s cousins, over rooms in the Presidential villa, which further exposed the chaotic situation in the President Buhari-led administration.

The party said that Nigeria could now see how vulnerable the nation had become and why it would be extremely difficult for the country to witness any progress under the Buhari Presidency.