By Donu Kogbara
THE Federal Capital  Territory Authority,     FCTA, is threatening to demolish a building that “New PDP” rebels are using as a Secretariat…on the grounds that it is in a residential area and can therefore not be used for this purpose.

Unsurprisingly, the rebels – who have declared independence from the main PDP – aren’t buying this explanation, even though an FCTA spokesman has announced that over 200 other buildings have been earmarked for destruction because they also, in various ways, violate the provisions of the Abuja Masterplan.

The sealed nPDP office.

The Baraje-chaired splinter group’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, is furiously accusing the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, of politically motivated vindictiveness, of being desperate “to attack and reduce the opposition in the country” on behalf of the ruling Party and of messing up President Goodluck Jonathan’s image.

According to Eze, the President himself “is treating a political party as if it is his personal estate” because he “has failed to understand the altruistic mission of the breakaway faction”, while the Minister “…does not have the powers he is arrogating to himself [and is] is confused…. undemocratic…wicked…. not normal…and not worthy of the position he presently occupies”.

What I don’t understand is this: why FCTA thinks that it is acceptable to pull down a very expensive structure that has a legal right to exist.

Whether FCTA is motivated by tyrannical spite or genuine concerns about Masterplan issues; why do the folks who run Abuja think that it is acceptable to pull down a very expensive building that has a legal right to exist?

Talk about oafishly overreacting and killing flies with sledgehammers!

If a building is supposed to be a home rather than an office, are there not more civilized ways of preventing the building’s occupants from using the premises inappropriately if they flatly refuse to comply with the law?

Even if malice is the real reason for putting that building on the demolition list, are there not less wantonly wasteful ways of undermining political opponents?

As for Eze, his colleagues and their former cronies: A lot of ordinary citizens, Vanguard readers included, have told me that they are finding this New PDP versus Old PDP fight increasingly tiresome, negative and regrettable.

There is, furthermore, a widespread suspicion that the fight is more about personality clashes and competing mega-egos than about one camp being more ideologically sound or morally justified than the other camp.

My view is that it no longer matters who is right or who is wrong…and that the rebels should just leave the PDP altogether – and join or form another party – if they are not willing or permitted to reconcile with the Tukur/Jonathan wing.

I can see why New PDP guys – many of whom have invested vast amounts of money and energy in the original PDP – might be reluctant to pack their bags and walk away. I can see that it is galling and emotionally traumatic to let something go when you feel that you have as much right to own it as anyone else.

But if you feel that a club you belong to has treated you very shabbily, there is no point clinging to it if you cannot resolve your differences internally.