By PRINCE ABUGO

THESE are times for concern in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The emergence of All Progressives Congress, APC has enriched political space. The PDP that emerged from Abacha’s draconian rule project unity and cuts across ethnic and political divides.

The crisis within the PDP has always been there but worsened with the death of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. In a bid to control power, sectional and religious bigots introduced politics of bitterness and continued to mount obstacles against the President’s aspiration.

National goals that propelled Nigerians against anti-democratic forces during June 12, 1993 wahala and before the doctrine of necessity by the Senate is now lacking. These critics protect sectional and religious interests; and greed for power has castrated them from placing national interest above personal interest. They pollute the President’s achievements on watery facts.

The PDP since 1999 has restricted the military to their constitutional duties, giving Nigerians stability for growth and development. A disagreement in a party like the PDP is normal but should not be allowed to threaten peace and security. The scramble and partition to control PDP ahead of 2015 is traceable to inordinate ambition to impose sectional interest above collective goals.

These squabbles have limited the vision of the founding fathers of PDP. The reckless killings of Nigerians either in the name of Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram and ethnic clashes in the North could be traced to hatred for President Goodluck Jonathan. Nigerians are slaughtered daily without conscience, life is no longer sacred.

However, the North in its over 40 years in power was supported by the South-South who paid dearly in the 1966 coup that killed Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and Okotie-Eboh, among others. In the Second Republic, the South-South supported Shehu Shagari in his first term and second term bid before he was toppled in 1983.

Also, the region’s support for military rulers of Northern extraction was unprecedented and like in1966, Chief E.K. Clark was singled out for punishment when Gen. Yakubu Gowon was overthroned. When Gen. Shehu Yar’Adua ventured into politics, the South-South supported him to win the SDP primaries before it was aborted by Ibrahim Babangida. So why is it difficult for these Northern elements to support President Jonathan for a return of the Presidency to the North in 2019?

These mercenaries and masquerades are driven by greed because by 2019 age may eclipse their political horizon and another Northerner would have repositioned himself for leadership; they resorted to crisis because Jonathan’s Presidential bid is their waterloo.

Jonathan’s achievements are glaring despite the challenges bedeviling his administration; despite having the stiffest opposition from the North, they remain the greatest beneficiary of his Presidency. They hold more juicy political positions than in past administrations; in terms of roads, education development and infrastructural development, the North holds the ace.

What are the yardsticks for assessing Jonathan’s achievements other than facts? Jealousies, tribal consideration geared towards grabbing political power have goaded Jonathan’s critics to fan embers of disunity.

Under Jonathan, Nigeria is witnessing the restoration of critical infrastructures in education, agriculture, industry and power, technology, roads and rail transportation. Jonathan gave federal presence to every state educationally by establishing a Federal university in states that had none; the aviation sector is working with emphasis on safety in line with international standards.

For decades, the railway sector was dilapidated, the Nigerian Railway Corporation was eaten by termites of corruption and inefficiency. The generation of Nigerians that appreciate rail transportation could be restricted to the 1960s and 1970s. Most young Nigerians lack knowledge of the importance of rail transportation to growth and development unlike in developed nations.

The rail sector under Jonathan is revived across the country; from Kano, Lagos, Ibadan, Ajaokuta to DSC Aladja, there is a noticeable resurgence in rail transportation.
In power generation, past administrations never took the courage to usher change; they recognised government alone cannot drive the power sector but failed to seize the initiative to reposition the sector.

The difference today is the Goreku and Omotosho power stations and nine other power stations nearing completion by the Jonathan administration. The privatisation of the power sector is geared towards sustaining these innovations.

We must love country above religious and ethnic sentiments. Since independence the North had not reciprocated the South-South benevolence.
It is strange Jonathan’s critics come from the North; are they unmindful of the facts of our relationship?

Jonathan is from a zone that had never tasted political power since independence; is antagonising him a way of rewarding South-South?   Since crude oil was discovered in Oloibiri in 1956, Nigeria depends on crude oil for its sustenance. The oil boom of the 1970s-1980s contribution to human capital developments, economic and industrial growth, it equally gave birth to mega cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna, Enugu, Abuja and others.

Many Nigerians were rich and entrenched in corruption but the region that sustains Nigeria was treated as serfs, living in poverty. Oil discovery led to environmental degradation, acid rains, destruction of aquatic life, and gas flare with all its dangers, thus destroying the traditional and economic sustenance of oil producing communities.

Nigerians must understand that any humiliation of the President politically is an insult on the people and zone where he comes from, a slight on our values and goodwill to the nation because Jonathan is symbol of our aspirations.

The conspiracy destroys reason and aspirations of minorities in Nigeria; we must rise to discard the belief that there is a first class and second class citizen in a new Nigeria that should not harbor any sectional insinuations. The present ethnic puritans who are custodians of politics of bitterness must give way to fertilization of ideas. We must be driven by love for country despite our differences.

*Mr. Abugo, a public affairs commenator, wrote from Uzere, Delta State.