In this interview, the Coordinator of the Northern Emancipation Network, Mal. Abdul-Azeez Sulaiman, says that the ordinary people in the North can no longer follow the political elite blindly. He also warns that the North could suffer after 2015 if it continues to antagonize President Goodluck Jonathan as it is not in a position to win the presidency in the next general elections.

One of the issues yet to be appropriately addressed in our democratic experiment is the insulation of societal institutions from partisan politics so that they can effectively perform their statutory functions. The failure to do this has been due largely to our inability to observe the fine divide between the ruling political party and the government of the day.

The party in government – the PDP – has splintered into two factions: one still “dey kampe” as the “main PDP,” and caucuses around the president, Goodluck Jonathan and the Party chair, Bamanga Turkur; the new PDP has former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as its moving spirit, with a coterie of rebel governors and affiliates opening new offices for the “New PDP” in a move at establishing dual authority within the party.

Old things have passed away and the new PDP of Bayelsa is currently in charge of the State,” an associate of the immediate past governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipire Sylva boasted to some newsmen earlier this week as opponents of President Goodluck Jonathan pressed in embarrassingly in his home front.

Ikenga Ugochinyere Imo is a house-hold name in the Peoples Democratic Party when it comes to controversy. Some label him as a hatchet man when there are turbulent issues in the party. He is the convener of the Stakeholders Forum in the New PDP. In this interview, he explains why Bamanga Tukur should go and why a new convention should be held.

Yenagoa—The leadership of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Bayelsa State, yesterday, said it had alerted law enforcement agencies over the activities of the loyalists of the former governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, on the alleged formation of a faction of the party in the state.

The political landscape in Delta Central Senatorial District is being charged with the caliber of persons aspiring to replace late Senator Pius Akpor Ewherido in the Senate. Until his death on June 30, 2013, Ewherido, a charismatic and well-endowed politician represented the senatorial district under the platform of the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP.

Hon. Fort Ifeanyi Dike, who represents Ihiala Federal Constituency of Anambra State in the House of Representatives, is the House Committee chairman on Inter and Intra Party Relations. An engineer by profession, he is also a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Unlike some of his colleagues who had pitched their tent with the “new PDP” following the crisis in the ruling party, he has not yet taken position. He however told Vanguard in this interview that President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term ambition is the cause of the crisis in the party. Excerpts:

After the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, his successor General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over the responsibility of government to a civilian President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the victorious National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1979. The change of baton which did not happen until after the Supreme Court has ruled, also witnessed the end of army rule since the military coup of 1966.

Three chieftains of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from Abraka, Delta State, have called on the state government to stop the marginalisation of people of the area.