Boko The National Security Adviser, General Owoye Azazi (retd) on Saturday came under fire over his claims that the controversial clamour for keeping to the principle of zoning in the choice of the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the run up to 2011 elections was partly responsible for the ongoing attacks by Boko Haram in the Northern part of the country.
"And I would like to say this, though the PDP people will not agree with me, they would like to attack me, but I hope they do it in private; PDP got it wrong from the beginning by saying Mr. A can go and Mr. B cannot go and these decisions were made without looking at the constitution. Is it possible that somebody was thinking only Mr. A could win and if he could not win, there would be problems in this society," said Azazi on Friday at the 2nd South-south economic summit in Asaba, Delta State.
He has also come under attack for the failure of the intelligence agencies he oversees to rein in the increasing Boko Haram attacks in Northern Nigeria and Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Barely 24 hours after he made the comments, his worst fears came to pass, as he was not only attacked publicly over the comments by PDP, but also by President Goodluck Jonathan, the only Nigerian who has the power to put him out of job.
While speaking on Saturday during a visit to Abuja office of THISDAY newspapers which was bombed by Boko Haram on Thursday, President Jonathan said Nigerians should ask Azazi to further explain what he really meant.
"I have read it from the papers. I don’t believe it is the undemocratic practices of the PDP that gave rise to this or any other militant groups," said the President who also speculated that his NSA may have used a wrong choice of words in communicating his thoughts or was misquoted.
"Sometimes, you have something in your mind you want to communicate but the way you communicate it, different people will give different interpretations," the President said.
President Jonathan added that contrary to the impression created by Azazi with the statement, "PDP is one of the most democratic parties" in existence.
President Jonathan’s riposte was followed by a statement signed by Olisah Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of PDP.
Metuh, in the strongly worded statement described the assertion by Azazi as "a very poor reflection of the foundation and the internal workings of the party as well as a wrong deduction on the roots of security challenges in the country."
The party affirmed that contrary to the assertion by the NSA, PDP remains the most unifying of Nigeria’s political parties.
Metuh added that the PDP is united in support of President Jonathan.
He also asked Azaz ito remain focused on his job if he is to continue to enjoy the support of the ruling party.
"We wish to state without any ambiguity that our great party remains the only political party in Nigeria that is not owned by any ethnic group, person or group of persons. All Nigerians are equal stakeholders.
"All our special National Conventions for the election of our Presidential flag bearers since 1998 have seen candidates emerge on the strength of national unity, a common motif which envisages that every section of the country, majority or minority, can aspire to the highest political office in our fatherland via a well entrenched rotation and zoning principle in the constitution of our party," he added.
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