Timi Frank Warns Buhari About Shunning nPDP Members

Timi Frank

nPDP Members Waiting For Leaders To Be Back To Take Decision

President Muhammadu Buhari had reportedly, earlier stated that he was not interested in meeting with the members of the new Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, an action which has shocked members of the group.

There has thereafter, been speculations that leaders of the group are torn between dumping the All Progressive Congress or staying in the ruling party, in respect to Buhari’s refusal to meet with them.

Recall that Naija News reported that President Muhammadu Buhari stated that he will not meet with aggrieved nPDP members.

The group had earlier expected that the President will meet with its leaders and also grant some of its requests because of his desire to seek re-election in 2019.

However, Buhari was reported to have told state governors at a recent meeting that he was not prepared to meet with the aggrieved party members, submitting the issue is a party affair.

Most of the national dailies on Tuesday, reported the President as saying, “It is a party matter, I am not ready to sit down with any faction. If they have problems, they should go to the party. I will not intervene.

“Governors as party leaders in the states should deal with all issues. Where there is a need, the party leadership can come in. I will not get involved.”

Mr. Timi Frank, a former National Youth Leader of the nPDP, while speaking with newsmen said that, the group would consider the media reports as speculations.

He said, “We have not been formally communicated. We read it on the pages of newspapers like everyone else. If it is true- because, there has not been a denial (from the Presidency).

“I want to say that it was this same nonchalant attitude that the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, exhibited that led us to leave the party and the party paid the price.

“If today our President decides to say he is going to ignore us, so be it but I can assure you that we can’t be ignored. Our group is not a group that anybody can ignore. We have the capacity to make our point.

“If we leave today, I can assure you the party (APC) will crash. We want to believe that that news is a rumour. I don’t think the President will say he doesn’t want to see members of his party.”

But findings in Abuja and Ilorin, on Tuesday, indicated that some members of the group were at a loss on how best to respond.

The challenge being that the arrowheads of their struggle, the National Chairman of the nPDP, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, and President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, are both out of the country.

While Baraje is said to be in Saudi Arabia where he has gone to observe the Hajj, Saraki is on a state visit to Russia.

A prominent member of the group who asked not to be named because he has not been authorised to speak to the media, said, “The report in the papers today came as a surprise. We were not expecting it; to make matters worse, our leaders are currently not in the country.

“We were to meet before now for an enlarged meeting after some of our leaders met outside the country last week but the problems associated with logistics made it impossible.

“Some of them are still not back. I can however assure you that if it is true that the President said that, we will respond appropriately.

“If leaving the party was our original plan, we would not have gone through all these processes of writing a letter and all that.”

Party sources in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, said that members of the group had hoped that the President, who is the leader of the party, would intervene to address their grievances.

One of the sources said they had hoped for the President’s assurances which would have gone a long way to douse tension and give everyone a renewed sense of belonging.

The source said most of their members would be disappointed if it was true that the President had foreclosed any meeting with them because it would confirm “speculations that hawks around the President who do not care about the possible damage doing so will do to the party, have had their way.“