Former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu yesterday said that except President Goodluck Jonathan and national chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur shifted grounds in their feud with the group of seven (G7) aggrieved governors, the crisis threatening to tear the ruling party apart might not end anytime soon.
Kalu noted that with both parties sticking to their guns, the polity would remain heated unnecessarily.
This, he said, would not favour the nation’s fledgling democracy.
The former governor said his solution to the protracted crisis was informed by his deep involvement in speaking to both parties on how to resolve their differences.
Kalu made this known while speaking with reporters at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on his way to the United Arab Emirates.
Kalu said: “The President and the National Chairman of the PDP should also give in a little bit. They should both find a common ground for the unity of the party and for the unity of Nigerians.
“Nigerian people need more of democratic dividends than this impasse. This impasse has taken a lot – from the governors and from the President and from the party. It has been a terrific few months of quarrel. I had the opportunity of talking to both parties and I am in the middle of the quarrel because Nigerians deserve more good things to happen to them than this quarrel in the ruling party.
“It is not difficult to see the division in the ruling party. It is not good for democratic process; it is not good for the country. It is not good for the image of the country; it is not good for anybody.
“Even people in governments in the United States and European countries have occasionally asked me about it and I did not know what to say.
“Suffice it to say that in politics there is always room for quarrels. But the quarrels in the political process are always good for people to learn how to move forward”.
On the possibility of the crisis affecting the ruling party’s chances in the 2015 general election, Kalu said: “The party is going to be very formidable in 2015. We never doubted how formidable the party will be”.
