Boko Haram: Azazi in trouble

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Andrew Azazi

 

Jonathan to NSA: Explain what you mean • You are wrong, PDP tells Security Adviser

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Andrew Azazi, is in trouble for openly accusing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of fuelling the state of insecurity in the country.

The Presidency is already considering the nature of action to take against him, while the PDP came out smoking yesterday, describing the NSA’s statement as "a grave error and a fatal diagnosis of the security challenges facing the nation."

The party warned political office holders, like Azazi, against attracting ill-feelings for President Goodluck Jonathan.
Gen. Azazi, a former Chief of Army Staff had, at the Second South South Economic Summit in Asaba on Friday, said the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) was partly responsible for the escalation of the menace visited on Nigeria and Nigerians by Boko Haram.
PDP’s brand of politics, especially the way it picks its candidates for elections, he argued, was a crucial factor in the sect’s destruction of lives and property.
He said: "A situation where a political party insists on fielding a particular candidate over another to get a massive win and that if they get that massive win the party has arrived , is the source of the problem."
But President Goodluck Jonathan, on an on-the -spot inspection yesterday of the destruction visited on the Abuja office of ThisDay newspaper by a suicide bomber said he did not understand the logic of the NSA’s position.
He said: "I read in the newspapers some journalists quoting the National Security Adviser. Until I read the script myself and listen to him, one thing I do know, like philosophers will say, human beings disagree because people use different words to mean the same thing and use one word to mean different things.

"That is the primary reason for disagreement. That is why public officers like us are extremely careful because words are extremely elastic. So, sometimes, you have something in your mind you want to communicate but the way you communicate it, different people will give different interpretations.
"That is why some human beings who don’t think are quarrelsome. When they hear something, they only understand it in one way. They don’t give the opportunity to look the other way. So until I read it, I don’t believe that the NSA meant that the practices in the PDP are anti-democratic.
"I cannot comment much on what happened in the First Republic, but the Second Republic that I marginally participated; the aborted Republic, I marginally participated and this Third Republic that I am a key actor, as a member of the first eleven, I still see that the PDP is one of the most democratic parties.
"So I don’t believe that it is undemocratic practices in the PDP that gave rise to Boko Haram or any other group. So probably, people need to ask the NSA to explain what he really meant. I have read it from the papers. I don’t believe it is undemocratic practices of the PDP that gave rise to this or any other militant groups."
And he said of the bomb attack on ThisDay, The Sun and The Moment : "From the beginning of these terrorists’ attacks to us as a nation, I have always maintained the position that terror attack on any part of the country, is a terror attack on all of us and indeed the whole world.
"Terrorists’ method is to ensure maximum damage that the whole world will begin to look in their direction for relevance. This is a media house, not a government establishment. Media helps to inform all of us about what is happening and of course, the media is now also a victim.
"That is why we all as Nigerians no matter what we do or where we come from, we must all join hands in fighting this terror. I can assure you that we will get over it. Other nations have passed through it. When I say that, Nigerians begin to misunderstand that we are just sleeping to wait that it will come and go like wind, no.
And on the issue of dialogue with the sect he said: "Those who are saying we should dialogue are correct. Those who are saying we should not dialogue are also correct." But he was quick to add: "When we have a terror situation, you also look at global best practices all over the world. Just like war situations, you may dialogue; you may not dialogue depending on the circumstances. But we will exploit every means possible to bring this to an end."
Nduka Obaigbena, the Publisher of ThisDay, described the attack as "an attack on the media and freedom of speech."
The president’s public reaction to the NSA’s statement notwithstanding, The Nation gathered that the Presidency felt embarrassed by the comment.
A highly-placed source, who spoke with our correspondent, said: "The government was shocked by the comment of the NSA which amounted to a vote of no confidence on the administration he is serving.
"By implication, Azazi is saying that the process through which Jonathan emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP was fraudulent or not transparent. The government has always expressed worry that the NSA and one of the service chiefs are talking too much."
Asked what the government would do, the source said: "The Presidency is certainly weighing its options because the NSA is saying that he is helpless.
"Since the current state of insecurity cropped up, there has been pressure on President Jonathan to drop Azazi but he has always said no.
"Look at the global trend: once a Security Adviser comes out openly to say a thing like this, he might not be in control again.
"By virtue of the office of the NSA, there is a limit to which you can share some information in public."
The PDP was no less hard on the NSA over his comments.
The party, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said its zoning principle was not, in any way, the cause of the prevailing insecurity in the country.
The PDP described the statement 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 PDP has remained the strongest catalyst for the unity and progress of Nigeria. Equity, fairness and all inclusiveness have been the cardinal operative principles of the PDP since formation,"Metuh said.
"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."
The statement said the 2010 presidential primaries of the PDP, through which President Goodluck Jonathan emerged, was an acid test that proved the founding fathers of the PDP as true architects of national unity.
It said: "We wish to add that President Jonathan emerged with overwhelming votes of delegates from every state in the country, a feat that was again repeated in April 2011 general elections which of course, have been adjudged the best in our recent history.
"It is therefore a comment in grave error, a fatal diagnosis of facts for anyone to insinuate or directly assert that a section of the membership of the PDP or its foundation predisposes that only a certain section and not others will aspire to the highest office in the country.