The return of Former Taraba state Governor, Reverend Jolly Nyame has continued to upset some politicians, Ayodele Samuel and Yusha'u Alhassan write on his second coming to the PDP
These are not best o f times for Reverend Jolly Tavoro Nyame, former governor of Taraba State as his quest to returns to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) met serious oppositions within the state chapter of the party.Nyame, a two-time governor of the state and a founding member of PDP, had earlier defected to the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and contested for Senate in 2011 but lost to Sen. Aisha Alhassan (PDP Taraba North Senatorial District). Nyame after reviewing his political misfortune from the 2011 election began quest to return to his first love but he is not having a soft landing in the party at the state level.
But his Taraba State PDP chairman, Victor Bala Kona, said that the party is not aware that the former governor has returned to his fold , after he was loudly received by the PDP Ward Chairman in Zing, Ismaila Mijinyawa, and some other prominent political associates and hundreds of supporters from across the state.
Nyame said he,alongside others, was encouraged to return to the party because he
believed in the promise by the incumbent national leadership to do justice to all the party members and right the wrongs of the past.
Giving reasons for dumping the party in 2011, Nyame said he decided to step aside from the PDP due to what he described as pressure which he would not want to contend with at that time. "Politically, everybody knows in Taraba state that I have been part and parcel of putting the PDP in place. God, in His infinite mercy, has decided that today is the right time to come back to the party. I have toiled for the party I have worked for", he added.
He said his decision to return to the party was not to witch hunt anybody but in the interest of the party and the good people of the state, whom he said he has at heart. But some politicians in the state however are not comfortable with the second coming of the former governor.
Some of the issues hunting Nyame's return include his ambition to contest the Senate seat in the 2015 election and his desire for a new congress in the state PDP to accommodate his follower within the party structure.
Nyame has also pitched his tent with Senator Alhassan whohas been having a running political battle with Governor Dambaba Suntai and she is perceived as the government's enemy. Aside from being a major critic of Suntai, she has formed a strong opposition camp against the present leadership of the party at the state level.
Aggrieved persons presently calling for the heads of the party executives in the state include the immediate past state chairman of the party, Dr. Abdulmumuni Vaki, the two senators representing Taraba North and Central, the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Babangida Nguroje and host of other PDP stakeholders from the state.
Senator Asia in a text message to our correspondent said she welcomed the return of the former governor to the party and does not feel threaten with his interest in her present position. Nyame newly found political romance with Senator Asia who is said to eyeing the governorship seat of the state is a boost to the cliché that 'there is no permanent friend, but permanent interest in politics.'
Political pundits said Nyame returns to the PDP would boast Senator Aisha's popularity in some quarters where she lacks electoral values to become the state governor.
"I am not threatened, why should I be? It is God that gives power to whoever He wants and not man," she said.
Stakeholders also feel that Nyame's return to the PDP is to seize the party structures from the camp of ailing governor of the state, Suntai, who was involved in a plane crash.
A member of the PDP in the state told our correspondents that Nyame's return would be the beginning of an end for Governor Suntai's loyalists who forced him to quit the party in 2010.
"Nyame return is a dangerous signal for those in the camp of Danbaba because the governor pushed him out of a system he built and his return could be vengeful, more importantly as there is a silent plan to make the Acting Governor a substantive governor in the state. Nyame's returns might be another strategy from the anti – camps," he said.
Though, Nyama said there was no reason paying back evil for good done for someone, Senator Kona observed that Nyame did not follow due process in returning to the party he left in 2011.
Kona who addressed some members of the party from Zing A (1) ward where the former Governor hails from at the party secretariat in Jalingo said the occasion which Nyame claimed to have returned to the fold of the party was a Ramadan breaking of Fast and is not an avenue to gain registration with PDP.
"We are not against the return of Nyame to PDP because our door are always opened to all those interested in our party; but due process must be followed.
Nyame has offended his party members right from the ward level to the state level, by agitating for their removal while he was still a member of the ACN.
"Nyame is not a small personality and therefore his return should be a pride to us and be heralded by a big ceremony like is done to other VIP returnees; we wonder why the former governor prefers to smuggle himself in to the party through the back door" Kona added.
He said both the PDP Chairman of Nyame's ward, Malam Mijinyawa Ismaila, and his Secretary, Alexander Thomas both also denied registering the former governor, adding that they could not register a new entrant at his private residence instead of the party office.
However Mohammed Auwal Jibrin, a youth leader in the state, said the state PDP needs the former governor to keep the house intact as part of the reconciliation efforts of the BamangaTukur led national executive to retain the state in the 2015 general election.
http://peoplesdailyng.com/taraba-pdp-nyame-and-his-turbulent-return-to-prominence/
