Isn’t It Time for Ayu to Be Silent?

                                         POLITICAL NOTES

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu last week again stirred the hornet’s nest when he threatened that he has the power to stop Benue State Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, from realising his senatorial ambition on the platform of the party.

But Ayu who spoke to PDP supporters that welcomed him home in Gboko, said as a father of all, he has decided to remain silent to avoid a crack in the party.

Of course, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has since responded to him, daring him to stop any candidate of the party from contesting an election if he thinks he has the powers to do so.

The relationship between the PDP national chairman and Ortom who both hail from Benue North West senatorial district went sour after the party’s presidential primary that produced Atiku Abubakar as the party’s standard bearer.

Atiku defeated Wike, who was the choice of some governors, including Ortom. The former vice president also failed to pick the Rivers governor as his running mate.

Since then, the Benue State governor and his counterparts in Oyo (Seyi Makinde), Abia (Okezie Ikpeazu) and Enugu (Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi), who are all in Wike’s camp have been calling for Ayu’s resignation as the party’s chairman.

Since the crisis in the party broke, any time Ayu speaks, he has never for once displayed sensitivity or decorum expected of a leader seeking to reconcile all aggrieved members.  Even though he said he was misquoted, Ayu was recently quoted as describing the five governors and other party chieftains calling for his resignation as “children”. 

It is hard to phantom how he thinks the PDP would win the 2023 presidential with his divisive utterances and arrogant posturing.

From his many utterances, Ayu values his position more than the victory of the party in 2023 general election. What manner of a party leader would display such leadership deficiency at a time when he should seriously be busy seeking to bring all PDP members together to unseat the All Progressives Congress (APC)?  Doesn’t he know that silence is always golden?

Atiku and other PDP leaders should call Ayu to order before ego and arrogance rob them of victory in 2023.