My govt is transitional, says JonathanDickson seeks part in primaries suitTHE public spat between the national hierarchy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva over the exclusion of the latter from the party's gubernatorial primaries revved a notch higher yesterday.In apparent reaction to the governor's pointed demand to Acting Chairman, PDP, Abubakar Baraje, to explain to the whole world why he was excluded from the primaries, Baraje yesterday stated that the party had told Sylva why he could not run for a second term on the PDP ticket.In addition, Baraje said it was up to Sylva to either make those reasons public by himself or keep quiet forever.Meanwhile, although he ran for President on the 'Transformation Agenda' payoff, lifting the hopes of millions of the citizenry during his campaign, President Goodluck Jonathan, has taken stock of his six-month old administration and, projecting into the future with an eye for his place in history, declared that his government would go down in the annals as a 'transitional' regime.Both President Jonathan and Baraje spoke yesterday when a delegation of the National Working Committee of the PDP came to felicitate with the President on his 54th birthday. But as fall-out of the Bayelsa primaries controversy, winner of the polls and governorship candidate of the PDP for the February 12, 2012 gubernatorial elections in the state, Henry Dickson, yesterday applied to the Federal High Court, Abuja Division to join him as a party to the suit filed by Sylva on the primaries.In the suit, Sylva is challenging his disqualification as an aspirant for the party's primary elections. But Dickson, in his application, prays the court, on which Judge Gabriel Kolawole sits, to join him as a party in the matter, as according to him, having won the party's ticket for the elections, he stands to be affected by the outcome of the case.In the application brought pursuant to Order 9, Rule 5 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules, Dickson is also praying the court for an order that all processes filed by all parties in the suit be served on him.Hearing in the matter comes up today and the PDP is expected to show cause why the primaries held last weekend in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State should not be declared null and void.President Jonathan said: 'This government will be like transitional phase in Nigerian history. It is always difficult for people to appreciate things. I notice that in Nigeria political environment, people feel that a leader of the party must always influence the decision of the party. So, influencing the decision of the party now becomes a norm. You made reference to the election, I always say my state, Bayelsa has always been a PDP state from 1999.'I commend the party. Continue to follow due process. Don't be intimidated by anybody as long as you are on the right course. And I believe PDP will lead the country to where Nigerians want it to be. Nigeria must have a robust economy where our young men will have jobs, our health facilities should work, our institutions should function and our roads should be safe. That is the aspiration of the PDP government. Nigeria with a population of about 167 million people must not depend on imported foods; we will all crash. We must re-engineer the agriculture sector.'Baraje insisted that the conduct of the governorship primary election in Bayelsa State was 'transparent' and was done 'under the watchful eyes of the media.'On Sylva's charge, the PDP acting chairman said: 'It is an internal affair of the party. If the governor wants to make it public, he can make it public. If he is saying the party has not told him what he has done, it means he doesn't want to make it public and the party is not interested in making it public. All I know is that in accordance with the law, the party has the right to present whoever is convenient to the party and that is what we have done.'On claims of a court injunction stopping the Bayelsa primaries, Baraje said: 'There was no injunction. What the party had was a motion on notice. It was not an order to stop anything. It was a motion on notice asking the party why certain prayers in that court papers should not be granted by the court and that we should show reasons.'We were able to show reasons why we should go ahead. It was not an injunction. It was not an order. It was not anything stopping our party. We are a due process party. If the order had come and say stop, we will stop. But that order was not to stop us.'The PDP leadership presented a letter and a birthday card to President Jonathan on the visit.Baraje told President Jonathan: 'Our party and indeed most Nigerians are proud of you for introducing the culture of non interference in the activities of party and the affairs of the other arms of government. Your amiable transformation agenda raised a lot of hope for the common man in Nigeria. As you clock 54 years on earth, it is our belief that the older you become, the more you excel. The good people of Nigeria appreciate you.
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