Ahmed Gulak

Ayorinde Oluokun

A former Senate Chief Whip, Rowland Owie, has thrown his weight behind a former Political Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak saying “power is never donated but you work for it.”

The advice is coming with about 72 hours to the emergence of a new chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The party has been enmeshed in leadership crisis, with Gulak recently storming the party’s secretariat to assume its chairmanship.

He challenged the national leaders of PDP, to talk less and stop behaving like a widow who was trying to marry the driver of her former husband.

Speaking with journalists on Sunday in Abuja, Owie, a leader of the party from Edo State said Gulak should reap where he has sown.

He said, “Yes! If Gulak did nothing at all, he woke up the elders and leaders of PDP in the North East. They were sleeping until Gulak woke them up. Where were they for the 11 months that Uche Secondus occupied the position of national chairman of the party until Gulak acted? They should know that power, anywhere in the world, is never donated. You work for it. I urge every PDP member to support Gulak to finish the term of the North East of our party’s national chairmanship position so that we can start a full reorganisation of the PDP.

“What I am saying is that for the past 11 months, when Secondus started acting, all the North East leaders from where the former chairman, Adamu Muazu came from, where have they been? If nothing happens, the fact remains that Gulak went to court and they woke up. When men of truth keep quiet, the society will die and get rotten. We should face the truth, both in private and in public. If power cannot be donated, Gukak has moved into it and has gotten judgment at the court.

“All what all of us need to do is to give him support as acting chairman of PDP, use the opportunity to reorganise the party and start up. By the time it is done, the PDP can officially zone to where they want the national chairman to come from. Gulak’s entrance is just an interim measure to stabilise the party. Let justice be done, thereafter there will be a new national convention. With Gulak there, we will now sit down, the party will look at all the problems.

“So instead of party leaders behaving like a widow, that is trying to marry the driver of her former husband, they should keep quiet. Instead of keeping quiet, they are behaving somehow, there is no order.

“Let there be order, we are not saying Gulak is the best, but having secured victory in court which nobody did, the young man did it. So let him take up the acting chairmanship for a period. Then, all hands will be on deck, we will do the convention to decide the next line of action. With this, there is no way the All Progressives Congress will survive us. You can see the bickering among the APC members, see their change mantra. For the first time, a budget was stolen in this country. Are they ready for change?”

Owie also commended the exemplary virtues displayed by a former governor of Lagos State and national leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his decision to withdraw the suit he instituted against African Independent Television and Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi.

He said, “That goes to show that he is a real politician. A real politician must have a large heart to forgive. My late father, Chief Owie Oviawe who was of the Otu-Edo NCNC in the First Republic used to tell me that a politician who has no heart for forgiveness will die early because you may find that a person you think is a very trusted ally at 7:00 pm last night turns out at 7:00 am the following morning to be a member of the opposing camp.

“And a person that was an enemy on Friday becomes a loyal person to your cause on Sunday. My father advised that in politics, we must learn to forgive one another. I also wish to thank Her Excellency, Senator Oluremi Tinubu for supporting peace with AIT. I know that if she didnt support peace, it would have been difficult to give peace a place in this matter.

“I pray the Almighty God, in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Peace, to pour peace and harmony into Bola Tinubu’s home and life in Jesus Name. I also thank my brother Dr. Raymond Dokpesi for accepting peace and may God grant him and his family peace.”