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I have no other party than Goodluck party says FCT Minister

By: Ben Bright Mkpuma/Abuja Nigeria

Written Date: 14/05/2010

Indications have emerged that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senator Bala Mohammed may have dumped the All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP) under which he won Senatorial seat from Bauchi South in 2007 and got appointed as Minister about a month ago.

Senator Mohammed was appointed as FCT Minister on April 6 by President Goodluck Jonathan when he was acting president but his appointment was seeing largely as a compensation for his role on the floor of the Senate towards the emergence of President Goodluck as acting president.

Before his appointment, he was the Chairman Senate Committee on National Interest that championed the emergence of Jonathan as the Acting President and he had been Vice Chairman Senate Committee on Aviation. Since becoming the FCT Minister, Senator Bala has attracted political attention both from his home state and the entire country. Coming from the thunderous reception granted him as the Kauran Bauchi when he visited his state soon after his appointment.

At the reception organised to honour him, Senate President David Mark said unlike Senator Adamu Aliero, the FCT Minister is the “new improved contribution of the National Assembly to the Executive, saying “he is our best choice and an excellent representation of the National Assembly”.

He defeated the former Bauchi State Governor Adamu Muazu to clinch the Senatorial seat for Bauchi South.

Only recently, Senator Bala faced a recall threat from his home state State as a group called Concerned People of Bauchi South Senatorial District for the Actualization of the recall of Senator Bala Kaura mounted pressure for him to vacate his seat at the Senate.

The Group even expressed surprise at his nomination as a Minister designate and argued that he is not in any way representing neither their interest nor that of Bauchi State.

He accused the state Governor Isa Yuguda of being behind his political travails because Senator Mohammed who represented Bauchi state at the Senate remains one of the few elected ANPP officials who did not deflect to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with Governor Yuguda.

However, the FCT Minister might be on his way out of ANPP to the ruling party as he disclosed in Abuja at a party organised in his honour by members of the Senate held at Transcorp Hilton Hotel that he has not other party than that of Goodluck.

He told the gathering and even confirmed to journalists that he would make consultations with his people back home in Bauchi to get their final approval to defect to the PDP.

According to him, what is happening to him represents a transition from when he was an ANPP member to when he was a Senator and was appointed as a Minister.

His words: “With absolute fear of God and sense of responsibility what I said was that I was in a transition and my transition is transiting from where I was from ANPP member and I was given the position of a Minister and today because I don’t have any encumberance of legality or constitutionality which forbids me from defecting from one party to another when I was a Senator”.

While acknowledging God for giving him the grace to be appointed as the FCT Minister, Senator Mohammed noted that the person who recognised him and reposed confidence as well as gave him responsibility was President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Today, the person who recognises me, who reposes confidence in me and who gives me responsibility first is Allah and then is Goodluck. So I don’t have party other than himself. Of course he is in PDP and it is implied that if he is in PDP we have some in-exonerable characters that we have established together. I would go and consult with my people because politics is not opportunism; it’s about consultations, concrete engagement.

I must go back to the people who elected me as a Senator and in the first place take their opinion, carry them along, consult them and let them allow me if I should join the PDP finally. But today I’m with Goodluck , he tells me what to do and absolutely loyal and I do not belong to other party other than where he is” he said.

He added “I never imagine I would become a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria not to talk of FCT Minister from opposition party”.