Former NNDC MD ‘re-unites’ warring PDP factions in Borno

A former Group Managing Director of New Nigeria Development Corporation [NNDC] Mohammed Hayatudeen, who is also a former Chief Executive Officer of FSB bank, has reportedly re-united two factions of the opposition PDP in Maiduguri, Borno State.

A press release sent to Premium Times on Friday said Mr Hayatudeen did this when he re-registered as a member of the Borno State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party at a ceremony in Maiduguri on Sunday, 23 January.

At the event, Mr Hayatudeen had an interactive session with the state PDP Exco led by the chairman, Zanna Gaddama, PDP local government executives of Maiduguri Metropolitan and Jere Local Governments as well as Ward Executive officers. The event resulted in the ‘uniting of the state’s two PDP factions who had been at odds for a long time.

“They both united under Gaddama’s leadership and pledged to work hard for the party’s success at the state and federal levels in the upcoming elections,” the statement noted.

In his speech at the occasion, Mr Hayatudeen said ”Nigeria is headed in the wrong direction”.

He said “signs of decay have been looming on the horizon for quite some time and over the last 13 years, the economy and our society have been in free fall as we have been witnesses to the sharp and rapid unraveling of our way of life, our dignity and self-worth as a people and our time honored institutions.”

He also said “the most perplexing and egregious issue of the moment is the carnage being unleashed on citizens by connoisseurs of violence and terror all over our peace loving and God fearing communities. Not by the wildest stretch of the imagination did I ever conceive of the nation being bathed by such vast oceans of blood of innocent men, women and children in tandem with the displacement of entire communities.”

He said he can directly relate to the pains, anguish and trauma experienced by victims of kidnapping, banditry and terror because Boko Haram abducted his younger sister, married with children, in Bama in 2016, killed her 7-year-old son while she and her toddler child were held at Sambisa Forest for two years before she managed to escape.

He called for a speedy return of IDPs to their ancestral homes in order to rebuild their shattered lives.

Mr Hayatudeen, an economist and life-long banker, said Nigeria’s socio-economy “has been eviscerated by chronically inefficient allocation of resources and mismanagement.

“The government (which should be small and an enabler of business) is ballooning while businesses (large, medium and small) are shrinking. No wonder that vast sections of this country have been torched up by bandits and terrorists.”

He called for citizens’ action and participation in political affairs, saying “Many of us are simply complacent and just happy to go about seeking our daily bread and not bothering to take an active interest in how we are governed and administered. But how do we ever expect change to happen if we, as citizens, do not effectively participate in the political process, demand results from leaders and hold them accountable?”

Mr Hayatudeen said he decided to re-establish his membership of PDP because “it has a national outlook, accumulated substantial governance experience during its 16 years in power, and it has had time to reflect on its achievements and failures in its 6 years in opposition”.

He said PDP ”has pulled its act together based on the disciplined and seamless manner it conducted elections for various party offices and organs, the heavy emphasis it placed on merit and the mature and methodical manner in which it has proceeded to conduct its affairs since the election”.

Mr Hayatudeen spoke about his passion for national development which he “sharpened right from his days at Government College, Keffi and ABU, Zaria to his stints at NNDC, the single largest diversified holding company in Nigeria with investments in 145 companies straddling a large spectrum of industries,” as founding member and one-tine Chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group [NESG], member of Vision 2020 project; member of President Jonathan’s Presidential Advisory Committee led by General T.Y. Danjuma as well as member of President-elect Buhari’s Presidential Transition Committee led by Alhaji Ahmed Joda”.