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Following the resignation of the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan has mandated organs of the party to commence work immediately on how to get back the five defecting governors of the party who joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) back into the fold.
It emerged after a series of meetings held with stakeholders at the Presidential Villa onThursday night that the President has given the orders.
A source at one of the meetings said that Jonathan told leaders of the party, including Chief Tony Anenih, Chairman of the Board of Trustees; and former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Olabode George, that the time had come for all hands to be on deck to get the defecting govnors back.
According to a source, the President insisted that having achieved one of the focal points of the G5 agitations, it should be easy to get the governors to return.
“To be fair to the President, he never really believed that the governors have left the party. He believes that the PDP can do all it needs to do to get them reintegrated into its fold,” the source said.
It was also confirmed that no fewer than three of the defecting governors had indicated earlier that they were ready to return to the party if Tukur was removed.
A source further stated that what the party leaders would do now is to kickstart negotiations with the governors and make them see reasons the PDP remains their best option.
It was also gathered that the planned return of the G5 governors is a major task that would be handed over to the incoming National Chairman, who will be named on Monday.
It was gathered that the PDP is targeting the return of at least four of the defecting governors including the Governor of Kwara State, Abdufattah Ahmed; Sokoto, Aliyu Wamakko; Kano, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Adamawa, Murtala Nyako.
The issue of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s position as the national secretary of the party is also a key issue the presidency has mandated the stakeholders to look into, “so as to heal all wounds,” the source told Saturday Tribune.
It was, however, gathered that the PDP is not keen on the possible return of the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, who is said to “have gone too far” in his utterances against the party and the President.
“Notwithstanding the utterances credited to Governors like Wamakko and Nyako in the media, where they restated their decisions to stick to the APC, we in the PDP are taking the directive from the President that we should get them back very seriously and we will surely get the governors back,” a source said.
In a related development, President Jonathan and four governors from the North-East geo-political zone of the country, to which the position is zoned, met at the Presidential Villa on Friday to discuss Tukur’s replacement.
A meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party which will ratify the new chairman of the party has been fixed for Monday with a few names from the zone already being touted as possible candidates. These include the Transport Minister, Senator Idris Umar (Gombe); former Bauchi governor, Adamu Muazu and Dr. Babayo Musa (Bauchi), among others.
The governors who met with President Jonathan included Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe), acting Governor Garba Umar (Taraba) and Bala James Ngilari (deputy governor, Adamawa).
The meeting came amid speculation that the governors would not want the new party chairman to emerge from their states in view of the unhealthy rivalry that played out between Tukur and Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State – a development seen as the major source of the crisis in the PDP.
It is believed that the lack of enthusiasm from the governors to accommodate candidates from their states has placed Borno and Yobe states, which have no PDP governors, in a prime position to produce the new chairman.
But fielding questions from State House correspondents after the meeting, Yuguda, who did not admit that they were in the Villa over the issue of the new party chairman, denied that the governors were not willing to accept any chairman that emerges from their states.
“Are we God? It’s God that gives power. Supposing he gives somebody from my state, a PDP state, what will I do? I will follow him. Let us not go into that kind of imagination,” he said.
Yuguda, who was flanked by Dankwabo, Umar and Ngilari, urged Nigerians to be patient till Monday when the new chairman would emerge, saying, “It is just mere speculation. It’s just speculation. We just came to say hello to the president and wish him a Good Friday. Well, Monday is the day the NEC will decide who the chairman is going to be. So, let’s wait till Monday.”
On what kind of chairman the PDP needs in view of the crisis that dogged Tukur’s tenure, Yuguda said no matter who was selected, there would always be crisis; but that it was the ability to manage it (crisis) that mattered.
“Crisis will always be there. If there is no crisis, there won’t be managers anyway. So, somebody must be in charge to manage the situation. That’s why God structures leadership. And even at the family level, you have a leader to manage problems and crisis. So, we cannot be insulated from crisis. It is a continuous thing. The capacity to manage it is what makes you a good leader,” he noted.
Leaders agreed that the states are expected to produce the new chairman so as to avoid the usual battle between a governor and the party chairman, reminiscent of what happened between Tukur and Nyako.
According to findings, the governors of PDP-controlled states of Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba are not disposed to the chairman emerging from their states, while most leaders of the party do not also want the position to be retained in Adamawa.
Further checks showed that the leaders of the party targeted the two non-PDP states of Yobe and Borno for two strategic reasons. A leader of the party who was at the meeting but was not willing to be quoted said the first reason was to target the Kanuri race, which party strategists believed was a major tribal stock in the northern region.
Another reason cited was the need to rebuild the party in Borno State, where Alhaji Kashim Imam, its former gubernatorial candidate, has left the party for the APC.
“The party is weak in Borno and Yobe. So, having a chairman from that axis will strengthen the party. We are looking in the direction of Borno and the leaders will still meet on Sunday, a day to the Monday meeting,” the source said.
As of Friday evening, two names had been penciled in from Borno State: the former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly, Senator Abba Aji and Honourable Wakil Mohammed, a former North-East vice-chairman of the party.
While Aji had indicated interest in the job, Wakil was said to have been drafted into the race by elements within the Governors’ Forum as well as members of the inner circle of the president.
Meanwhile, the PDP has described Tukur’s voluntary resignation as the National Chairman of the party and the peaceful resolution of its leadership challenges as a sign of political maturity and an eloquent expression of the party’s internal democratic mechanism.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the development, which came against the backdrop of doomsday predictions by the opposition, had again proved the in-built conflict resolution capacity of the party.
The statement reads: “On Thursday, the selfless efforts of our leaders to re-engineer and strengthen our great party peaked with the selfless example of our former National Chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, who voluntarily resigned. It was a denouement which brought to the fore the unimpeachable democratic features of the PDP as a political party whose leaders and members are at all times willing to sacrifice personal interests in the overall good of the party and the nation. This is a true character of a political party attuned to the essentials of progress and national unity.
“Instructively, the occasion reaffirmed that despite our large size and diversity, our capacity to internally resolve all our challenges and, by extension, hold Nigeria together as well as boost her fortunes and improve the lots of the people is without rival.
“By this very development also, we reestablished with emphasis, that the interest of the people is primary to every consideration in our party and that no amount of sacrifice is inconceivable in service to Nigeria.”
The statement said the peaceful manner through which the PDP had continued to resolve its problems was an assurance that the challenges facing Nigeria today would equally be resolved with the cooperation of the people.
“We, therefore, wish to send a fresh clear signal to the opposition and detractors who must be hugely disappointed with the outcome of our National Executive Committee meeting that the PDP has come to stay and shall continue to win elections, having been deeply rooted in the province of the people.”
Source: Tribune