STRONG indications emerged yesterday that
the lingering political problem between the
Governor of Rivers State and Chairman,
Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, Chibuike
Rotimi Amaechi and the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP would soon be resolved.
This was even as Governor Emmanuel
Uduaghan of Delta State said yesterday that
the lingering problems in the party between
some governors and the ruling party would
soon be over.
Uduaghan spoke in an interview with
newsmen in Abuja at the end of a meeting of
the PDP Special National Convention, noting
however that viable opposition party or
parties was good for the development of
democracy in the country, even as he was
quick to add that the PDP was not in any way
threatened by the coming together of
opposition political parties to form the All
Progressives Congress, APC.
‘’We had our emergency NEC meeting
yesterday which was very successful and we
have a national convention which is coming
up on July 20, to regularize elections that
INEC has issues with at the party level. The
party is still very much intact and very very
strong for that matter. ‘’Some of these governors that people are
saying are not pleased with the party,
virtually all the governors were there
yesterday. May be one or two were not there
because they traveled.
‘’At the PDP Governors’ Forum; within
ourselves, we are doing a lot of reconciliation.
You would have noticed that even the coming
back of Wamakko had a lot of input from us.
We had to appeal to the leadership of the
party that the suspension should be reversed
and the party graciously agreed to reverse it.
So, whatever is left, we are handling it at that
level.
On the formation of APC, he said, ‘’I don’t
think the PDP has ever been threatened. Like
the President said, it is good that we have a
stronger opposition but it is not that there is
any threat.”
However, sources said that the decision by
the PDP to resolve its crisis with Governor
Amaechi became necessary in view of the
determination by the party not to lose any of
its governors especially ahead of 2015
general elections.
However, the Akwa Ibom State Governor and
Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill
Akpabio confirmed that moves were on to
ensure that Amaechi and the party withdraw
their cases from the court for amicable
settlement of their dispute.
Meanwhile, Chairman of PDP Special National
Convention Planning Committee, Professor
Jerry Gana has said that vacant offices arising
from the resignations of former members of
the National Working Committee, NWC, would
be open to all qualified members of the party
including the erstwhile officers during the July
20 Special National Convention to be
attended by about 4,000 delegates.
Gana said, ‘’4000 delegates are expected.
The offices that are vacant will be open to all
interested members of the party and we have
already written to INEC to inform them that
the NEC of our party has resolved to
reconvene the convention on July 20. The
only zonal congress that has been affected is
the one for the south west which we have
now scheduled for July 11.”
The Deputy Senate President and Secretary of
the Special Convention Planning Committee,
Senator Ike Ekweremadu also said that there
would be no re-zoning of positions occupied
by former members of the NWC who resigned
following the report of the INEC, adding that
the party took the 2012 convention for
granted where there was yes vote for a
candidate.
Ekweremadu said, ‘’I am not aware that
Nigerians decided that our chairman will
leave. It is not for Nigerians to decide for PDP.
PDP will decide whether their chairman will
stay or not. It was entirely an internal issue;
let us put it in a proper perspective; what we
are doing in PDP is to demonstrate that we
are a party that is committed to rule of law.
‘’Now the INEC made an observation
regarding our last Convention and the
observation is straight forward. They are
saying that we had a guideline that stipulated
that even when you have one candidate for a
particular position, there must be voting for
the person, but unfortunately, we took it for
granted that since we had one candidate for
each of these positions, we could as well do a
yes vote.
‘’Some of our colleagues went to court to
challenge the decision of the convention and
electing those other people in pursuant to the
voice vote. The matter is still in court, but we
said, instead of waiting for court to decide
one way or the other, why don’t we do it
again and in doing that, are you going to stay
those whose elections were said to be correct
to resign, it doesn’t make sense.’’
Governor Akpabio had said that the resolution
of the crises between the party and Amaechi
would, ‘’show that PDP is always able to
resolve every single conflict. It also shows that
we will continue to rule Nigeria for a long time
to come because we have stakeholders,
members of the party that think more of this
country; they want peace for this country,
they believe strongly on this country over and
above their personal interests.
’’That was a major significance of yesterday’s
event. When we had the National Executive
Committee, NEC, meeting of the PDP and
heard that all the officers from the deputy
National Chairman down to the deputy
Financial Secretary and Treasurer were
affected by the INEC report, we resolved that
the best way to go was to ask them to tender
their resignations in the interest of the party;
and to enable the party call for a Special
National Convention and regularize the
process that INEC pointed out.
‘’And for me, I was very elated and happy
that we have members and stakeholders who
are more concerned about the stability of the
party and about the future of Nigeria than
their personal interests. What that means in
essence is that PDP will always be in a position
to resolve its problems internally.”
On reconciliation between the PDP and some
of its governors, Akpabio who is the Deputy
Chairman, Special National Convention
Planning Committee said, ‘’the reconciliation
among the governors is already on going. If
you noticed yesterday, we had almost all the
governors of the PDP there even the recently
recalled brother of mine and governor of
Sokoto State attended the NEC meeting.
’’Almost all the PDP governors were there. If
there was any governor that was not there
yesterday, he was probably on an official duty
for the Federal Government and for this
nation because I know that the Governor of
Benue State, Gabriel Suswam is a member of
this IPP committee that is going around
looking for investors in the power sector; they
travelled to Hongkong.
‘’You can see that peace is gradually
returning to the fold of the entire PDP and I
assure you that all issues will be resolved
because the other day, a press man asked me
yes, you have recalled Wamakko, the
governor of Sokoto State through the National
Working Committee; what about the governor
of Rivers State? I pointed out that the
governor of Sokoto State did not go to court
and that the other matter regarding my
brother, the governor of Rivers State was in
court and was therefore subjudice, but we are
exploring all means to ensure out of court
settlement to bring back everybody to the
fold.
‘’I think it is important to note that we are
determined through the PDP Governors’
Forum to bring all our brothers together; the
intention of our forum is not to lose a single
governor, we want to increase the number.
When I came in as a governor in 2007, we
were almost 29 governors, but through
various court cases and internal wrangling,
the rank and file depleted until we are now
23. Under this new forum, we are now
determined to increase the number.”
Meanwhile, a group under the aegis, North,
South New Nigeria yesterday said the PDP
would win 33 states in 2015, just as it will
continue to control the National Assembly as
well as State Houses of Assembly.
The Chairman of the group and former
Minister of Education, Alhaji Dauda Birmah
said that it was formed to support the PDP
National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur,
and affirmed that President Jonathan would
contest for a second term in office.
Meanwhile, the PDP National Chairman,
Bamanga Tukur has described the outcome of
Thursday’s NEC meeting of the party, as
indication that PDP should be seen as a
strong and peaceful political association of like
minded patriots.
He however thanked President Goodluck
Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo,
Senate President David Mark, other members
of the National Assembly, members of NEC,
Board of Trustees, BoT, as well as the
governors for their support at the meeting
where he survived plots to remove him.
Tukur noted that PDP members were
nationalists united in their resolve to take
Nigeria to greater heights irrespective of
minor political differences, adding, ‘’the PDP
has by the successful hosting of the NEC
meeting proved that it is a political institution
which has come to stay in Nigeria’s political
hemisphere and cannot disintegrate as
doomsday prophets are bound to conjuncture
or surmise.”
BeeCube Bwala