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| PDP CAUCUS |
PDP governors were wont to see the party’s national
chairman, Bamanga Tukur, as the problem with the party, but at the NEC meeting,
they could not speak against him with one voice, reports Chuks Okocha
It was a day his political enemies expected that he would be
booted out of office. But as it turned out, there was no mention of the plot to
remove the national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur,
during Thursday’s meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee in Abuja.
The reason for the outcome of the 61st NEC meeting, which was described as the
shortest in the history of PDP, was the rivalry among the PDP governors. They
were the national chairman’s main antagonists.
The PDP governors had been united in the plot to remove
Tukur as national chairman. He was accused of running the party as a “personal
estate.” The suspension of the governors of Rivers and Sokoto states, Chuibuike
Amaechi and Aliyu Wamakko, respectively, only made the governors more furious
and determined to oust Tukur, using the opportunity provided by the NEC
meeting. This was despite the setting up of a presidential committee by
President Goodluck Jonathan to look into the crisis rocking the party and try
to reconcile aggrieved members.
Presidential Peace Committee
The committee headed by the Secretary to the Government of
the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, has the following as members:
Governors Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, Theodore Orji of Abia State,
Emmanuel Uduagham of Delta State, Gabriel Suswam of Benue State, Isa Yuguda of
Bauchi State, and Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State. Also in the committee are the
Chief of Staff to the President, Mike Oghiadomhe, and the Political Adviser to
the President, Ahmed Gulak.
But the committee, it was gathered, was set up specifically
to look at the implications of the report by the Independent National Electoral
Commission, which said some members of the PDP National Working Committee were
not properly elected. PDP was worried about the repercussions the INEC report
might have if the concerned members of NWC were to be involved in the
nominations for the forth coming governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and
Osun states.
The Anyim committee was able to ensure the reversal of the
suspension of Wamakko, which had made the governors elected on the platform of
the party agitated. With the lifting of the suspension, it was clear that a
major hurdle that could have made the governors stand against Tukur had been
removed.
Jonathan Factor
Despite the fact that he was not among those listed by INEC
as improperly elected, series of consultations ensured that Tukur was not
removed. The Anyim committee comprised
governors considered as pro-Jonathan. THISDAY gathered that the national caucus
of the party that took place on Tuesdaybrought to the fore the fact that the
question of Tukur’s fate was a contest between the pro and anti-Jonathan
governors. Besides, President Jonathan
realised that he needed to stand by Tukur as he was not sure that he could get
his own chairman in place again if Tukur is removed given the chicanery of some
governors.
According to a source, the pro-Jonathan governors like
Akpabio, Theodore Orji, Ibrahim Shema, Isa Yuguda, and Emmanuel Uduagham who
are members of the Anyim committee battled it out against the governors
considered to be anti-Jonathan.
He said regarding the anti-Jonathan governors, “Their foot
soldiers that are members of the national caucus were calling for the sack of
the national chairman, alongside other members of the NWC that were indicted by
the INEC report.
“But the advantage Tukur had was that a seed of discord had
been sowed between the governors, mostly because of the rivalry of the crisis
within the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the PDP Governors’ Forum.
“The fear is that if Tukur is removed, there is the fear of
the unknown, in view of the betrayal that took place during the May 24 NGF
election. That Tukur is staying is office is not because the Presidency and the
governors love him and his style of leadership that much, but, there is this
fear that the devil you know is better than the angel that is not seen.”
The source explained that the deception among the governors,
which eventually saw some governors appear to be “teaching their colleagues
elementary politics and brought out the governor of Plateau State to be
defeated by 19 votes to 16 made the pro-Jonathan governors to move with
caution.”
G84
The rivalry also manifested at the G.84 meeting hosted by
the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill Akpabio. At the meeting, the
members of the Anyim’s committee made it clear that the Presidency was never in
the mood to remove Tukur, but rather he wanted to ensure that those indicted in
the INEC report were removed to make the NWC, which is seen as the base of the
party, effective in its work.
This was what influenced the position adopted by the Board
of Trustees of the party, which explained that there was no need changing a
team that could be managed.
It was, therefore, the combination of the rivalry among the
governors that eventually saved the day for the PDP national chairman.
That was the scenario that played out at the NEC meeting.
The fate of Tukur had been decided before the meeting that some had thought was
likely meant to decide his removal.
‘Run-of-the-mill’ Meeting
The arrowhead of the plot against the national chairman was
believed to be the governor of his Adamawa home state, Murtala Nyako. But Nyako
was said to have stayed away from the meeting when he realised he could not
summon enough forces to remove Tukur from office.
In fact, clues that the meeting would be a rather
run-of-the-mill gathering for Tukur emerged when he arrived the PDP national
secretariat to the chant of praises by a group of supporters. They sang
“Bamanga Tukur Mu ke so,” meaning, he is the one we want, to the delight of the
national chairman.
The tone of the prayers by the former governor of old
Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo, and the Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda,
was an indication that nothing negative would come out of the meeting against
Tukur.
Nwobodo in his prayer asked God to ensure that there was
continued unity in the party, saying the unity of PDP is the unity of Nigeria.
He also prayed that the party should emerge stronger from the meeting. His
prayers were supported by Yuguda, who prayed in the same vein for the unity and
stability of PDP.
Special Convention
Besides the passage of the vote of confidence on Tukur, the
NEC meeting accepted the resignation of NWC members who INEC said were not
properly elected. The NEC in session in accepting their resignation immediately
announced an Interim National Executive Committee to help Tukur manage the
affairs of the party till July 20 when a special national convention would be
conducted.
According to the chairman of the Special Convention Committee,
Professor Jerry Gana, who announced the
membership of the Interim National
Executive Committee, those selected were Hon. Chibudom Nwuche, acting deputy
national chairman; Dr. Remi Akintoye, acting national secretary; Senator Emma
Agboti, acting deputy national secretary; Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar, acting
national organising secretary; Tony Ceaser Okeke, acting national publicity
secretary; and Simon D. Jok, national legal adviser.
Others are Mohammed Sa’ad, acting national youth leader;
Barrister Oyibo Nwaneri, acting national women leader; Barrister Yau Kwadon,
acting deputy national legal adviser; Peter Adefunmilayo, acting deputy
national youth leader; Nasiru Ibrahim Birch, acting deputy national auditor;
Mrs. Torkwase Ajoh, acting deputy national women leader; Mohammed Dandari,
acting national treasurer; Onyemaechi Ikechukwu Jideofor, acting deputy
national organising secretary; Chief Augustine Lugbenwei, acting deputy
national treasurer; and Calib Yahaya, acting deputy national publicity
secretary.
Chief Akin Taiwo, Tope Ademiluyi, Chief Mike Akinfenwa and
Gbenga Oduwaiye were appointed acting ex-officio members.
Gana who announced that the Special National Convention will
take place on July 20 said Akpabio was the deputy chairman of the convention committee.
He also said that the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, was the
secretary to the July 20 special convention.
He also said that zonal congresses will take place only in
the South-west on July 11, while all the delegates for the national convention
of March 24, 2012 remained delegates to the July 20 special convention. Gana
said that other members of the special convention committee would be announced
later.
“The committee will
by Friday write a letter informing INEC of the decision of the PDP NEC in session and also write to
inform the commission of the special national convention in line with the
Electoral Act, section 85, that said any political party holding convention
must give a 21 days’ notice,” Gana said.
Vote of Confidence
The former minister of information said that ex-Deputy
Senate President Ibrahim Mantu moved a motion for a vote of confidence on
Jonathan’s two years midterm report. The
motion was successful adopted by all the delegates to the NEC meeting.
One clear thing from the body language of the NEC members in
session was that the NWC members and their deputies that resigned could find
their ways back to the NWC by July 20. This is because according to a source,
“what we did by accepting their resignation is to abide by the INEC report and
allow them to go back and re-contest. This is why the NEC approved that all the
delegates of the March 24, 2012 national convention were ratified as delegates
for the July 20 convention.”
The NEC meeting was attended by the governors of Akwa Ibom,
Sokoto, Kogi, Taraba, Kaduna, and Niger states, Deputy Governor of Jigawa,
Deputy Governor of Katsina, Kano, Kwara, Kebbi, Gombe, Bauchi and Cross River
states. Only the governors of Rivers, Enugu, Ebonyi, Adamawa and Benue states
were absent. The governor of Rivers State was absent because of his suspension.
Other members of NEC at the meeting included Senate
President David Mark, Ekweremadu, Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu
Waziri Tambuwaal, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Emeka
Ihedioha, Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, former
national chairmen of the party, Ahmadu Ali, Abubakr Baraje, Okwesileze Nwodo,
and Vincent Ogbulafor. Former Senate Presidents Ken Nnamani and Adolphus Wabara
as well as party elder, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu, were also at the crucial
meeting.
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