PDP Reps Pledge Fair Presidential Primaries
DETAILS of the intrigues which characterised the 55th National Executive Council (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja on Thursday in which 20 state governors in the ruling party reportedly endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid, have emerged.
A member of the PDP NEC who pleaded anonymity disclosed to The Guardian that the meeting was highly charged as President Jonathan allegedly warned the governors of the consequences for all stakeholders, if they dared to abandon him.
The threat prompted some of the governors to hurriedly organise a gathering to endorse the president.
The NEC member quoted President Jonathan as having told the governors at the meeting: “You have given me assurances of support but some of you are secretly campaigning for another candidate. I can’t stand here and be humiliated by you. Everything I have asked for, you have refused to give me. No president anywhere has been treated by his party the way you are treating me.”
At this point, Chairman, Nigeria Governors Forum, Bukola Saraki was said to have risen to President Jonathan’s rescue and told the meeting that they must toe the president’s line in order to save the party from a looming crisis.
According to a source, before the meeting, Saraki allegedly told his colleagues and the PDP Chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, that “all of us here got everything that we have asked for—the order of the primaries, the delegate issue and all that. There must be something for the president.”
It was gathered that Niger State Governor, Aliyu Babangida, put the motion to endorse the president for the re-election bid as the PDP candidate on condition that he serves just one term and go by 2015.
According to the source, there was a palpable sense of relief in the expansive office of the PDP chairman. The question that followed was whether the president was willing to do a single term and go away.
Governors Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Alhaji Danjuma Goje (Gombe), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Chief Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), and Mallam Sule Lamido (Jigawa) persistently asked the president to respond to the question.
“What are we going to tell our people when they ask?,” Governor Aliyu was quoted to have asked the president.
But the president was mute, giving rise to suspicion that he wanted to have the office for at least eight more years “if that is what Nigerians want.”
At this stage, the source said, former BoT Chairman of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih rose to his feet and gave a pledge that President Jonathan would serve for just one term of four years.
But when asked to which zone President Jonathan would hand over, both the President and Anenih kept mute, again giving rise to further suspicion about the president’s game plan.
Meanwhile, the PDP members in the House of Representatives have assured former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of level playing ground in the January 13, 2011 presidential primary election of the party.
They made the pledge when Abubakar met with them at the residence of Speaker Dimeji Bankole to seek their support for his presidential ambition in the 2011 general election.
The meeting, which was held behind closed doors, presented an opportunity for Abubakar to provide explanations on key issues his administration would accord priority if elected into office.
Sources at the meeting said the former vice president promised to promote good legislature-executive relationship, among others.
It was learnt that a member of the House, Ogbuefi Ora Ozombachi (PDP, Enugu State) who was mandated to speak on behalf of others, declared that the caucus would ensure a level playing ground for all the PDP presidential aspirants at the primaries.
The lawmakers reportedly demanded that all aspirants should conduct their campaigns in a manner that would not throw the party into crisis.
President Goodluck Jonathan was the first to meet the PDP Caucus in the House to sell his presidential bid to it two weeks ago.
And, at this critical time of Nigeria’s national history, what the nation needs is peaceful political transition and not violent takeover of power and disruption of the peaceful existence of the various nationalities as being advocated by some politicians, the Media for Ethnic Equality (MEE), has warned.
The group, in a statement yesterday by its Publicity Secretary, Iyiola Johnson, in apparent response to remarks made by two presidential aspirants on the platform of the PDP, Abubakar and former military President Ibrahim Babangida, cautioned politicians against fuelling ethnic tension in the country
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