NPDP Crisis: Why Jonathan Saved Tukur
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Africcon Report: NPDP Crisis: Why Jonathan Saved Tukur
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From: Africcon Media – Nigeria
Covered By Africcon Media - PDP Crisis: Why Jonathan Saved Tukur
By the whiskers, embattled national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Bamanga Tukur survived his planned removal at the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party yesterday.
But Tukur’s saving grace was President Goodluck Jonathan who pleaded with some leaders of the party to give the former governor of the old Gongola state another chance.
Before the Thursday meeting of the highest decision-making body of the PDP, Jonathan reportedly held not less than four pre-NEC sessions to avert Tukur’s removal which had been hatched to take the form of a vote of no confidence.
Jonathan, according to an impeccable source, held series of meetings with the Board of Trustees, PDP governors loyal to him, ‘identified elders’ of the PDP as well as the PDP Caucus in the National Assembly.
Tukur was on the verge of being shown the exit door following the insistence of some aggrieved PDP governors that the only antidote for peace in the party was the removal of the national chairman with whom they have been having running battles.
A Presidency source told Africcon News Media in confidence that President Jonathan had no choice than to come to the aid of Tukur.
“The president had no choice, my brother; dumping Tukur at this critical time would spell doom for everybody. As politicians, those fighting Tukur, those he is fighting and governors fighting amongst themselves are doing that as a result of one thing-the 2015 election. Do not forget that those calling for Tukur’s head are doing so as means to an end. Under such a situation, saving him is the best. Best of course, as human beings, Tukur may have seen the need to bring all together because leaders were frank with him”, he said.
But as Tukur survived being booted out, the NEC ratified the resignation of 16 members of the National Working Committee (NWC) following the report of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which nullified the mode of their election.
In the interim, a 22-member acting NWC members has emerged in the now composite leadership organ of the ruling party.
Former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudum Nwuche is now the party’s acting National Deputy Chairman, while Dr. Remi Akintoye is the acting National Secretary of the party.
Erstwhile information minister, Prof Jerry Gana, is to head the Special Convention Planning Committee for the mini convention scheduled to hold July 15.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu is to serve as secretary of the committee which has representatives from each state of the federation.
A few states are however, yet to send in their representatives.
The national convention would be preceded by the South West zonal congress on July 11.
As if pre-planned, as soon as Bamanga Tukur declared the meeting open with his address, he handed over the microphone to the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, who hailed the leadership of the PDP.
Briefing newsmen at the end of the NEC meeting, Prof. Jerry Gana announced the replacement of officers of the party who had resigned, saying amongst decisions reached was the approval of guidelines for the convention, approval of the convention planning committee.
Prof Gana gave the lists of the acting national officers to include Senator Emma Agboti (deputy national secretary), Yusufu Hamisu Abubakar (national organizing secretary), Tony Ceaser Okeke (national publicity secretary), Simon D. Jok Esq (national legal adviser), Barr. Tanko Beji (national youth leader) and Barr. Oyibo Nwaneri (national woman leader).
Others include Barr. Yau Kwadon (deputy national legal adviser), Hon. Peter Adefunmilayo (deputy national youth leader ), Nasiru Ibrahim Bichi (deputy national auditor ), Mrs. Torkwase Ajoh (deputy national women leader), Mohammed Dandari (National Treasurer), Onyemaechi Ikechukwu Jideofor (deputy national organizing secretary) as well as Hon. Auwalu Gwalabe (deputy national financial secretary).
Those who also made the PDP’s protem NWC included Chief Augustine Lugbenwei (deputy national treasurer) and Calib Yahaya (deputy national publicity secretary). Chief Akin Taiwo, Tope Ademiluyi, Chief Mike Akinfenwa and Hon. Gbenga Oduwaiye are all to act as ex-officio members.
Meanwhile, Tukur yesterday identified dwindled internal communication as a major reason why there seems to be glaring aparthy by members towards discipline and party funding by members.
Speaking at the event yesterday, Tukur lamented that open confrontation with political administration has exposed the political weakness of the party, just as fighting the party from within has exposed the party to danger.
He warned party stalwarts to stop disrespect of the office of the President, as undermining him for unjust reasons can nowhere bring us good results.
“This observation is necessary to remind PDP members that we owe ourselves a duty to protect, project and support our President to leave behind a lasting legacy for the Nigerian,” Tukur said.
Party interest would supercede members’ interest – Jonathan
Speaking at the NEC meeting, President Goodluck Jonathan said no matter whose ox was gored, party interest would continue to over-ride members’ personal interest, saying this was pertinent if the PDP would continue to be a formidable party.
Jonathan said the formation of the PDP Governors Forum was a step in the right direction as it has really helped to stabilize the polity. He said the changes in the leadership of the PDP were pertinent as INEC’s directive had to be respected, no matter how distasteful.
“Governor Akpabio said it all that at the beginning, there was no need for PDPGF but now that we have reduced in number to 23, definitely, this should be the least. We cannot shrink below this level. We must build up.
“So, looking at the number of PDP governors vis a vis the total number of governors, it becomes very clear that the PDP needs to have their own thing because we have realized that in some of the other political parties, the governors used to meet before coming for general meetings.
“But PDP being the elephant amongst them did not really bother much. But over the period, we have realized that there is the need for us to also meet because politics is politics. Politics is a game of interest.
“I believe even in local politics, the interest matters so much. There is no permanent friend; no permanent enemy but permanent interest and as long as people have different interests, there must be disagreement.
“But as a member of a political party, we must know that no matter what, the party’s interest must supersede any other interest. At the end of the day, all our interests will converge to one interest, that is the interest of PDP,” the President said.
He said it would be to the advantage of the PDP if the party was faced with just one political party as it will checkmate the exodus of members who take opportunity of openness in other party’s to jump boat at will.
President backs 2-party system
Speaking on the need for two-party system, Jonathan said: “We will encourage them to come together more. We want a situation where it is PDP versus one. In that case, the polity will be more stable. Even our members will be more loyal to the party because you will have nowhere to go.
“All this time, immediately we disagree in PDP, somebody is picking form in one PPP, DDD party and contesting House of Assembly or House of Reps or Senate. When we have only two, before you get there, they have already occupied that place. So, even if we disagree, we will agree at the end of the day and it will even help to build a stronger party.
“So, Nigerians should commend PDP. If PDP were weak, people wouldn’t have gathered together. There wouldn’t have been any reason for parties to come together to fight PDP. But when you have so many parties on their own they know they cannot face us until they come together then you know that we are formidable,” President Jonathan said.
Jonathan said it was disheartening that the Boko Haram menace was being used as cover for heinous crimes being committed by ethnic and religious zealots.
“One key thing sometimes that get people confused about Boko Haram is this communal conflicts, ethnic cleansing. It was not so prominent before. Animosity between tribes and society has been a part of human society. It has been a part of the history of the human race. People living together must have disagreements. But this idea of minor provocation, youth will carry weapons to attack and kill massively like what happened in Zamfara State recently that has nothing to do with Boko Haram, must be condemned.
“It is one area the governors will also be discussing in their meetings. This ethnic rivalry is becoming embarrassing. Government cannot continue to sit down and allow ethnic rivalry between communities, between different ethnic groups leading to deaths.
“Definitely, if we send soldiers to such places, soldiers carry guns, they don’t carry canes, the result may not be too palatable. So on our own, the leaders of this country, governors and all of us, we should try and continue to talk to our brothers and sisters that killing is not the best way to resolve conflicts. As long as we liver, there must be conflicts but we should use dialogue to resolve our conflicts,” Jonathan admonished.
No shaking in PDP – Akpabio
Governor Godswill Akpabio yesterday, stated that the PDP was intact and that against reports of crisis rocking the party, the party remained fortified and united ahead 2015. He said all members of the party would continue to abide by the dictates of the party’s leadership as well as the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.
He commended the decision of the PDP to create its own Governors Forum, saying it was a direct way of entrenching support for the party as well as maintaining the party’s interest.
“It is interesting to note that when we started in 1999, there was no need for the PDP Governors Forum because as at time the PDP governors were over 33 and controlled the then Nigeria Governors Forum, but over time because various disagreement and intrigues and scheming which are part and parcel of politics, the rank and file of PDP governors kept depleting.
“When I became a governor in 2007, we were about 29 in number and through various court decisions; all of a sudden we reduced to a level where we are now, only 23. The party in its wisdom realized that we need to reduce the momentum of slide and begin a climb.
“The PDP Governors’ Forum is therefore a new baby; a new organ and we are now reporting ourselves to NEC that we are now born and we are ready to serve.
“We have been serving, on behalf of my colleagues I want to say we have come to NEC not just as governors individually but we are now coming under the PDP Governors’ Forum. We are ready to stand solidly behind the leader of the PDP in the nation, “ Akpabio said.
He said it was unfortunate that during late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s time, there was never a time that the Governor failed in supporting him and therefore, it was pertinent for all members to give President Jonathan same support.
“Mr. President we have never failed in supporting any president in power. We always respect and support any president in power. When our late President Yar’Adua was in power, there was no single PDP governor that challenged him, either on the pages of newspaper or at any meeting. We even went to the extent of organizing prayers for him and we supported all his policies, yours cannot be different.
“Leadership comes from God and he gives it to whom he pleases. My assurance to you is that the 23 PDP governors are solidly behind you. We thank you for your mid-term report. We have keyed into your transformation agenda and we are saying no shaking”, Akpabio told a bewildered President Jonathan.
All governors of the PDP attended with the exception of Governor Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Chief Martins Elechi (Ebonyi) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa). The deputy governors of Benue and Jigawa States.
NEC passes vote of confidence on Jonathan
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday passed a vote of confidence on President Goodluck Jonathan, saying, the country had made remarkable progress in various sectors under his leadership.
The confidence motion was moved by Senator Ibrahim Mantu and unanimously supported through a voice vote at the NEC meeting.
Mantu commended Jonathan for the “resolute and decisive tackling of Nigeria’s security challenges, particularly terrorism and insurgency in the North-East geo-political zone’ even as the PDP applauded the on-going reforms and development in critical sectors.
“It is therefore in view of the above that members of the National Executive Committee of our great party do hereby pass a vote of confidence in the President, Commander-In-Chief, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR”, Mantu submitted.
Mini convention under threat
Nonetheless, yesterday’s reprieve that came the way of the PDP appears temporary as strong indications emerged that the party’s plan for the July 15 mini convention to replace the 16 members of its National Working Committee (NWC) who resigned on Wednesday may be stalled by litigations.
The party has confirmed, it was mulling a mini convention to replace the officials whose resignations were subtly ratified by the National Executive Committee (NEC) at its meeting yesterday, the second since the assumption of office of the party’s embattled chairman, Tukur.
Curiously, while the PDP NEC meeting was going on yesterday, some stakeholders sympathetic to the anti-Jonathan governors were also meeting at the official Lodge of an anti- Jonathan governor in Asokoro.
AFRICCON MEDIA visit to the Asokoro enclave of the Governors’ Lodges as at the time of the NEC meeting on Thursday confirmed a concentration of many cars at the official residence of one of the anti-Jonathan governors.
Most of the officials who resigned were nominated by their governors some of whom are now embroiled in conflict with the national leadership of the party over control of the party structure ahead of the 2015 election.
A chieftain of the PDP from Rivers state confided in AFRICCON MEDIA that the ‘forced resignation’ was targeted at some persons in the NWC.
“We shall see how new ones would be appointed or nominated to replace them”, he said.
The crisis in the PDP had reached its highpoint culminating in the forced resignation of the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh and 15 others from office as members of the National Executive Committee (NEC).
The resignation was said to have been as a result of the report of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which nullified the election of the affected officers as officials of the PDP.
All the same, the source, a member of the Chief Godspower Ake-led former state executive of the Rivers PDP alleged that the INEC report being used to oust the NWC members was a decoy to get at the Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Dr Sam Sam Jaja.
He spoke barely 24 hours after a group, Movement for Change and Empowerment in the Peoples Democratic Party (MCE – PDP), said any attempt to use the INEC report amounted to subjudice.
“We have been in Abuja for some time trying to see for ourselves what is going on at the level of the party; but unfortunately all our findings point to one fact that certain persons have been penciled down for sanction no matter how innocent they might.
“When we confronted a national leader of the party to sound him out on what was going on about the INEC report, he said the party was only trying to avoid litigation and that why the NWC members were asked to resign.
“But this is the same person who told us that the court will handle the situation concerning the INEC report that since the party was already in court, only the judiciary can handle the matter.
“Now, the question we are asking is this: has the PDP vacated its application because I know they are a party to the suit? We shall see how new ones would be appointed or nominated to replace them because the whole thing is a sham ha is targeted at Dr Sam Sam Jaja, who they believe is close to Governor Amaechi.
Although he declined to disclose what specific steps he was planning to take, he gave indications that he and others would head for the court.
“We can’t do otherwise than seeking redress at the appropriate quarters; already, people have started to raise highbrows about this and we will key in to that because it does appear some persons are already seeing the current impasse in the PDP as an opportunity to install their cronies using the INEC Report as a decoy”, he said.
MEC-PDP, had in a statement by its National Coordinator, Mr. Kola Dakova-Vaughan, cited a suit pending before the Federal High Court in Abuja in which Justice Adamu Bello ordered parties to maintain status quo.
“The sack of the NWC is counter-productive and contemptuous of the judiciary in view of the subsisting order of Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/217/2013.”
