As Crisis Deepens… PDP Leaders Woo Jonathan To Placate Aggrieved Governors
LAGOS NOVEMBER 10TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Indications have emerged that former president Goodluck Jonathan may be called upon to intervene in the face-off between the five opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors and the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
It was learnt yesterday that some party leaders were mulling a high-powered meeting with Jonathan following the intractable crisis. It was gathered that the plan to meet with Jonathan followed the recent outburst by the Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, who accused Atiku of unfair treatment.
The move to seek Jonathan’s intervention on the matter, it was learnt, was against the backdrop that the key aggrieved governors were his political scions who worked under him as federal ministers.
While the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, worked as minister of Education under Jonathan’s presidency, Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed and Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom were minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and minister of state Trade and Investment, respectively.
According to a source, who is a member of the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Council, the countermeasure is being planned in light of the notion that the governors may have made up their minds not to work for the party.
Recall that the five governors, Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers) Samuel Ortom (Benue), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo State), have consistently distanced themselves from Atiku’s campaign.
They have insisted that the national chairman, Dr Iyochia Ayu, step down, saying Northerners should not be the party’s national chairman and presidential candidate at the same time in line with the party’s power rotation principle.
However, Ayu, a Benue native, has clung to his job, saying he won’t step down till the end of his four-year tenure.
The source said, “There is no way we will continue to be going back and forth because of a group of governors who seem to have made up their minds collectively to work against the candidate of the party because of one man whose commitment to the PDP had been questionable for long.”
Asked who that ‘one man’ was, the source said: “There is no need hiding from the truth any longer; the whole thing we are seeing in the PDP being manifested by Wike and his group is orchestrated for President Jonathan.
“We have ample intelligence that these governors are inspired by Jonathan. He benefitted from this party and it is bad that he is encouraging Governors Nyesom Wike, Makinde, Ikpeazu, Ugwuanyi and Ortom to behave the way they are doing. He knows these five governors are fighting his cause.
“We got so convinced about this when the Bauchi governor, Bala Mohammed, brought in his own angle to it. That was unnecessary and we all know that Bala is the closest northern politician to Jonathan whether in power or not.
“So, what the party has resolved to do, among others, is to send a powerful delegation to the former president to plead with him to intervene. The delegation is not going to accuse the former president but to merely plead with him to forgive Atiku because we already know what is brewing underground.
“For instance, today (yesterday), Wike and his colleagues are (were) in Bauchi. Do we need any prophet to tell us what they are up to? We know where they are coming from, but they will all fail.”
The source, however, added that the party could not afford to appease them perpetually, especially when it seems that nothing the party does that can satisfy them.
“There are so many routes to any market, so if these five governors think they can hold us to ransom, they have failed. We have put in place enough measures to circumvent their antics in what looks like an effective shadowing so that they will not sabotage us.
“Already, the party’s Board of Trustees has tentatively approved that all concerned chapters are fortified with focus on certain personalities who have influence in their various states. And when the time comes, Nigerians will know that the G-5 or whatever you call them are a powerless minority,” he said.
When contacted, former national publicity secretary of PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, admitted that there were various attempts to resolve the issues, which were still ongoing.
He told our correspondent that the party leadership was still involved in moves to resolve the issues.
“Yes, this is one of the various attempts at resolving the issues. And I can assure you that our party leaders have not given up on our governors.
“We will put all these issues behind us soon. We urge Nigerians not to despair. Efforts are on to reconcile everyone. PDP will surely rescue Nigeria,” he said.
Attempts to get a reaction from the former president were unsuccessful as a text message sent to his media aide was not replied to.
Similarly, calls made to the PDP national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, was not picked as well.
We Are Still Open To Reconciliation – Wike
Meanwhile, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has said the ‘integrity governors’ of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), popularly known as the G-5, are still open for reconciliation.
He said the stance was because of the conviction that every critical stakeholder in the party needed to be on board to ensure electoral victory for the party in 2023.
Wike spoke yesterday in Bauchi when he led the five PDP governors on a solidarity visit to the Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed.
Wike said the doors of reconciliation in the ongoing leadership crisis within the rank and file of the PDP were still open to negotiations.
“I have said it several times that we are ready for reconciliation; we have never closed the door for reconciliation. All we are asking for is equity, fairness and justice, and that is the hallmark PDP stands for.”
Wike, who was fielding reporters’ questions in Bauchi yesterday shortly after a closed-door meeting between the G5 governors and Governor Bala Mohammed, reiterated, “All we are saying, let the right things be done. When the right thing is done, the country would see that the crisis in the party is over.
“These G5 governors, we are saying, are the bedrock of the party, so we would not close the doors for reconciliation. We are for reconciliation any day, anytime.”
On the team of the G5 governors were Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.
He declared that because the PDP integrity governors were the pillars of the party, they had kept their doors open and were ready for genuine reconciliation.
Wike said: “All we are saying is that let the right thing be done. When the right thing is done, the whole country will know that election is over.”
The Rivers State governor also explained the reason for the solidarity visit to their Bauchi State counterpart, saying that it was to ascertain how he was putting up with the challenges of his re-election for a second term.
He said: “Our main motive of coming here is to give solidarity to our brother , the governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed. And all we have discussed is to see how, by the grace of God, being a gift to the people of Bauchi, he will win his election come 2023.
“So, all our discussion had to centre about his election and we are out to give him all the necessary support as our friend, our brother in the same political family.”
…I’m Inexorably Connected With PDP G-5 Governors – Bala Mohammed
Also fielding questions after the meeting, Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed has admitted that he wrote a letter to the PDP when he found out that members working against him as a leader and first term governor looking for a second term in office.
Mohammed explained that he wrote the letter with all honesty, sincerity and deep sense of fidelity which, according to him, made the party invite him to discuss with the party’s presidential flagbearer, Atiku Abubakar, to clear some grey areas.
Bala Mohammed explained that he did not personally write the said letter to the party, but rather it was written by the state government and PDP family in Bauchi.
“As for the G5 Governors, I always joke with them that I’m a G1, but I’m inexorably connected with them. We have always been together and you know, Governors Wike, Ortom, Okezie, and Ifeanyi – they have been here several times and I have been going to them.
“And I think these are some of the takeaways that I have as a governor, having them as friends for life. So, I’m everywhere but, of course, it doesn’t mean that I’m nowhere.
“In politics, you go with the people you share things in common. One thing that I appreciate with them is that they look at your challenges, they are not going back for a second term, all of them.
“So, I am happy they are here. I will have the opportunity of confiding in people that I believe I can confide in with some of my worries, my fears, my apprehensions and that of my State. As PDP members, we are of the same family. I will see you as my comrades in this journey of life,” the governor said.
Leadership
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Posted by News Rangers
on Nov 10 2022. Filed under National.
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