Reeling from severe losses in the just concluded 2015 polls, facts have emerged over how the Adamu Mu’azu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently survived the barrage of attacks by some presidential aides, outgoing ministers and party leaders to oust it ahead of the expiration of its tenure.


The night of the long knives occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday this week when the outgoing governors, governors-elect, outgoing and incoming members of the National Assembly met to assess the just concluded general election.

The agenda among those present was to pass a vote of no confidence on the Mu’azu-led NWC and summon a National Executive Committee (NEC) where another vote of no confidence would have also been passed for a disastrous outing and subsequent dissolution of the NWC.

But in a dramatic turn of events, the NWC which many feared was already on its way out, now enjoys the support of all the PDP governors and National Assembly members-elect as well as the national vice-chairmen and state chairmen of the PDP in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who have vowed to work with the current leadership to reposition the party.


Accordingly, Mu’azu and other NWC members were able to avert their ouster, according to party sources, following the deft political move made by the national chairman, who was said to have used his widespread contacts and influence in the party and the presidency to stop the detractors, while setting in motion efforts aimed at galvanising PDP formations and structures to regain power in 2019.

While those who wanted the NWC sacked hinged their demands on the defeat of the party at the just concluded national elections, investigations have revealed that the critical stakeholders in the party resolved to support the NWC after it became obvious that it was not to blame for the defeat and that those after their jobs were on self-serving mission for the control of the PDP for personal gains.

Another thing that stood against the planned sack of the NWC was the constitutional hindrance that empowers only the NWC to summon NEC meetings.

It was gathered that those behind the move to humiliate the Mu’azu-led NWC were mostly aides of President Goodluck Jonathan and some federal ministers who will be out of job by May 29 and desperately sought to seize the leadership of the PDP as the only way to remain relevant in the polity, as well as using it as a means to cover their tracks for certain misdemeanours in office.

These officials were said to have mounted pressure on Jonathan to use his powers and influence to sack the NWC even when they could not articulate cogent reasons to back their demands.

It was learnt that some of them who directly mismanaged the presidential campaign and its funds were the same brains behind the plot to nail the NWC members by labelling and accusing them of corruption and embezzlement of campaign funds.

They were also said to be the masterminds behind a series of negative publications aimed at ridiculing the NWC and bringing it to public disrepute.

It was further learnt that some of them were acting as agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to cause a crisis among the national leadership of the PDP so as to pave the way for APC to perfect its plot to lure elected PDP members into its fold.

However, the die was cast after the Mu’azu-led leadership decided to put out the facts regarding the handling of the national campaign funds to party stakeholders who were shocked to know that the NWC was completely shutout and sidelined while the same persons who mismanaged the funds had turned back to point accusing fingers at the NWC.

The table turned when the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, while reacting to allegations against the NWC, revealed that the campaign and the funds were directed and managed by the directorates of the Presidential Campaign Organisation, which the NWC had no control over.
Metuh had also raised the issue of fifth columnists working as agents of the APC to destabilise the PDP.

“As the spokesperson of the PDP, I want to place it on the record that the NWC was not part of the management of funds for the presidential campaigns. The NWC did not receive any money, neither was it in any way involved in how the funds were spent.

“Even as the national publicity secretary of the party and chairman of the publicity sub-committee, I did not receive any money from anybody and no fund whatsoever was given to me for the campaigns.

“The president, in his wisdom, set up directorates and gave them the responsibility to directly manage the elections, including the funding,” Metuh had said.

It was gathered that the revelation caused a stir in the presidency where some aides and ministers had created the impression that NWC members were involved in the handling of campaign funds.

A presidency source said that Jonathan was miffed when he discovered that his aides, who compelled him to sideline the NWC and party structure had been working not only to divert attention of the failure of PDP at the polls and themselves regarding their mismanagement of campaign funds, but also tried to use him to oust the NWC in order to gain control of the leadership of the party.

Upon discovering what his aides and ministers were up to, this weakened their ranks, as many of them were said to have backed out of the plot.

It was at this point that Mu’azu moved in and invited all national vice-chairmen, state chairmen, governors-elect, Senate and House members-elect to separate meetings in Abuja where the immediate and remote facts regarding the elections were said to have been laid out on the table.

The meeting yielded the required result, as those he met with resolved to back him and other NWC members, and support their efforts to reposition the party for 2019.

A source at the meetings hinted that while expressing anger over the conduct of some aides of the president during the campaigns and the current move to divide the party for selfish reasons, the elected officials vowed to resist every divisive anti-party plot within its fold.

Speaking at the end of the meeting, Senator George Thompson Sekibo, who read the communiqué issued by governors and senators-elect stressed the importance of unity, peace and harmony in the party, warning that the PDP would not condone anybody working as fifth columnists to destabilise the leadership of the party.

In the same vein, the national vice-chairmen and state chairmen in their communiqué signed by Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure and Dr. Emmanuel Agbo expressed confidence in the Mu’azu-led NWC and charged all members of the party to continue to work harmoniously with their leaders at all levels, especially at this critical time in the life of the party.

At the meetings, some of the governors and presidential aides who were seen as the masterminds behind the plot to sack Mu'azu and other NWC members left the meeting without their usual flamboyance, a source revealed.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/apc-again-puts-zoning-structure-on-hold/207576/

Oust them.

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