http://blog4all-com..com/2012/03/obasanjo-atiku-clash-over-pdp-chair.html

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) met yesterday to decide on guidelines for the March 24 national convention.

The search for a new set of national executive to run the affairs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the next four years has entered a new phase. A committee of five governors has given the mandate to prune down the long list of aspirants to a manageable number has been meeting to manage the process and message egos.

There are no fewer than 10 jostling for the position of chairman, a number that stakeholders consider too large in view of the recriminations that arising there from. At the five man conference table are Governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Sullivan Chime (Enugu); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); Danbaba Suntai (Taraba); and Jonah Jang (Plateau). However, the five men may be encumbered by a long standing tradition that has continued to nibble at the unity and cohesion of the ruling party.

One man has been the patriarch of this divisive tendency is believed to be back on the old trade. Snippets filtering in from the last National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party indicate that former President and chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT), Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was already neck deep in the fray. Though he was not present at the meeting, the message was hummed around that he may have zeroed his mind on Alhaji Bamanga Tukur for the position. Decrying what they termed politics of anointing by one man, not a few key stakeholders must have seen through the malignant effects of the aftermath on the ruling party if the process is not carefully handled.

Over the years, the party has demonstrated a capacity for quelling political tantrums arising from tilting the balance. Many perceive that Obasanjo may have sold the idea to President Goodluck Jonathan and that the President appears to have bought it even though he may choose to be diplomatic about it. Other contending interests are said to be dusting their war kits in preparation for the emerging onslaught. Apparently waiting at the far end are the former BOT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. Some stakeholders presume the two camps to be fighting on two fronts: One, they are conversant with the adverse consequences of Obasanjo’s overbearing influence on the unity and stability of the party during his eight-year Presidency, a development that saw a number of key party chieftains leaving the PDP out of frustration.

Two, they were victims of the Ota farmer’s long range political manoeuvrings and bare knuckle approach in tackling real and perceived political foes.

Anenih cannot forget in a hurry how Obasanjo pushed him off the party’s BOT chair in 2007 by dealing him a devastating blow below the belt. So for the Esan born Mr. Fix it, this may be the last battle to redeem his fast waning political relevance in Edo State that is already in the firm grip of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ANC).

His reach in the Southsouth has also been curtailed, no thanks to Obasanjo’s hard tackles. Only a few doubt Anenih’s capability to fight should he choose to go into the battle. He may have to align forces with other interests to fight what may have been identified as a common threat. On the other hand, Atiku may remember for a long time to come how Obasanjo mounted barricades on his way in a succession crisis ignited by the former President’s unpopular third term bid.

With the combative former PDP national chairman, Ahmadu Ali as Man Friday, Atiku was forced to defect to the then Action Congress (AC) where he picked the party’s presidential ticket for the 2007 election which Obasanjo supervised. It was after Obasanjo’s exit from power that Atiku was able to fight his way back to the PDP fold. So, for the two party chieftains, one side of the balance is the unity of the party, while the other is the struggle for political relevance in which Obasanjo remains a formidable obstacle. While Anenih may be fighting to restore his seemingly lost prominence in the party, the outcome of the battle may have long term implications for Atiku’s political career.

The former Vice-President is said to be interested in the 2015 presidential race which political calculations may force the PDP to zone to the North. The feeling in the party is that since the South would have occupied the Presidency for a total of 13 years by May 2015, through Obasanjo (1999-2007) and Jonathan (2010-2015), the North should be considered for the position to soothe frayed nerves occasioned by Yar’ Adua’s short-lived Presidency. And in the event of Tukur becoming the chairman, Atiku’s aspiration may become a hard sell. Tukur and Atiku are both from Adamawa State. Inside sources in the PDP are of the view that this may be the kernel of Obasanjo’s long range political manoeuvring.

Given that scenario, it would be a burden for the Atiku camp to convince key stakeholders why both the party’s national chairman and presidential candidate should come from the same state. Party stalwarts are almost certain that the battle tested Atiku camp may not allow this go unchallenged. But only a few can fault the choice of Tukur in terms of integrity, credibility, and unblemished record in both his public and private life.

However, not a few have expressed reservations about his age given the rigours, challenges and physical exertion that the office of chairman of the ruling party thrust on the occupant. Bamanga Tukur is 77 and by 2015, he would be 80, the age at which geriatric burden becomes inevitable, physically and otherwise. Incidentally, this trait manifested during the recent fund raising dinner organised by some party bigwigs at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel for former Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke who is seeking re-election. An official at the PDP headquarters who attended the event reported that: “There is this minor elevation leading to the high table. But it was a hard task for Alhaji Bamanga Tukur to scale the steps on his way to the high table. He had to be supported to cross over and all the party chieftains who were present at the occasion witnessed this. He appeared exhausted and he left the venue immediately he announced his donation. It was apparent that old age is already telling on him”. Incidentally, the office of the PDP national chairman is located on the second floor of the party’s national secretariat, a building that does not enjoy the services of an elevator or a lift. Some prominent northern elements in the party may have detected what they fear to be a recap of the 2007 experience in the process that led to the choice of Yar’Adua as the party’s presidential flag bearer. Obasanjo cocked it all up by arm-twisting and subduing other aspirants in the race through threats, obvious or subtle. Obasanjo had his way and Yar’Adua clinched the presidential ticket even when many were convinced that both the benefactor and the beneficiary failed to consider the larger picture in the interest of the party or the nation.

Eventually, Yar’Adua died three years into what was expected to be his first four-year tenure. And that was how the north lost the Presidency that was conceded to that geo-political zone through the party’s zoning arrangement that was later repudiated in a fierce clash of interests that generated so much recrimination in the process that threw up Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s presidential candidate and his subsequent election in the 2011 elections.

Some prominent northern elements in the party are said to have warned that politicians from the region would have themselves to blame if they embrace Obasanjo’s choice with the same docility they embraced his imposition of Yar’Adua in 2007. One of the chieftains from the North West zone declared: “Without any prejudice to the person of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the PDP should not at this point be toying with the idea of electing people in their 70s as national chairman.

Alhaji Tukur is 77 and will be 80 in 2015 when national chairmen of political parties will be expected to lead their party’s campaign machinery, particularly for the presidential election. With due respect, many of us don’t believe this is a role for an 80-year old”.

The source recalled how the late President Yar’Adua, in 2008, rebuffed attempts by Obasanjo to impose the former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu, on the party and how Yar’Adua, in consultation with state governors, went ahead to pick Prince Vincent Ogbulafor for the job. Many were willing to give Yar’Adua the credit for the choice for the reason that the party witnessed some relative stability for the period Ogbulafor was at the helm of the party’s power hierarchy.

The former president waved aside the disinterestedness that the position of the BoT chair required of the occupant when he took the megaphone as Egwu’s campaign manager, to the consternation of other leaders. What has continued to irk Obasanjo’s opponents is the former President’s presumptuousness on every critical issue concerning the party. They pointed out that throughout his eight years as President, he never deferred to anyone in the choice of the party’s national chairman.

They noted that under his Presidency, the PDP had a total of four national chairmen instead of two as he hired and fired them at will. “As President, Obasanjo solely decided who became the party’s national chairman. As ex-President he still wants to dictate to a sitting President who becomes the chairman of the party thereby dishing out to others what he would not take from anyone”, a party chieftain remarked. Incidentally, President Jonathan is believed to have tacitly given Obasanjo a free hand to mobilise support for Tukur’s candidature, a project that the former President is said to have started in earnest, though surreptitiously, apparently to avoid the miscarriage he suffered in the Egwu case.

Signals from the party’s national secretariat indicate that for strategic reasons, Obasanjo has kick-started the pro-Tukur campaign in Adamawa State with Governor Murtala Nyako as target. He was said to have drawn the Governor into the ring with the view to selling Tukur’s candidature to delegates from the state.

Observers say this may prove a difficult task for Atiku who is also from Adamawa State.

Observers of Adamawa politics, said Nyako has mastered the art of how and when not to offend Obasanjo. They predict that when the chips are down, the governor would know in which direction to swing the balance. This may rob Atiku of a large chunk of delegates for his preferred candidate. For now, the former Vice President may have to rely on his hunches. Observers predict that the outcome of the chairmanship election may go a long way in determining the stability or otherwise of the PDP in the post convention era.

According to them, in the overall interest of the party, Jonathan may have to be circumspect in his tango with the former President. Others say the President may require the same courage and intuition that Yar’Adua brought to bear in rejecting Obasnajo’s choice of candidate in 2008. A few expect Jonathan to replicate the same firmness with which he went about the choice of the PDP candidate in the recent governorship election in his native Bayelsa State. In what has been described as uncommon display of courage, President Jonathan had deflected pressure from the powerful league of PDP Governors to sway the balance in favour of the embattled former Governor Timipre Sylva. Instead, he threw all his weight behind Mr. Seriake Dickson.

http://blog4all-com..com/2012/03/obasanjo-atiku-clash-over-pdp-chair.html