A storm is gathering in the Peoples Democratic Party as some governors elected on the platform of the party are poised to rally
against a plan by President Goodluck Jonathan
to run for an alleged second term in 2015.
Just last week, the former President of the Ijaw
Youth Council, and Leader of the Niger Delta
People’s Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-
Dokubo, said Jonathan would occupy Aso Rock
for eight years as president.
However, a governor, who spoke to our
correspondent on the condition of anonymity
on Friday, said a second term for the president
would negate an agreement that the President
reached with the governors before they agreed
to support his transition from acting President
to President.
During the tension-filled period that followed
the hospitalisation of Jonathan’s predecessor,
Musa Yar’Adua, in Saudi Arabia, there were
speculations the President had promised the
governors that he would only serve a term.
The hint about the governors’ opposition to
Jonathan’s alleged second-term plan is coming
less than two weeks after the governors had
threatened to leave the party following a
recommendation that the membership of the
party’s National Executive Council should be
increased.
The NEC, which is the party’s most powerful
organ, is dominated by the governors, who by
sheer number and the number of appointees
they have in the council, call the shots.
Our correspondent reports that the governors
said the plan to increase the council’s
membership was an attempt to whittle their
powers.
At the 59th National Executive Committee of
the party, some stalwarts had moved for the
approval of the recommendation by the
Constitution Review Committee of the party led
by the National Legal Adviser, Chief Olusola
Oke, to enlarge the NEC by bringing 72 more
lawmakers from the National Assembly.
SUNDAY PUNCH authoritatively gathered last
week that the real reasons some of the
governors opposed the amendment was
because they felt that the amendment was a
ploy to bring in the president’s loyalists
preparatory to his suspected 2015 ambition.
The governor, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity, said he and his colleagues did not
trust President Jonathan.
He said, “We don’t trust the man (President). He
is capable of doing anything. He may want to
run again in 2015 and he might want to believe
that we would not back him because of the
promise he had made before that he would only
run for a single term.”
Section 12.72(j) of the party’s constitution
empowers the NEC to “make party electoral
regulations to govern the conduct of elections
to all party offices at every level and regulate
procedure for selecting the party candidates for
elective offices.”
The party’s constitution also empowers the NEC
to make rules for party discipline which shall be
binding on all organs and members of the party.
Although PDP Senators and Reps are in support
of the amendment, the governors believe that
the lawmakers are doing so because of the
influence they know they can wield as NEC
members should the President decide to run.
The source said they want “to be seen to be
supporting the president with the hope that they
would be rewarded at the right time.”
Also on Saturday, northern political leaders met
in Abuja to discuss the desire of the PDP to
amend its constitution to accommodate about
72 lawmakers from the National Assembly,
among other issues.
Those at the meeting were former military
dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd.);
another former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalam
Abubakar(retd.); a former Vice-President, Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar and Alhaji Adamu Ciroma.
Also at the meeting were Sen. Wash Pam, Prof.
Ango Abdulahi and AVM El-Amin Dagash,
among others.
It was learnt that the attendees felt that the plan
to amend the constitution was aimed at denying
the region the opportunity to produce the
president in 2015.
“The meeting decided to mobilise against the
desire of the PDP to amend its constitution,
which is expected to take place at its National
Convention slated for March 24 in Abuja,” they
said.
However, Abdulahi, who was a former Vice-
Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,
said the meeting only discussed the issue of
“security and youth empowerment in the
region.”
Already, the Senate caucus of the PDP has
supported the desire to enlarge the NEC.
Speaking on behalf of the caucus, Leader of the
Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba, however said the
desire of the lawmakers was not to conflict with
the state governors.
He said, “We believe that every state should
have at least one senator and one House of
Representatives in NEC.”
Efforts to reach the president’s spokesman on
Saturday evening proved abortive as he did not
respond to the calls or text message sent to him
by our correspondent in Abuja.
Political ambitions ahead of 2015, according to
investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH, are also
polarising the party ahead of its national
convention slated for March 24.
It was gathered that this could be the reason
Jonathan tactically threw his support for one of
the national chairmanship aspirant of the party,
Alhaji Bamangar Tukur.
The endorsement of Tukur by the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation, Chief Pius
Anyim; former Minister of Works, Chief Tony
Anenih; and Senator Barnabas Gemade is being
considered in political circles as a tacit support
for the Adamawa State born businessman.
The trio, who are considered to be influential,
were among those who signed his nomination
form for the race.
Observers believed that their signatures could
imply support for him by President Goodluck
Jonathan.
Specifically, both Anyim and Anenih are
considered to be very close to the President.
Apart from this, they are also believed to be
power brokers and also close to influential
members of the party at the national level.
There were rumours making the rounds in Abuja
on Thursday that some chairmanship aspirants
had been asked to step down for Tukur.
Babayo said, “I am not aware of the move for
the consensus candidate or directive to anyone
to step down yet. But in PDP, you know we
engage ourselves in dialogue and no problem is
too big for us to solve.
“I am in the race and there is no plan to step
down for anyone. The leaders of the North-East
are still meeting and will continue to meet
before the convention.”
The pushing of Tukur’s candidacy is also seen as
tactical move to frustrate any presidential
ambition that former Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar might have.
Both Atiku and Tukur are from the same state,
and watchers have said that those bent on
frustrating Atiku could argue that the party
chairman and presidential candidate shouldn’t
come from the same state.
“You can see that people are already thinking
ahead. Our people are plotting and calculating
ahead of 2015,” said a member of the PDP
NWC, on the condition of anonymity.
However, if the President insists on contesting
or plans to impose a candidate on the North,
which is angling at producing the president in
2015, our correspondent learnt that the region
had concluded to use the committee it recently
set up to fight its cause.
It would be recalled that political leaders from
the northern part of the country set up 10
committees on Tuesday on how to tackle
problems facing Nigeria.
The setting up of the committees was a follow-
up to the meeting held by the political leaders
from the region in Abuja on February 24.
The Chairman of the Media Committee, Mallam
Mohammed Haruna, said in an email sent to our
correspondent that “the nature of the
committees and their memberships was
structured in a way to prepare the region to face
the challenges facing the Nigerian Federation.”

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