From the belly of the beast" Headlines Dec 18, 2010 *How his threat to “sink the boat” earned him Govs’ “endorsement”
By Chioma GABRIEL, Deputy Editor, Emma Aziken, Political Editor, Henry UMORU
Thursday’s endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan for next year’s election by 21 PDP governors did not come on a platter of gold after all, according to fresh information from the PDP National Secretariat, venue of the deal.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that the President had to act the “real Nigerian politician” to get the endorsement after Vice President Namadi Sambo and former PDP Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman, Chief Anthony Anenih had failed in swaying the governors, majority of whom were not ready to “change the order of primaries so that presidential primaries would hold first.”
One source said “I guess he (President Jonathan) was sent for to come and play his last card and he came, accusing the governors of always getting everything whereas he has nothing.”
[b]Sources said the meeting soon got stormy and emotional with the President saying, “you have given me assurances of support but some of you are secretly campaigning for Atiku (Abubakar, former Vice President). I can’t stand here and be humiliated by you. Everything I have asked for, you have refused to give me. No President anywhere has been treated by his party the way you are treating me.”
Gov. Bukola Saraki: Chairman of Governors' Forum
At that point, Chairman of the Governors Forum, Dr. Bukola Saraki was said to have told the meeting held in the PDP National Chairman’s office that the situation must be salvaged to save the party from crisis.
Saraki reportedly told his colleagues and the PDP Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo with whom he had retreated to iron out a few matters before the NEC meeting began; “all of us here got everything that we have asked for. The order of the primaries, the delegates issue and all that. There must be something for the President.”
It was gathered that Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State then rose to his feet to put the motion before the meeting to endorse the President and support him as the party’s candidate on the condition that he would serve just one term and leave by 2015.
A palpable sense of relief immediately descended on the expansive office of the PDP Chairman. The question that then followed was whether the President was willing to do a single term and leave
Governors Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Alhaji Danjuma Goje (Gombe), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Chief Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), and Mallam Sule Lamido (Jigawa) were persistent that the President should respond to whether he would serve for only one term if he was endorsed. “What are we going to tell our people when they ask,” Governor Aliyu was quoted to have asked the President.
But the President was mute.
At that stage, sources said, former BOT Chairman of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih got up and gave a pledge that Jonathan would serve for just one term of four years.
But, when asked to which zone he (Jonathan) would hand over, both the President and Anenih kept mute.[/b]
*Governors, legislators reconciled
Saturday Vanguard also learnt that various meetings were organised by the National Dialogue Committee after the Governors threatened to quit PDP en masse after the initial passage of the 2010 Electoral Act with a clause making National Assembly members automatic members of NEC of their parties.
Attempts were made to reconcile governors and legislators, former National Chairmen of the party and other members of the Board of Trustees, BOT ; National Working Committee, NWC, and some NEC members which included Chief Tony Anenih, Chief Barnabas Gemade , Ahmadu Alli, Chief Solomon Lar, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor and other members of the Board of Trustees, BOT; National Working Committee, NWC, and National Executive Committee, NEC.
“It was at these meetings that peace was brokered between the Governors and President Jonathan. on the one hand and Governors and National Assembly members on the other hand. The issue of the Electoral Act was resolved between Governors and National assembly members who were represented at the meeting by the President of the Senate, David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole.
It was at the peace meeting that one-term was approved for President Jonathan by the governors in line with the position of party leadership, I think also that for the governors seeking second term in office, some kind of agreement was reached and it’s likely that for the governors to adopt President Jonathan for another term, they too would have guarantee for another ticket to contest.” Sources that spoke with
Saturday Vanguard also learnt that before the commencement of last Thursday’s NEC meeting, select members of the NEC, BOT and NWC went into an emergenc
y meeting to concretize the resolutions reached before the general NEC Thursday.
Before the commencement of Thursday’s meeting, the atmosphere was tense as there were doubts whether the issues would be resolved amicably. The meeting was shifted from 11am to 3pm.
As early as 9am, Thursday, the date of the meeting, some members of NEC were already seated at the Conference Hall of the Wadata Plaza, National Secretariat of the party for the meeting which was slated for 11am.
Sensing that members had waited without any excuse, the National Secretary, Abubakar Kawu Baraje took the microphone at 12.20 and apologised to members. He told the waiting members of NEC that because the Committee set up could not finish the assignment given to them, it became imperative for them to shift the take off time of the meeting from 11am to 3pm .
The National Secretary who noted that it was unusual for him to address NEC members before the commencement of any meeting, stressed that because of the importance of the message, he had no choice than to deliver it, and then apologized to members for the change of time.
When the meeting eventually reconvened at three, only few members of NEC were at the Conference hall waiting for members of the NWC to give further directives as Ahmadu Ali, Gemade , Anenih, Ogblafor, Lar, NWC members and the governors were upstairs locked in a closed door meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly where they were joined by President Jonathan at 4.44pm and Vice President Namadi Sambo to further trash out those grey areas.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/12/how-jonathan-swayed-pdp-govs/ |
