Towards the rumoured ambition, Saturday Sun gathered that the party boss had already floated a “shadow group” and set up structures across all the states of the federation under the guise of using same to work for the actualisation of President Goodluck Jonathan re-election bid next year.
The structures being set up in the states by Mu’azu parallel to the party structures under the control of the governors are at the heart of the latest discomfort for some state chief executives and major stakeholders.
According to one of the PDP state governors in the North who spoke with Saturday Sun, the latest trend “of trying to hijack party structures from Abuja for selfish political interests was one of the major issues that led to the recent crisis in our party (PDP) and which eventually consumed the Bamanga Tukur-led national leadership of the party.”
A similar development had under the Tukur leadership of the party led to the defection of five serving governors and hundreds of other elected leaders to the main opposition party, APC, some months ago. This eventually led to the ousting of Tukur himself.
At least, two serving PDP governors who spoke on the development also complained that the party’s national chairman has been “propping and positioning” his old friends under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration to take over strategic party and elective positions across the states in total disregard of the governors’ feelings and interests.
Some of the states where Mu’azu is said to be showing interest in pushing for his allies to succeed the incumbents include his home state; Bauchi, Kano, Adamawa, Rivers, Delta, Niger, Benue, Enugu, Taraba and Katsina among others. Already, Governors Isa Yuguda of Bauchi, Ibrahim Shema of Katsina, Babangida Aliyu of Niger and Gabriel Suswam of Benue are said to be putting up some resistance in “some sort of proxy war or call it cat and mouse game.”
A member of the PDP National Working Committee, NWC who preferred anonymity however defended Mu’azu saying that the party’s chairman is a Nigerian who is constitutionally allowed to nurse any ambition and work towards it with legitimate means.
“The chairman (Mu’azu) has the right to aspire to any public office like any other Nigerian. So, any governor grumbling over that now should come out, show interest and compete fairly not by leaking sensitive party information to the press. Yes, I can’t deny that the chairman supports a campaign group but I am sure it is solely for the Jonathan/Sambo project, those complaining about the group obviously know what we don’t know”, the party official stated.
The NWC member added that “any governor or party leader not happy with Mu’azu’s consolidation efforts so far has several party channels to lodge their complaints. One of the two governors who spoke with Saturday Sun on the issue however warned that “the earlier the party chairman restricts himself to providing national leadership for the party and sincerely work for the Jonathan administration the better because surreptitious attempts to install his allies in the states where there are sitting governors will further affect the chances of the party in the 2015 general elections which we all cannot afford with the threat from APC.”
The governor added that “keen observers will see that the PDP in Adamawa may explode soon if the chairman is allowed to disregard the acting governor and other stakeholders on ground to drag in one of his Obasanjo connection friends, I mean Nuhu Ribadu and impose him on those that have labored to see the party return to power in the state.”
“Also watch the cat and mouse game playing out in Bauchi, then you will agree that we are gradually approaching another Tukur-like crisis if care is not taken”, he added.
The second governor who spoke was more concerned about the conflict and unnecessary power tussle the Mu’azu-linked group will cause in the party across the states when the general elections campaigns start.
“This kind of group with links to the party’s national chairman will lead us nowhere except confusion. As I speak with you, this group masquerading as PDP Chairman forum has already set up parallel structures across the states with own advisory council consisting of his old allies and pretending to be working for the re-election of President Jonathan but from information available to us, it’s all about using the party platform to lay the structures for his own 2019 presidential ambition”, he added.
But the National Publicity Secretary of PDP Chief Olisa Metu dismissed the claim as spurious and laughable. He told Saturday Sun that there was no way the Chairman could harbour presidential ambition and still occupy his present position.
According to Metu, those spinning the rumour are merely working to set the Chairman against the President . He said “ I don’t know how somebody sat down to invent this type of lie. I don’t know how to dignify this falsehood. He is the national chairman of our party and he is working for the success of our party now and in 2015.”
According to one of the governors , the PDP chairman is planting his own men in the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), a group which is currently leading the campaign for Jonathan’s re-election. The group which is a new face of Neigbour to Neigbour has offices in all the states. It was learnt that Mu’azu’s ace supporters are identified and recruited to be part of TAN in all the states especially in the north.
The PDP boss had aspired for the top office at the expiration of his two term governorship of Bauchi state in 2007. His aspiration however, stopped following the selection of late President Umaru Yar’Adua as the flag bearer of PDP by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Prior to his appointment as the PDP boss, the North East, Mu’azu’s zone, has been clamouring for the ceding of the presidency to it. The leaders of the zone accused the North West of monopolizing positions meant for the region and insisted that the zone will stop at nothing in ensuring that it produces Jonathan’s successor.
It was learnt that some of the zone’s leaders in PDP are the force urging Mu’azu to contest for Presidency in 2019 at the expiration of Jonathan’s second tenure should he win next year’s election.
A prominent PDP chieftain from the zone who pleaded anonymity said “our zone has suffered serious marginalisation , we are treated like second class citizens. Yes we have opposed the North West on a number of appointments because we know that we have not been treated fairly. The Speaker of the House of Representatives was zoned to our zone but we were robbed of it at the last minute.
“I am not part of those asking Mu’azu to run for President in 2019 but I don’t see anything wrong with that if he chooses to do that. He has enough political experience and he is the type of leader that this nation needs.
“But these things are possible if God keeps us alive. Only God knows who will be alive till 2019”.
Source: Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment