TUKUR MUST STAY – JONATHAN

LAGOS— Last minute high-level pressure to oust Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP today was last night rebuffed by the Presidency which observers said last night, was turning the battle into an ego tussle.

The pressure to remove Tukur at today’s National Executive Committee, NEC meeting of the party was being mounted by vested party interests including governors and the powerful caucus of state chairmen.

President Goodluck Jonathan according to sources insisted on retaining Tukur with a source saying: “Is it every battle that the President must lose? He lost the battle to make Jonah Jang chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, so must he also lose this one?”

At press time last night there were high level meetings in Abuja by major stakeholders including the influential caucus of state chairmen where most of them said   Tukur has to go.

Besides, state governors including those identified as pro-presidency were also said to be canvassing that Tukur  join other eight national officers that have decided to resign in accordance with the report of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The efforts against Tukur were despite recruitment by the Tukur camp of high level stakeholders to project the sustenance of the Tukur regime. Erstwhile Federal Commissioner for Information, Chief Edwin Clark was one of the high profile party men that came out yesterday to back Tukur. Clark in a statement alleged that the move against Tukur was another ploy by those against President Goodluck Jonathan, even as he asserted that the man had done no wrong.

Besides, a group sympathetic to Tukur, last night, said that removing Tukur would be contemptuous of the judiciary which it warned has ordered otherwise.

Their positions notwithstanding, party insiders confided last night that the party was already making preparations for a Convention Planning Committee, CPC, which would take over the running of the party in the short period before the organization of a mini-convention to elect a new set of national officers for the party. The inclination towards a CPC follows the rejection of a caretaker committee by party apparatchik on the grounds that it could lead to another round of legal disputes.

Tukur storms PDP secretariat

Meanwhile, Tukur, in a show of physical wellness showed up at the PDP national secretariat, yesterday, countering the increasing mutterings ofparty stakeholders that he is too old to run the party. He, however, did not talk to waiting reporters as he moved straight to his office.

Ahead of the meeting of state chairmen, an influential state chairman disclosed that the exit of Tukur has become the only solution to the endless crises in the party.

“The situation we have now is like a mad man being given a dagger and willing to kill himself and others,” the influential party official said.

Another senior party official from the South-East also speaking on the condition of anonymity, lamented the erosion of party unity and the continued crises in the party since the advent of the Tukur regime.

Indicative of the pressure against Tukur, one member of the influential G-84 in the NEC told Vanguard, last night, that retaining the national chairman would be unrealistic after a presidential committee comprising the Secretary to the Government of the Federation; the President’s Chief of Staff among others, recommended his exit so the party can have peace.

“How can he be saying that the president wants him when the SGF, the Chief of Staff and several others working for the President submitted that Tukur’s exit was the only solution for the restoration of peace?” the official quipped.

Another position being canvassed by state officials of the party was Tukur’s failure to visit state chapters since his advent.

“This is not a party you run from Abuja or your house. You have to go round and so far maybe because of his age, he has largely failed to do so,” one state chairman quipped yesterday ahead of their meeting.

Besides, there were indications that the party governors who have lately been divided over the choice of a chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF could be united in pushing for the ouster of Tukur today.

A source said that the issue has united the governors of the party who could today mend fences to push Tukur out. A senior aide of one of the pro-Jonathan governors speaking on the condition of anonymity said: ”It is the consensus of the governors that he has to go for the party to move forward.”

Source:  Vanguard