PDP Governors Planning To Form New Party - Mu’azu

There are strong indications that the governors elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are planning to form a new political party away from the crisis-ridden PDP, as the conflict in the party deepens over the refusal of the current chairman of the party, Adamu Muazu, to resign as being demanded by the party’s governors. Emerging signals from different caucuses of members are pointing towards a possible break-up of the party in no distant future, with the governors of the party determined to form a parallel political platform. Indication to this emerged earlier yesterday as state governors on the platform of PDP were insisting that its National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’Azu
must resign on the basis of his alleged compromises which to them made the PDP to lose the Presidential election. The governors had held a meeting last week in Abuja where they drew the battle line with Mu’Azu, just as they barred him from attending the meeting for which they refused to invite him.They had met with President Jonathan after the meeting, intimating him about their plan to ensure the ouster of Mu’Azu as the PDP Chairman, as a step towards a full re-organisation of the PDP. It was gathered that some of the governors are already in Abuja for a fresh meeting called by the PDP Governors Forum Chairman, Senator-elect, Godswill Obot Akpabio, to determine Mu’Azu’s fate. The meeting, it was learnt, was billed hold at the Akwa Ibom Governors Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja later in the evening of yesterday. According to plans, the PDP governors will again proceed to the Presidential Villa to brief President Jonathan on the agenda they have for reviving the decaying party. There were reports that the governors have started working on a plan B to handle the crises within the PDP with a resolve that many of them will move out of the party to form a new political platform. Attempt to break-up the PDP in a similar manner in the past had failed, whereas members who left the party to form the New PDP as a platform, eventually dissolved into the All Progressives Congress (APC). According to reports, the governors may execute the “Plan B” in the event of Mu’Azu’s refusal to resign, most essentially before the exit of President Goodluck Jonathan. The PDP Chairman who quietly left the country for tour of Europe last Saturday had told party members that he would not resign, pointing out that efforts being made to push him off his seat will fail. He had equally predicted to his supporters in confidence that the PDP will break-up in the event that he was forced out of office, contending that the party cannot really sustain its style of using and dumping its leaders. The National Working Committee (NWC) had disowned responsibility for the party’s loss at the presidential and other elections blaming it rather on the campaign handlers. National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh had told newsmen in Abuja that the NWC was never carried along during the campaigns, and could not have performed magic to return the president. Meanwhile, there are insinuations that Mu’azu is keen on holding on to his office in PDP as a measure of upping his political profile ahead of 2019, when he would have been fully prepared to contest the presidential election on the platform of PDP. President Goodluck Jonathan, according to reports has not been happy with the turn of events in the party, as he is said to be appealing to top members to intervene by appealing to warring parties to sheathe swords. Meanwhile, Senate President, David Mark, has said that except the in-fighting in the PDP is put to an end forthwith, the party is headed for final destruction and oblivion. A statement issued yesterday by his Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, said that Mark, who lamented over the continued acrimony between factions in the party, said that “the PDP is already hemorrhaging”. According to the statement, the Senate President, who stated this while receiving the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who heads the PDP Post – election assessment committee, pointed out that, “unless we halt the bleeding and find the necessary therapy, we may be heading for the final burial of the party”. He also noted that “the party is already in a comatose status and we should do all we can to resuscitate the party rather than this unnecessary rancour and bulk passing”. According to him, “The emerging factions are absolutely unnecessary. The combatants must sheathe their swords and embrace dialogue. My appeal is that we should not do anything further that would damage the already fragmented house. “Everybody should come together and rebuild the party. We have gotten enough bruises. We need not inflict further pains on ourselves, with continuous bickering. Enough of this blame-game. We should return to the drawing board and need not wash our dirty linen in the public, anymore. “I believe a useful lesson has been learnt from the PDP electoral misfortune. As for me, it is time to put on our thinking caps and chart a new course”. “I trust Senator Ekweremadu that he and his team will do a good job and unearth the remote and immediate causes of our misfortune and make recommendations that will enhance the future of the party”, Mark said. He said the new status of the party as an opposition is a challenge which members must face with all honesty, sincerity of purpose and dedication to duty.
- People's Daily