There were indications that President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP
National Working Committee, NWC, may have succumbed to the aggrieved
senators’ demand for automatic ticket in the 2015 polls.
The Presidency is very sensitive over any matter that could mar the
re-election of President Jonathan in 2015 and quickly responds to
disputes or apathy raised by top party cliques in order to accommodate
and carry the entire party along as they now say in political parlance.
Shortly after allowing state governors to control the party structures
in their various states as far as the elections were concerned serving
senators mounted pressure to have their way too.
The PDP-led Senate had abruptly adjourned plenary last week, over
alleged hijack of electoral materials for the recently conducted ward
congresses by the governors thereby making their re-election bids and
even aspirations for other political positions difficult. And they also
threatened to support the APC and impeach President Jonathan...
The implication of the party’s decision to also allow the senators
continue would be that some of the nine serving governors like Theodore
Orji of Abia State and his counterparts in Benue – Gabriel Suswam;
Enugu- Sullivan Chime; Delta- Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan; Ebonyi- Martin
Elechi; Akwa Ibom- Godwill Akpabio; Katsina – Ibrahim Shema; Kebbi Aliyu
Dakinbari and Plateau- Jonah Jang may after all miss the opportunity of
going to the Senate following party decisions.
This was even as the hide- and- seek game between the party and former
President Olusegun Obasanjo continues with about 1000 of Obasanjo’s
supporters led by the former national treasurer and Obasanjo’s strong
ally, Bode Mustapha defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC, in
Ogun State yesterday following the frosty relation between him and the
national leadership of the PDP.
Obasanjo had earlier in the year said on Channels Television that he
bore no grudge against anybody in the PDP, but expressed his displeasure
with the choice of Mr Buruji Kashamu as the Chairman, Mobilisation and
Organisation committee of the party in the South-West.
“As a former President of Nigeria, the Chairman of West African
Commission on Drug and a member of the Global Commission on Drug, I
cannot accept that the zonal leader of my political party and, worse
still in my zone, will be an indicted drug baron wanted in America. How
do I explain that to friends outside Nigeria? This is only one of the
many issues that I have pointed out and still pointing out,” he said,
while giving a reason for his seeming withdrawal from the party’s
national activities.
According to him, he had a “national and international standard to maintain and reputation to keep and sustain.”
However, the Senate President, David Mark led other aggrieved PDP
senators to the meeting with Jonathan and the NWC of the PDP led by the
national Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu at the Presidential
Villa, Abuja, Thursday night.
One of the senators who was part of the meeting between Jonathan and the
national leadership of the party told Vanguard that both parties agreed
that the senators would be allowed automatic tickets to contest the
2015 general elections.
He said, “After listening to our grievances, President Jonathan showed
understanding of our plight and assured that any of us that had shown
interest to return to the National assembly would have the ticket.
“This is a welcome development; a situation whereby about seventy five
percent of serving senators are given automatic tickets by the party to
return after elections will strengthen our democracy,” the senator said.
Another source also hinted that the deliberation was fruitful as the
party’s NWC was mandated to work out the modality which would ensure
that the senators were returned in the 2015 without causing more crises
within the party.
It was gathered that Jonathan and the PDP’s NWC had to concede to the
demand of the senators to ensure that the harmonious relationship
between the president and the senate continued, bearing in mind that the
senate had always supported the presidency during critical times.