• Sources Blame Presidency’s Aides For Not Sensing Moves The refusal of President Goodluck Jonathan to renounce his right to contest the 2015 Presidential election is at the heart of the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), sources insist in Abuja. In fact, the walkout staged by the splinter group, which calls itself the “New PDP”, was as much a protest against final confirmation of President Jonathan’s total grip on the party structure as it was anger at his style of deliberately not reaching out to outsiders, unless they are needed to help serve specific purpose. And the crisis has also brought into focus the disconnect between Jonathan and Nigerians, as well as the lack of rapid response mechanism within his administration. The walkout, led by former vice president, Atiku Abubakar and seven governors, who joined forces with former acting national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, and former national secretary of the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, all loyalists of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, underscored the animosity between the former president and Jonathan. A source told The Guardian: “I wonder why some Nigerians are surprised at what is happening in the PDP. This is all about 2015 and the plan for the presidential candidate of the PDP to emerge from the Northern part of the country. What happened was the final admission after they discovered they could not force the President to abandon their wish that he waives his right to contest the election. “First, the battle led to the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC). And already, former Head of State, Maj. Gen Muhammadu Buhari is the candidate to beat in the race for the new party’s presidential primaries. And before he wrote his opinion piece selling his candidature, members of the PDP had been working round the clock. “This led to the trips by the five Northern Governors — Alhaji Sule Lamido, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, Admiral Murtala Nyako, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu and Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko — during which consultations on how presidential power could be conceded to one of them or their choice candidate within the PDP were made. “And when this didn’t dissuade the President to drop his assumed 2015 ambition, they opted to wait for him and greatly embarrass him at the mini-convention. It worked perfectly because of the calibre of the people around the President. They were really caught napping. Really, no President in the history of Nigeria has been this embarrassed, this publicly. It was a master stroke.” Clearly, the revolt is the final plank of the battle which started within the party in the run up to the 2011 elections when some influential Northerners, under the aegis of the Northern Peoples Leadership Forum (NPLF), tried to stop Jonathan from running for President. It is easily forgotten that, in the run-up to the Presidential primaries to the 2011 elections, the NPLF fought President Jonathan and tried everything in their books to stop him from running. When that didn’t work, they opted for a Northern consensus candidate under the PDP. This later produced former Vice President Abubakar, who was defeated by President Jonathan at the presidential primaries held at the Eagles Square. With the defeat of its consensus candidate, the NPLF decided to go back to the drawing board, to map out fresh strategies on the way forward. Atiku, members of the body and other top Northern political leaders within the PDP resolved to remain within the party and pursue their plans. The Guardian gathered that the plan to embarrass the President through a walkout from the ‘old PDP’ began last April when Jonathan met with some of the northern Governors who felt he was going against their 2011 alleged accord to be a one-term President. They reminded him of the alleged agreement with Northern political leaders, including top Emirs and other traditional leaders. Obasanjo was said to be in the know of the alleged agreement, which explained his cold shoulder to Jonathan over any second term ambition. When Jonathan rejected their assertion, the protagonists of the group, led by Dr Babangida Aliyu went public, asking him to adhere to the alleged one-term agreement. At this point, the President’s spokesmen denied the existence of any such agreement. Alarmed that the President could be hounded out of the 2015 race, his supporters opted for public warnings and threats. Led by Chief Edwin Clark and Asaro Dokubo, they threatened violence should Jonathan not contest in 2015. Jonathan, who is always slow to act but is focused and determined, then started the process of taking over the structure of the PDP. With this, the Northern PDP Governors, being Obasanjo loyalists, reached out to the former President to prevail on his “political son” Jonathan not to contest. The President’s rejection of any such pressure “forced” Chief Obasanjo to switch his allegiance in favour of a PDP presidential candidate from the North. This is the reason why a pro-Jonathan group believes that the former President is the godfather of the “new PDP.” Sources said that it was the governors, having decided to confront President Jonathan with all the political heavy weights outside the government, who recruited former vice president Abubakar into the splinter group to carry out the convention “coup.” It was in order to help execute this that Atiku denied any link with his political group, the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) when it was registered. The walkout was to prove to President Jonathan that they can dismantle the structures for his planned 2015 ambition. Sources in Abuja also alleged that Obasanjo was the one who advised the splinter PDP against abandoning the party for another, with the position that it was better to detain the option of joining another party until it becomes impossible to remain in the PDP. Clearly, President Jonathan was the only one taken unawares when the walkout began at the Eagle Square. Sources said that the fact that there was no prior clear intelligence on the move and that there were no immediate counter measures against the “rebellious” group is a function of the quality of the political operatives around him. Some point to this as how precarious his situation is if he ever attempts to get into the second term bid with the same caliber of top aides. In ‘the city of rumours and intrigues,’ many believe President Obasanjo’s invitation to Sokoto where he was given red carpet reception just days before the mini-convention should have alerted “an active Presidency that something was in the works. Yet, it was the same endless reaction mode that led to their doing nothing to decode what was coming.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 14:26:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015