TUKUR, PDPNWC MEMBERS EXCHANGE HOT WORDS AT MEETING WITH GEJ

The intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan in the crisis rocking
the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) may have failed as NWC members at a meeting on Thursday night at
the Presidential Villa openly accused the National Chairman, Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur, of "running a one-man show".
President Jonathan had on Thursday night held a meeting with the
party's national chairman and nine members of the NWC at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja. The meeting was to afford President
Jonathan the opportunity of getting full and accurate information
about the genesis of the crisis rocking the party with a view to
resolving it.
Ahead of the meetings of the national caucus, Board of Trustees (BoT)
and National Executive Committee (NEC) slated for next week, President
Jonathan had been holding series of meetings to resolve the crisis
rocking the party. In one of such meetings on Tuesday he met with
Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State and on Wednesday in another
meeting attended by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, it was
agreed that a meeting of the NWC should be summoned to listen to views
of the NWC members on the crisis.
At the meeting which kicked off at 9 pm on Thursday with President
Jonathan presiding, it was gathered that each of the NWC members laid
the blame of the crisis rocking the party on the doorstep of Tukur,
accusing him of taking unilateral decisions on several issues.
An NWC member who would not want to be named told THISDAY that, " the
national chairman was accused of running the party without inputs from
the critical stakeholders of the party like the PDP governors, members
of the Board of Trustees (BoT), members of National Assembly, State
Party Chairmen and conducing the affairs of the party from his Wuse 2
residence.
"For instance, the NWC members said that the decision to dissolve the
executive committee in Kwara and Sokoto states' chapters of the PDP
was not a decision of the NWC. We told the President that we attended
the inauguration of the Kwara State executive Caretaker Committee, so
as not to present the impression that the NWC is a divided house".
The source said NWC members at the meeting also dissociated themselves
from the dissolution of the executive chapters in Kwara and Sokoto
States adding that even the National Organising Secretary, Abubakar
Mustapha, was not aware of the dissolution.
The President was said to have been told that the NWC had held only
four meetings since the August 31, 2013 special national convention of
the party. They were said to have hinged the fact that most of the NWC
members had not been coming to the party secretariat regularly because
the national chairman had been using his residence as office.
"In fact, all the NWC members at the meeting, nine of us, pointed
accusing fingers at the national chairman as the cause of the crisis
rocking the party. As we speak at the meeting, the President was
surprised and could not believe that this was what was happening at
the NWC", the source said.
The NWC member also said that members at the meeting noted that
governors of the party no longer visit the national secretariat of the
part as they used to do, because of the style of administration
adopted by Tukur which had reduced the activities at the party
secretariat.
Asked what was the response of Tukur to all the allegations against
him, the NWC member said, "The national chairman first started by
saying that it was a gang up and an attempt to remove him and make the
President vulnerable.
"He also said that at first, he wanted to work with a team that would
deliver victory to the President at the 2015 presidential elections,
but that what he got was a group and not a team. But the NWC members
at the meeting responded by telling him that he was not in a position
to ensure the success of the President at the 2015 presidential
elections alone because it should be seen as a collective duty and not
the job of the chairman alone."
At this stage, the President was said to have called off the meeting
and informed the NWC members and the national chairman that he would
get back to them soon.
The party had last week announced the postponement of the BoT and NEC
meetings slated January 7 and 8, a development which sources said was
aimed at providing enough time for the party's leadership to appease
those planning to use the opportunity of the meeting to bring their
grievances to the fore and push for the removal of Tukur.
Following the crisis that had been plaguing the party after it held
its special convention last year, five of its governors - Rabiu
Kwankwanso (Kano), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa),
Ahmed Abdulfatah (Kwara) and Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), had since
defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Meanwhile, concerned members of PDP in Kwara State have rejected the
caretaker committee inaugurated for the party by the national
chairman.
The caretaker commitee members appointed by Tukur is headed by Hon.
Solomon Edoja from Delta State, while Alhaji Jubril Bala Jos from
Plateau State is the secretary.
Checks revealed that, the concerned members were not satisfied with
the appointment of non-Kwarans as chairman and secretary of the
long-awaited caretaker committee.
A party source who would not want his name mentioned confided in our
correspondent on Friday that the aggrieved party members have
threatened to abandon the party if the trend was not reversed.
The said that the concerned party members were of the opinion that
"the composition of the caretaker committee shows that the national
leadership of PDP does not have confidence in the ability of those
parading themselves as leaders of the party in the state".
According to them, "we are not happy with the development; it is a
slap on our faces, particularly our leaders that are claiming to be on
ground.
"The problem now is how will those non-indigenes understand Kwara
politics because our politics here in Kwara is different from any
other state".
The aggrieved PDP members emphasized that "this is not our expectation
at this critical period, all we need are indigenes with credibility".