A new twist was added to the ongoing crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party,( PDP) yesterday as President Goodluck Jonathan had a secret meeting with the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi indicating that an end may be in sight in the crisis bedeviling the party.
The President equally had a secret parley with northern governors, who included the ‘Popular Five’ who had been in consultation across the country in a bid to restore normalcy to the PDP.
The Five governors- Muazu Babangida Aliyu, (Niger ), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso(Kano), Murtala Nyako( Adamawa), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto) met with the president behind closed-doors over burning national issues, including the political crisis in Rivers State, it was gathered.
The parley with the northern governors took place shortly after the president”s meeting with Amaechi and was attended by Governor Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State and Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State both from the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Although, details of the meeting were not made available to journalists, Governor Lamido confirmed to Sunday Mirror adding, “ we met and had a frank and honest discussion on wide range of issues and above all to give Nigerians the confidence that all is well and that Nigeria comes first before anything else”.
He refused further questions on the meeting. It was further gathered that apart from the Rivers State problem, the meeting also discussed ways of averting further crisis in the party.
The northern governors had earlier met with former President Ibrahim Babangida and former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, while seeking for lasting peace to the PDP crisis.
They also visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State, last weekend, calling on him to intervene in the matter. The governors, it was learnt, delayed their Umrah (Lesser Hajj) trip, for the peace talks. Curiously, Adamawa’s Governor Nyako had accused President Jonathan of ingratitude and unfairness.
He also alleged that the President concentrated more on developing his South-South region, “ignoring developmental problems in the rest of the country.”
Specifically, the governor expressed displeasure over the way he (Nyako) was being treated by the party despite the sacrifices he made to ensure the President’s victory during the PDP primaries and the 2011 presidential election.
Nyako who spoke through his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Mallam Ahmad Sajo, claimed that he ensured Jonathan’s success in both crucial polls.
“President Jonathan has been ungrateful to Governor Murtala Nyako,” he said, adding, “In the first instance, you should understand that during the nominations, Jonathan contested with a son of Adamawa State.
“If he (Jonathan) won Adamawa State, the governor swam against the tides. Immediately after that, they started sending him (the governor) text messages, calling him a kafir (infidel), dan wuta (hell bound son) and all that.
“They said he backed a Christian against Muslims; he went through all that humiliation. At the federal elections, Nuhu Ribadu is a son of Adamawa. Nyako worked for Jonathan to defeat Ribadu, another son of Adamawa in the general elections.
“How would they have expected to win Adamawa in a landslide? When after the defeat of Atiku, he was aggrieved, they did not pacify him.
“He came back here and moved all his acolytes into Labour Party, including the person they are using today as the so-called chairman of the PDP, who was the governorship candidate of the Labour Party. “We also had Nuhu Ribadu, who is from this state.
If for nothing, at least, he had brothers, sisters and other relatives to support him and yet, Jonathan won. “It doesn’t matter whether he won convincingly or not, he won at the expense of sons and daughters of Adamawa,” Sajo said.
But in a swift reaction, the President’s Special Adviser on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, responded, describing the governor instead, as “the bigger ingrate.” According to him, “It is Nyako, who is ungrateful to Mr. President. “He did not know how the PDP came about.
He was in the opposition All Peoples Party when he was brought in and handed the ticket to become governor of Adamawa State.”
Stressing that Nyako was being ungrateful and unfair to President Jonathan, Gulak had stated, “The party mobilised the people to vote for him (Nyako). You can check the records, Nyako did not mobilise votes for the President; it was the other way round. So, what is he talking about?”
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