Barely one week after the defection of five governors elected on its platform, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is faced with another loss of a major component: the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), which is said to be considering merger talks with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
The PDM, founded by the late chief of staff, supreme headquarters, Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, and inherited by former vice president Atiku Abubakar, remains the most enduring political bloc in the country. The formation of the PDP in 1998 depended on it.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the PDM, buoyed by the successful merger of the “new PDP” leadership spearheaded by the G-5 governors -- Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso(Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Abdulfattah Ahmed (Kwara) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) -- has constituted a select committee to undertake what a source called “the possibility of an alliance or outright merger”.
According to the source, PDP has become very dictatorial with little room for opposing views. The PDM, he said, sees a future in a working relationship with the APC as a way of galvanizing inter-party support to wrest power from the PDP come 2015.
“This whole idea of alliance, or merger as you may wish to call it, was our original idea that we wanted to work on because we discovered that we needed not to deceive ourselves about winning as PDM.
“So the first thing we did was to undertake a study of the polity with a view to seeking the proper alliance, and we find the APC most plausible as a vehicle to achieve this. But, somewhere along the line, I think there were some conflicts of interests that made us abandon the whole idea.
“As it is, we have decided to move beyond the scepticism that has always characterised alliances by forging a relation; in fact, we have decided to set up a small committee to look at the possibility of an alliance or an outright merger with the APC because we have seen its workability, and if the whole essence is to rescue Nigeria, we will have no option than to fuse as one to forge ahead,” he said.
When contacted, APC’s interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said even though he was unaware of an alliance or merger talks, the doors of the party were open to all Nigerians “irrespective of party and religious affiliation”.
Also reacting, the media adviser to PDM’s national chairman, Alaba Yusuf, told LEADERSHIP that alliance talks were not impossible, even as he claimed ignorance of merger talks with the APC.
“Let me say in all sincerity that I am not aware of any alliance or merger talks between the APC and the PDM, but you should know that, in politics, nothing is impossible; that is all I can say for now,” Yusuf said.
Aliyu, Lamido, others meet Jonathan
President Goodluck Jonathan last night met with governors Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Sule Lamido (Jigawa), two G7 governors who had refused to decamp along with five of their colleagues to the APC.
The meeting which held at the first lady wing of the presidential villa and ended at about 10:35pm continues next Sunday.
After the meeting, the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman, Chief Tony Anenih told journalists that there will be series of other meetings before yesterday the next scheduled between the president and the governors.
Anenih said, “We have had our meeting presided over by the president with the vice president in attendance. We had a very useful meeting, the summary of it all is that we are happy that we are moving to restore confidence and trust. There will be a series of meetings between now and the weekend”.
On his part, Lamido who was asked whether he was still joining his colleague in the APC simply said, “I stand by my principle which is one Nigeria which is based on law and order”.
Aliyu maintained his stance that he was still a member of the PDP. He said, “I am a member of PDP and that is why I am here at this meeting and as I said before the whole idea was to bring sanity back to our party and that is what we are still discussing.
Also at the meeting were governors Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Idris Wada (Kogi).
Before President Jonathan met with the two governors, Vice President Namadi Sambo and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Ayim Pius Anyim had met with some PDP governors at another venue at the Presidential Villa.
Details of the meeting were not given as journalists were not allowed to cover the meeting which started about 7.30p.m.
The governors present at that meeting include Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Martins Elechi (Ebonyi), Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Idris Wada (Kogi), Jonah Jang (Plateau), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Theodore Orji (Abia), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Liyel Imoke (Cross River).
Also at the meeting were deputy governors of Niger and Kaduna.
Before the meeting which held at the Presidential Villa, governors elected on the PDP had met at the Akwa Ibom Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro District to deliberate on the festering crisis in the party.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the governors might complain to President Jonathan that the Tukur-led NWC of the party was overheating the polity with provocative utterances.
“We will table before the president the need to caution Alhaji Bamanga Tukur to be more careful in his utterances because we cannot pretend that all is well in our party,” a source close to the governors told LEADERSHIP last night.
We will win more votes - Tukur
Unperturbed by the defection of five governors from its fold, the national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji (Dr) Bamanga Tukur, yesterday said the ruling party would win more votes by 2015.
Tukur stated this while replying Jigawa State governor Sule Lamido, who accused the PDP national chairman of being a virus in the party.
But Tukur said he agreed with Lamido that he (Tukur) is a virus in the party but a necessary virus for the entrenchment of democratic culture, discipline and good governance in the party and in the country.
According to a statement signed by the special assistant on media to the PDP national chairman, Prince Oliver Okpala, Tukur assured “that irrespective of the present distractions and defections, the PDP will win more electoral victories and will move to greater height as members of one united family under one big umbrella”.
The national chairman remarked that the virus that Sule Lamido perceived is a necessary virus in any democratic political structure for sustenance and continuity of our nascent democratic dispensation.
He said if the virus had spread enough, the likes of Governor Sule Lamido would not have walked out on the president of the country and other party chieftains during the party’s last convention, an action he described as “political coup and secession which should be condemned by every right-thinking Nigerian as an insult on the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
He lamented that it was only in a political dispensation that the governors can go free after conspiring and walking out on the president of the country in the party’s last national convention.
Tukur said “discipline is a necessary instrument in the smooth running of any political organisation or society, as any organisation or society without discipline opens the door for indiscipline, anarchy and catastrophe to set in”.
APC is not electable
A statement by the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, yesterday also flayed what it described as “the inherent contradictions in the Messianic pretences of the APC against its lead role in the cascading anti-people actions and utterances”.
The ruling party cited events such as the recent backlash that trailed the statement by Governor Adams Oshiomhole on a widow in Edo State as well as other anti-people utterances and illegalities by the leaders of the APC as reasons why the opposition party is the most unelectable political party in the present circumstances of national challenge.
The statement said: “What a double-faced political party the APC is! This minute, the APC evangelizes Nigerians on fine points of good governance and nationalism, claiming they are the ones sent, while the next minute the same APC leaders are caught with sharp sword on the soul of the nation.”
We will declare for APC and retain our seats - nPDP Reps
Leader of the “new PDP” caucus in the House of Representatives Hon. Andrew Uchendu (Rivers) yesterday declared that members of the party would not, and were not, entertaining any fear of losing their seats when they decide to declare for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He added that those who have been saying that they (nPDP reps) are seeking a deal from President Goodluck Jonathan are among those who are not sure of their political standing in their states.
A legislator who spoke exclusively to LEADERSHIP last Wednesday had disclosed that PDP as a caucus, including members of the nPDP, had decided to shelve any plan to join their governors to move to other parties if President Jonathan would give them a deal.
He also disclosed that a delegation led by the speaker, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, was expected to meet with Jonathan this week with their message.
But Uchendu, who spoke exclusively to LEADERSHIP yesterday, said they were avoiding being hasty with the announcement of their defection in the interest of the stability of the House and not because they had developed cold feet.
In a phone chat, he said: “No member of the nPDP is entertaining such fears. Those who are peddling the story may possibly be unsure and conscious of the swing of political pendulum. I have been, since 2003, in the chamber and have seen a good number of lawmakers defect from their parties to others and they didn’t lose their seats, so why would any defection now be different?
“The procedure will be met and, at the appropriate time, my colleagues and I will let the world know.”
Also speaking in the same vein, Hon. Ali Ahmad (Kwara), who is the chairman of the House Committee on Justice, challenged anyone to ask them to forfeit their seats, because they will decamp to the APC “when they are set”.
Citing Section 68 (1) g, he said though “this government is not known to follow the tenets of the law”, they will pay the sacrifice and dump the PDP.
“There is no question of losing seats because the constitution in section 68 (1)g provides the basis for us to move if we choose,” he said, adding that it will be best for the PDP not to compel them to remain in the party under any guise. Ahmad noted that “it will be in their interest to let us go”.
“Our body may be in the PDP but our souls have left the party and it is better they let us go because, if they insist that we stay, we will just be causing trouble for them.
“We are definitely moving and I will be surprised if anyone would say because they the fear that they would lose their seats they will stay. I am prepared for anything; if losing my seats is the price to pay, some people have to sacrifice,” the lawmaker stated.
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