
Former govs root for chairmanship position
Party may dump ‘unity list’
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has chosen Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Finitri as Chairman of its National Convention Planning Committee fixed for October 30 and 31. He will be assisted by his Bayelsa State counterpart, Douye Diri. Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde will serve as Secretary of the committee. New Telegraph reported two weeks ago that Fintiri, who is governor of home state of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, will head the committee. The paper had stated that the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) had proposed three names – Finitiri, Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed and Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State. Ugwuanyi was later made Chairman of the zoning committee; Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom as his deputy, while the Deputy Governor of Zamafra State, Mahdi Aliyu Mohammed, is Secretary.
The committee is to zone the NWC offices of the party only. PDP National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, who addressed journalists at the end of the 93rd National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, said the stakeholders “charged the committees to work hard to ensure the successful conduct of the national convention”. Ologbondiyan further said the David Mark committee, which is intervening in certain issues relating to the leadership challenges in the party, submitted its report to the NEC, and “assured (the NEC) that efforts are on to resolve all court matters”.
He said, “NEC commends the efforts of the NWC, PDP Governors’ Forum, Board of Trustees (BoT), National Assembly caucus and other stakeholders in resolving the challenges confronting the party.” New Telegraph however learnt that former PDP governors are pushing for the chairmanship position. The ex-governors who met with PDP governors at their meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, according to a source, believe that they have the experience to lead the party. The source said the former governors want to be compensated for remaining loyal to the party despite their travails since they left office. “Some of them are being chased around by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). They have the option of joining the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the cases against them will be dropped. But they did not do that,” the source said.
He disclosed that the former governors are pushing for either former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido or ex-Cross River State Governor Lyiel Imoke. The source said party members favour throwing the national chairmanship position open while other positions would be zoned on North and South basis.
The source said, “When the national chairman emerges from any of the regions, the presidency will naturally go to another region. This way, the problem of where the presidential candidate in 2023 will come from will be settled without creating any bad blood.
“So if the South wants to produce the presidency, they should support a northern chairman to emerge at the convention.” Meanwhile, the majority of members however want the next national chairman to come from a state without a PDP governor to avoid the current crisis between Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and suspended National Chairman Prince Uche Secondus. Past PDP national chairmen had also wagged relentless wars with their governors, which affected cohesion in the party. It was also learnt that northern members of the party are kicking against the ‘unity list’ in electing next NWC. This is said to be targeted at some leaders who may want to impose leaders on the party.