Goodluck Meets Aggrieved PDP Governor,South West Caucus In Abuja

Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, met one of the five aggrieved northern PDP governors, Dr Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, at the Presidential Villa.

Jonathan also met with elders of PDP from the South-West, who said they were in the Villa to discuss with the president on cohesion in the zone ahead 2015 general election.

Wamakko met privately with the president after which the Sokoto governor told waiting State House correspondents that his visit to the Villa was “just a routine visit to the president of this great country.”

Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State had also been sighted coming into the Villa after the exit of his Sokoto counterpart.

Wamakko said the meeting had nothing to do with today’s NEC meeting, but maintained that the consultation embarked upon by the five governors, himself, Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Kwankwaso (Kano), Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), would continue.

Soon after meeting with the Sokoto governor, President Jonathan went into a meeting with PDP elders from the South-West, led by former PDP national deputy chairman (South), Chief Bode George.

Also at the meeting which started at 5.00 p.m in the First Lady’s Wing was Vice President Namadi Sambo, Chief Abiola Ogundokun, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Senator Hosea Agboola, Professor Tunde Adeniran, Senator Lekan Balogun, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Chief Kayode Adetokunbo, Chief Olusola Oke, Honourable Wole Oke and Elder Wole Oyelese, among others.

Ministers from South-West present at the meeting included Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs),  Caleb Olubolade (Police Affairs), Olusegun Aganga (Trade and Investment), Akinwunmi Adesina (Agriculture) and Mrs Olusola Obada (Minister of State for Defence).

Speaking with State House correspondents after the nearly two hours meeting, Chief George said they came to see the president to discuss the situation in the zone.

According to him, “with all intents and purposes, we don’t want to have an acrimony,” adding that “if you build a house, termites will come, if you are not careful. But in our own game, in politics, when you get to this stage, anything is possible in a political war.

“They can send people who are not friendly with you to come and pretend that they are your friends. Those are the termites I am talking about. You  don’t run away from the termites inside your house and say you will be a tenant. You must stay and make sure that the termites in your own house are caged.”

On the crisis facing the party at the national level, the party elder blamed the situation on the size of the ruling party, noting that opposition parties would first of all had to learn how to manage Nigerians which, he said, the PDP had done since 1999.