Barring last minute change in
schedule, President Goodluck Jonathan and the seven aggrieved Peoples
Democratic Party governors will resume peace talks on Sunday (today).
Signs that the talks may end again in
a deadlock began to emerge on Friday when The Presidency hinted that it
was not prepared to accede to unconstitutional demands.
The Presidency made it clear that
President Jonathan would not concede to anything against the letter of the
Nigerian Constitution as well as that of the party.
Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, said this in an interview in Abuja, on Friday.
Gulak said as a listening leader of
the party, President Goodluck Jonathan would listen to the aggrieved persons
but would not be party to anything that was unconstitutional.
He said that as a man of peace, the
President would engage the aggrieved members only on the way forward.
Specifically, the presidential aide
said the demand for the sacking of the party’s National Chairman, Dr. Bamanga
Tukur, and stopping Jonathan from contesting again were clearly not a
path to the way forward.
He said, “The President is willing to
listen to them and discuss the ways forward. He is a listening leader of the
party.
“The best he can do is to sit with
them and listen to them. In discussing, however, the President will not agree
with anything that is against the provisions of either the nation’s
constitution or the party’s constitution.
“Sacking of Alhaji Tukur is
definitely not the way forward. The President not contesting second term
despite the fact that the constitution allows him is also not the way forward.
“Simply put, therefore, the President
will not concede to anything that is unconstitutional.”
In a related development, the Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur-led PDP has said only its national working committee can decide
what the next step would be if ongoing reconciliatory efforts with aggrieved
members fail.
National Publicity Secretary of the
party, Chief Olisa Metuh, said this in a telephone interview with in Abuja, on Friday.
He noted that he was not in a
position to speak on what the NWC was likely to do, because it had yet to meet
to deliberate on the issue.
The party’s spokesman declined
comments when asked if the party was not applying double standards by
suspending four of its members who along with the seven aggrieved governors
pledged allegiance to the breakaway faction of the party.
Those suspended were: the party’s
former Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; former National Vice-Chairman
(South) Sam Sam Jaja; Chairman of the breakaway faction, Abubakar Baraje; and
Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure.
Metuh said, “Only the NWC can take a
decision on such (Suspension/ expulsion) issues. I am not in a position to
comment on it because we are now focused on the Anambra election. Our party is
focused and we will not be distracted.”
Ahead of today’s meeting with the
President, the seven aggrieved governors namely: Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Sule
Lamido (Jigawa); Rabiu Kwankanso (Kano); Muritala Nyako (Adamawa); Aliyu
Wamakko (Sokoto); Aliyu Babangida (Niger); and Abdulfatah Ahmed had given fresh
conditions to the President that would enable them to reconcile with the PDP.
The governors had demanded that the
suspension of Amaechi from the PDP be lifted and that the Presidency should
also recognise him as the leader of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
The governors are also insisting that
PDP must lift the suspension on Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
They also want the PDP to ensure his
resumption as the National Secretary of the party in accordance with the Appeal
Court judgment.
The ‘rebel governors’ also want the
recall of the factional chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje; his deputy, Sam
Jaja; and Ambassador Kazaure.
They also reiterated their call for
the removal of Tukur as national chairman of the party.
The governors are also said to have
requested the President to caution the FCT Minister, Bala Muhammed, over his
perceived assault on the G-7 governors.
They were also reported to have asked
Jonathan to restore the security aides of the governors, which were withdrawn
in the wake of the political crisis and to sanction the policemen that tried to
disrupt their meetings in Abuja.
But reacting specifically to the
statement made by Gulak on behalf of the Presidency, the governors said
Jonathan should ignore Gulak.
The governors said Gulak was actually
not representing the interest of the President with his utterances, which they
said were aimed at putting him(Jonathan) in a bad light.
The governors spoke through the
National Publicity Secretary of the New Peoples Democratic Party, Chief
Chukwuemeka Eze, in a telephone interview.
Eze, who was responding to the claim
by Gulak that the President would not meet the conditions of the governors at
the meeting he is having with them on Sunday (today), described the adviser as
“one of the numerous bad advisers of the President.”
He said, “Who is Gulak to be saying
that the President would not meet the conditions for peace in his political
party?
“Whose interest is he representing?
He is a bad adviser. He has a hidden agenda and he is out there to mis-advise
the President in order for him and the unseen people that he represents so that
the President will lose control of the party and be seen in a bad light by
Nigerians.
“Nigerians should ask Gulak what type
of adviser he is. It is in the interest of the President and the party to
listen to the seven governors.”
Eze asked the President to learn from
the biblical Shepherd, who he said, abandoned 99 sheep in search of the missing
one.
Eze said that left to the likes of
Gulak, the President would have become a leper, and be abandoned by his associates
and friends.
He said Gulak and others like him
profited from crisis like this, and asked the president to be weary of such
people.
Tags
Politics