Mu'Azu ,Governors May Clash Over Returnee Ex Govenors

Less than two weeks after his inauguration as the new National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Althaji Adamu Muazu and the governors elected on the platform of the party are set for a possible showdown over ongoing reconciliation efforts within the party.

While Muazu is canvassing for a total reconciliation with all aggrieved chieftains of the party, some of the party’s governors see moves to bring back their former godfathers as a direct threat to  their interests which they want protected at all costs.

Governors Theodore Orji of Abia and Sullivan Chime of Enugu states during the week made direct requests to Muazu not to open the doors of the party to certain chieftains who left the party after losing out in bitter struggles for supremacy.

The chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has also sent a veiled warning against allowing anyone challenge the powers of the governors, stressing that anyone who wanted to be anything must go through the governors in their states.

Former Governors Obong Victor Attah (Akwa Ibom), Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia) and Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu) are said to be on their ways back into the party, especially with Muazu who was their colleague as governors between 1999 and 2007 as the party’s number one. They all have issues with the incumbent governors who were their proteges when they were in office.

The tension building up reportedly stemmed from the decision of the chairman to  open up the party’s space for “those shut out or those with legitimate aspirations” while the governors are worried about issues in their states which they fear may erode their authorities as leaders of the party.

Mu’azu, a former governor, is seen to be struggling to marry  his desiré for total reconciliation with the protection of the political interests of the governors.

Apart from the governors, it was also learnt during the week that some founding fathers of the party are feeling too big to be led by the new chairman. Indeed, one of the founding fathers told some newsmen on Thursday that he had made it known to Muazu that as his protege, it would be difficult to get him to change his mind on his decision to quit the party should  he decide to.

The delicate line came into the open during the week when the Governors’ Forum, after making their views on reforms known to the new party leadership at a close-door meeting, commenced open visitations during which they directly or through allies made demands on “sacred issues” they believed should be handled with care by the Chairman.

The National Chairman, in an indirect reaffirmation of his support for total reconciliation, advised governors and leaders of the party not to  shut out new members and open the register of the party at the ward levels.

This was an indirect response to the Abia State delegation led by the state governor,Orji and General Ike Nwachukwu who had earlier met the chairman, canvassing that the new national leadership should not  admit “political viruses” into the party at whatever level.

Mu’azu, who this week received three governors and their state delegations at the secretariat, told the delegation that the party should urgently commence registration of members  ahead of the 2015 general elections.

While warning that the PDP was not yet big enough, Muazu told Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State to pass the message to the other governors that it was high time the party’s register was opened so that new members could come into the fold.

“We need new members to come in without restrictions,” he told Dickson while pleading that even if the new comer is not liked or loved, the state should accommodate such interested member for the sake of the party, insisting that “the house of PDP is not yet full.”

Stakeholders in the Abia State chapter of the party had openly  pleaded with the National Chairman not to re-admit into the state chapter of the party a former chieftain of the party in the state now trying to stage a comeback, describing the unnamed politician as’”a virus” which should never be allowed into the party again.

Speaking on behalf of the stakeholders, Senator Nwachukwu begged Alhaji Muazu and members of his National Working Committee (NWC) not to throw “the most peaceful state chapter of the PDP in the whole country to slip into crisis” by not re-admitting a particular former member of the party again into the fold for peace to reign in the state.

”We have a virus in our midst. The virus is trying to come back, we are begging you, you should not allow that virus to come back again in the interest of our party. You know that virus; we don’t want him again; we won elections without him and this time round, we will win again without him around,” Nwachukwu  declared.

He was believed to be referring to the former governor, Kalu.

Speaking in the same vein, Professor K. Madubike declared that the members of the party in the Abia State had already deleted the virus from the state chapter of the party and that on no condition would the virus reappear again, assuring that “the state chapter of the party under Governor Orji would deliver the state to the PDP in all the future elections as done in 2011.”

It was not only on the request of Abia delegation that the crack on reconciliation is showing. Checks showed that almost all the PDP governors have a faction which had refused to go along with the mainstream caucus of the party under the direction of the state governor.

It would be recalled  that the chairman of the Governors’ Forum, Akpabio, also during the week openly told the party chairman that while the president is respectéd as the party leader at the national level, other interests must respect the state governors at the state level.

He vowed that nobody who hoped to become something in any future contest would not succeed without dealing with the leadership of the party at the state level, even as he declared his loyalty to the party chairman and the president.

The Enugu State governor, Chime, during his visit to the chairman, also clearly declared his opposition to “any Abuja based politician” seeking advantages without respecting the state structures of the party. The governor, who was cheered all along his speech, made it clear that the PDP in his state is under his clear leadership, advising the party chief against listening to “voices outside the mainstream.”

Saturday Tribune can report that Muazu, has decided to use his extensive level of contact which he hoped to fully deploy to reconcile the various factions of the party.

 Checks showed that the chairman was split between satisfying the serving governors and his colleagues with whom he served as governor.

While Muazu was a governor from 1999 to 2007, the present governors took over in 2007. It is also noticed that most former governors who were Muazu’s colleagues are at loggerheads with most of the incumbent governors. The party chief thus has two contending forces he must satisfy to move the party forward .

Saturday Tribune learnt the chairman has however set minimum standards to apply in reconciling the contending interests, namely that neither the Federal Government nor state governors would be allowed to impose candidates for the 2015 polls.

A free and fair primaries, Muazu said, would détermine the candidates of the party.

Many of the governors reportedly lauded this position while others see this as openly taking away their power of political preferences in future polls .

It was, however, gathered that Mu’azu is managing the contending interests well with one of his close aides telling Saturday Tribune that “the chairman is wise enough not to go against the governors and the governors are smart enough to accept his promise for reforms. The chairman respects the governors and both sides accept that imposition of candidates at the state level is a problem. So there is a silent struggle . I can  assure you that the chairman and the governors are handling the matter very maturely,” the aide said.