There are indications that the internal wrangling within the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has caused the party leadership to suspend the holding of the meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) indefinitely.
A top party source said that the decision was taken that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party would not call for a NEC meeting now until it is seen how far the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party, Chief Tony Anenih can go in his tour to pacify state governors to sheathe their swords.
Despite the fact that the constitution of the PDP stipulates that it holds a NEC meeting every quarter, the last one was held in June 2012.
Also, the party is said to be delaying the constitution of its disciplinary committee until there is peace and cohesion in the party.
“It will amount to shooting themselves in the foot for the NWC to call NEC meeting now with the governors up-in-arms against the party’s leadership. Let Anenih go and beg them first,” the PDP chieftain said.
The governors elected on the party’s platform had at the peak of their running battles with the NWC and the party chairman, BamangaTukur, demanded that a NEC meeting be convened.
However, the party leaders ignored their demands due to the suspicion that the governors would seize the platform to pass a vote of no confidence on the party leadership, especially considering the fact that the membership and voting rights of the NEC are tilted in favour of the governors given their influence on the members from their states.
However, a statement released by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief OlisaMetuh said that the PDP NEC meeting would hold after the Easter holidays.
He had previously said that the NEC meeting would hold once the election of the BoT chairman was concluded.
His statement also commended the tour of PDP states by Anenih, saying the BoT chairman was living up to his reputation as a consensus builder.
“His (Anenih) intervention at a time the National Working Committee has embarked upon a tour to achieve total reconciliation and engender internal cohesion is worthy of commendation,” he said.
He expressed confidence in the BoT Chairman’s ability to use his “experience, wide contacts and wisdom” to bring all party men together for the common goal of providing qualitative service to the People.
Metuh also said thatTukur was particularly delighted with the synergy between the Board of Trustees under Anenih, the NWC and the PDP Governors’ Forum which he said was knitting the party together in the midst of unfounded speculations of disunity.
The formation of the PDP Governors’ Forum just last month withGodswillAkpabio of AkwaIbom State installed as its chairman, is seen as an attempt to polarise the Nigerian Governors’ Forum under the chairmanship of Rivers State Governor, RotimiAmaechi.
The NGF under Amaechi had been at loggerheads with Tukur for allegedly taking a unilateral decision to dissolve the PDP exco in his Adamawa home state where he had engaged Governor MurtalaNyako in a battle for the control of the party.
On Sunday, 21 out of 23 governors on the platform of the PDP, boycotted the party’s peace meeting and celebration of Tukur’s one year in office. The event held in Abuja.
Shocked at the development, the party leadership had reportedly decided that they would need to swallow their pride and appease the governors in order to avoid the disintegration of the party.
The outcome of the current tour of the PDP states by Anenih, whose installation as the BoT chairman was said to have also caused splits within the party, is said to be crucial to the continued survival of the party.
He had already visited Jigawa and Kano states, where he reportedly begged the governors, Sule Lamido and Rabiu Kwankwanso, respectively, not to defect to another party as it has been speculated that many of the PDP governors had been planning to defect en masse to a yet-to-be-registered merger parties’ All Progressives Congress.
Akpabio, however, said on Sunday that no governor in the party was planning to defect but that he and his counterparts had set up a tactical team to woo governors of other parties to the PDP.
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