The Presidency and serving governors eyeing second term in 2015 on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be pushing for a special national convention to ratify an amended party’s constitution allowing the president and governors to skip primaries.
A top PDP source told Daily Sun at the weekend that proponents of this idea are worried over how to get the Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee (NWC) convene a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, the only body that can approve and fix the date for a national convention. But the plan may pitch the National Chairman, PDP, Alhaji Tukur against the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Anenih. The latter had on May 30 after the PDP dinner witrh the President in Abuja, proposed automatic tickets for the President and governors.
The last time PDP held a NEC meeting was in July, 2012, in clear breach of the party’s constitution which stipulates that “the National Executive Committee (NEC) shall meet at least once in every quarter.”
A party source said the recent proposal by Anenih on the need to hand the President and governors automatic tickets was actually meant to “test the waters.”
For good measure, the source said the BoT chairman elected to drop the hint at the “PDP Family Dinner” for party stalwarts in the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with President Goodluck Jonathan in attendance.
However, no sooner had Anenih spoken than the political leadership of the North led by Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar warned against “any attempt to change the party’s rule to favour the President as the sole candidate in the event of his willingness to re-contest.”
A bloc in the NEC had been uneasy over Tukur’s refusal to convene a NEC meeting for close to a year. By the PDP’s constitution, a NEC meeting can only be convened at the instance of the National Chairman.
Article 12: 74 states:”The National Executive Committee (NEC) shall meet at least once in every quarter at the instance of the Chairman or at the request of two-thirds of its membership, who shall notify the chairman at least seven days prior to the meeting and an emergency meeting be summoned by the National Chairman having regard to all the circumstances of the agenda.”
Top party leaders believed to be disposed to Jonathan, Daily Sun gathered, are worried over how to get Tukur to convene a NEC meeting.
Believed to be Jonathan’s nominee, Tukur has since last year been staving off moves to unseat him as National Chairman. A source close to Tukur said that his refusal to convene a NEC meeting may have a lot to do with fears that such a meeting could spring up surprises.
“Even people supporting the National Chairman may have withdrawn their support. It may not be politically wise to summon a NEC meeting now, because anything can happen at the meeting. And as it is, I don’t think the old man wants to lose his job,” the source offered.
Another source captured the mood in the party leadership as that of uncertainty. He said the PDP is at a major crossroads and required that an urgent decision be taken.
He listed the circumstances surrounding the recent suspension of Sokoto State Governor Aliyu Wamakko as an indication that the party had lost control of its structures.
“When the NWC invited the North-West Chairman, Amb. Ibrahim Kazaure, for briefing on the governor’s activities, the man literally told them off.
“He told the NWC members point blank that since they failed to hand him, the zonal Chairman, a copy of the query to the governor, that he had no report to give them on the matter. He was right, and NWC wrong,” the source added.
One party officer routing for constitution amendment dismissed ACF and Atiku’s fears as unfounded. He said the new Electoral Act had thrown up fresh challenges for such parties as PDP to amend their constitutions.
He said: “Goodluck Jonathan won’t be president forever. Depending on what our federal lawmakers decide, Jonathan cannot be in office beyond 2019. So, how can somebody claim that amending the PDP’s constitution would solely favour one man?”
According to him, “recall that under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the then PDP leadership under Chief Audu Ogbeh had proposed that the party’s constitution be amended after the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States of America, to give incumbents automatic tickets.
“The proposal at the time was met with stiff resistance by top party leaders, particularly those from the North. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi were the most vocal opponents, so we are used to such opposition,” he stressed.
Daily Sun gathered that Anenih, who incidentally was the party’s BoT chairman then, dusted the proposal, and had been able to sell the idea to several top leaders of the party.
Even though Governors Seriake Dickson and Ibrahim Dankwambo of Bayelsa and Gombe states respectively are the only PDP governors seeking re-election, the source expressed confidence in their abilities to muster sufficient support for the automatic ticket clause should the matter come up at the NEC and national convention.
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