Presidency Moves to Replace Mu'azu with S'South Governor-Chuks Okocha

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PDP National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu

•  National Secretary: Why I won’t resign

Despite threats of sanctions by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the leadership crisis in the party continues to deepen, as aides of President Goodluck Jonathan have moved to replace the embattled national chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu, with an outgoing governor from the South-south.

This is coming as the former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu, has warned against any leadership change that would remove Mu’azu or members of the NWC, cautioning that the problem of the PDP stems from lack of discipline and internal democracy, which the incumbent NWC was not allowed to enforce at both the national and state levels.

THISDAY gathered that the move by the presidential aides and associates of the president is aimed at altering the zoning of offices in the PDP, which would see the national chairman of the party coming from the South-south, while the presidential candidacy will be zoned to the North, preparatory to the 2019 election.

In this regard, THISDAY was informed that the plot is to make the outgoing Governor of Cross River State Liyel Imoke the next national chairman of the party at the national convention. If they get their way, the national convention will take place in the second week of June this year.

It was also gathered from a party source that all offices of the NWC would be affected.

He said: “If Imoke becomes the new national chairman of the party, the national secretary would come from the North, thus making room for the next presidential candidate of the party to also come from the North."

But Mu'azu is said to be opposed to his removal, stating that he would not stand by and be used and dumped by the PDP.

In a statement at the weekend by his press secretary, Tony Amadi, Mu’azu said the tenure of the present NWC would expire next year, adding that at the appointed time PDP would determine the new zoning arrangement.

PDP will tomorrow inaugurate a reform committee headed by Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

The committee, which has some of the outgoing governors as members, showed that some of them are not part of the plot to remove Mu’azu and other members of the NWC.

Meanwhile, the former governor of Ebonyi State and now a senator-elect, told THISDAY in an exclusive interview that he is against the tide of political developments to contemplate the removal of the Mu’azu-led NWC.

According to Egwu, the electoral losses of the PDP started in 2003 when the party commenced a gradual descent to its current defeat, with the loss of the presidential election.

He said: “The decline of the PDP started since 2003 and it is being felt now because we lost the 2015 presidential election. In 2003, some states were lost and no one took it seriously till this moment,” adding that the best option was not to contemplate any leadership change but to go back to the drawing board to restrategise.

The former governor said the blame should not be placed on the Mu’azu-led NWC because there was no internal democracy and discipline in the PDP both at the national and state levels.

According to Egwu, the NWC of PDP is subservient to both the government at the national and state level, which “in no way promoted the concept of party supremacy and discipline as was in the case of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) where party was supreme".

“Don’t blame Mu’azu or the members of the NWC, they did their best. The party was no longer supreme, there is no discipline; we had a party manifesto but it was no longer recognised or used.

“The executive took over the affairs of the party both at the national and state levels,” he said.

On the way out of the present situation, he said: “Let's go back to the drawing board and stop this blame game and build a party where the party would be in charge."

However, as the struggle for the soul of the PDP continues, the National Secretary of the party and a member of the NWC, Prof. Adewale Oladipo, has said that he will not resign from the NWC as directed by the South-west caucus of the party.

The South-west PDP had issued a communiqué on Saturday, stating that his resignation was meant to pave the way for the dissolution of the NWC as a fallout of the 2015 general election.

But reacting yesterday, Oladipo said after a very careful examination of the inherent breaches in the procedures adopted in convening the meeting of the South-west PDP, as well as the content and tone of its resolution, he termed it an orchestrated attempt by a few individuals bent on sowing the seeds of discord within the PDP fold in the zone.

He said this was evident in the fact that the said communiqué in no way reflected the views of majority of those who attended the meeting, neither did it tally with the opinion of the generality of party members in the region.

According to him, “It is indeed undermining and a clear breach of protocol the fact that a meeting of some leaders of the zone would be convened to discuss issues of the party’s

presidential campaigns and the highest-ranking national officers of the party from the zone were excluded.

“This is in continuation of the apparent marginalisation of the National Working Committee and the party structures at all levels in the handling of the presidential campaigns.

”More so, even some of those who attended the meeting were not privy to the agenda and the eventual content of the communiqué issued at the end.”

He said in view of the above therefore, “it will be absolutely unpatriotic and against the wishes and aspirations of majority of our party members from the South-west through whose mandate we occupy the offices of the National Secretary and the National Auditor, respectively, if we concede to the demands in the communiqué, especially given the fact that as elected members of the National Working Committee, our positions have a tenure which lasts until March 2016."

“Moreover, members of the PDP in Osun State, my primary constituency, have already passed a vote of confidence on me in my capacity as the National Secretary.

“Furthermore, while some of those asking us to resign performed very poorly even in their polling units, it is on record that the National Auditor and my humble self performed creditably and delivered our areas in the general election.

"It is therefore disheartening that rather than joining other well-meaning members of our great party in supporting the National Working Committee in the ongoing re-engineering process to rebuild the PDP, some elders from our zone, particularly, a former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Olabode George, who should know, have instead resorted to divisive politics by attempting to instigate our members against one another.

“What our party needs now in the South-west and indeed across the country is for all hands to be on the deck as we work harmoniously in our determination to reposition the PDP to regain power in 2019.
“Our party members are therefore charged to watch out for individuals whose agenda is to sow the seeds of discord and pave the way for crisis within our fold for their selfish interests.

“The National Working Committee is now more than ever before determined to rebuild the PDP and restore its glory as the preeminent political party in Nigeria.

“This resolve is irrevocable and we shall not allow ourselves to be distracted in anyway by any person under any guise whatsoever,” he said.

Culled from Thisday