The cold war in the Peoples Democratic Party seems to be blowing out of proportion as its governors have asked the National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, and other members of the party’s National Working Committee to resign.
The governors were said to have done so during their meeting at the Akwa Ibom State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja on Tuesday.
Mu’azu, the PDP Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus; and the National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon, were said to be present at the meeting summoned by Governor Godswill Akpabio, who is the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum.
Investigations by our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday showed that the governors accused Mu’azu and the other members of the NWC of working against the party during the general elections.
Apart from being defeated in the presidential election, the ruling party also lost majority of the states in the north which was hitherto known to be its base.
The majority of the states are now under the control of the All Progressives Congress.
Mua’zu, according to one of the governors, was shocked when he was accused of working against the party’s interest during the elections.
The governor said they told Mu’azu that he should resign with members of the NWC and allow a new set of people to pilot the affairs of the party.
Another governor said that Mu’azu was told that the best thing for him to do was to quit honourably since he led the party to a disastrous outing.
He said, “We told him to resign and go with members of the NWC that he’s leading. That is the general opinion of the governors and we told him.
“We said that having led the party to this level which is historical because we have never been this defeated since the party was formed, the honourable thing was for him to leave.
“That is what is expected of him; that is what is done in all advanced democracies.”
The governor, who is from the North, added that there was no way the chairman and members of the NWC would continue “to force themselves on the displeased party members.”
Another governor from the South, who was also at the meeting, said they had a feeling that Mu’azu was planning to run for the office of the President in 2019 on the platform of the APC.
He said this was the reason why they believed that he did not care about the party and therefore was ready to destroy it before leaving.
The governor added that the body language of the chairman during the meeting didn’t indicate that he would leave.
He said, “His body language did not show a man who’s ready to leave. But either he likes it or not, his predecessor, Bamanga Tukur, tried to stay on, when the time came, he left.
“Everything that has a beginning will definitely have an end. You cannot be a party chairman when the members are saying you should leave.
“Our( governors) opinion is that he should leave. But if he refuses to resign, some of us won’t attend any meeting called by him.
“They call him ‘game changer’ but succeeded in changing the fortune of our party for the worse. We won’t agree with that.”
But Mu’azu’s Chief Press Secretary, Tony Amadi, and the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, said it was wrong for any governor to blame the party’s poor performance on the NWC members.
Amadi, who spoke with our correspondent, said that everyone would have to share from the blame, adding that not all the governors were able to deliver their states during the elections.
He said, “Did all the governors deliver their states during the elections? I am sure you know the number of states that we lost during the elections.
“Did Mu’azu come to their states and make them to lose the elections? Everybody has his own share of the blame, including the President.
“The party lost an election and everybody is looking for a way to avoid blame. That is bad. But it is not true that he was bundled out of the meeting.”
Also, Metuh said the actions of the governors contributed largely to the party’s poor performance.
He said, “We were not the ones who handled the campaigns and we were not part of the elections. Did the NWC members stand for any election?
“The governors are the ones who are running the party in their states as the party is just a department of the government.”
Metuh alleged that every effort made to instil discipline in many of the party members failed because of the actions of some of the governors.
Metuh also said he was happy to learn that the APC had overruled the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, on the ban placed on AIT from covering his activities.
“Could we have done that? If we did, they would be asking the NWC members to resign. We need to learn from this. That is what is called party discipline,” he added.
The PUNCH however learnt on Wednesday that the NWC had called for a hearing on the cause of the party’s poor outing at the elections .
An NWC member said they believed that governors who arm-twisted them to get whatever they wanted caused the problems of the party.
He added that except for Ebonyi State, all the PDP governors got the candidates they wanted as their successors.
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