President
Goodluck Jonathan has overruled the National Chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, on the suspension of the mini
convention of the party.
Tukur and other members of the
National Working Committee of the PDP had on Monday asked the members
of the Convention Committee, headed by Prof. Jerry Gana, to suspend all
actions on the convention, which was earlier fixed for August 31.
The Gana committee had also fixed August
24 for the South-West zonal congress before Tukur asked it to stop such
plan “until all contending issues have been regularised.”
However, the suspension order did not go
down well with the convention committee as its members, including the
Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, were said to have
reported the matter to the President.
Their complaint made the President to
invite Tukur for a meeting on Tuesday, where issues bordering on the
convention were discussed.
The President’s intervention was said
to have led to peace in the battle of wits between the Tukur-led NWC
and the convention committee.
Already, the President was said to
have directed that the convention date as announced by the Gana’s
committee should remain sacrosanct.
A presidential source, who was at the
meeting, said part of the deal the President had with both Tukur and
Gana was that “the special national convention will still hold on August
31 and the South-West congress will also take place on August 24.”
In order to smoothen the relationship
between the Gana group and the members of the NWC, the President will
also have a breakfast meeting with all members of the NWC, including
Tukur on Thursday where more issues are expected to be discussed.
Apart from these men, some other
stakeholders from the party are expected to be in attendance at the
meeting, which will hold at the State House, Abuja.
But in order to appease the angry NWC
members, the President directed that the Gana Committee should allow
members of the NWC to chair some of the sub-committees in the convention
committee.
The NWC members might therefore be asked
to chair some strategic sub-committees like Publicity, Protocol and
four other unnamed ones, which the source said were demanded by Tukur.
The source said, “Ordinarily, the
chairmen of these sub-committees and welfare and even election, are
supposed to be reserved for the members of the NWC.
“The argument is that these offices have
to do with the day-to-day running of the party and that those who have
been in the party’s top hierarchy should be allowed to man them.”
He said the NWC members were not happy
that headship of such sub-committees like “Publicity, which is supposed
to have been reserved for the National Publicity Secretary, was given to
another person by the Gana committee.
“Also, the National Organising Secretary
was not even mentioned as a chairman of any committee, while the Woman
Leader, who is the traditional person in charge of Welfare was merely
made a member of the Welfare committee. In a publication, Senator Ita
Giwa was made the chairman of the welfare Committee,” he said.
But the Gana committee was said to have
agreed to correct what the source described as “anomalies” that were
noticed in the chairing of the offices.
At the Tuesday meeting, Tukur was
however said to have been faulted for not allowing Gana and
Ekweremadu into his residence last week.
The two men were at the residence of the
national chairman of the party with a view to briefing him on the
running of the committee.
With these corrections put in place, the
Gana committee was directed to commence preparations for the August 31
national convention.
Efforts made to get the reaction of
Acting Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Tony Okeke were not
successful as he did not respond to the calls made to his telephone.
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