ice President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as President on May, 5, 2010, following the death of his boss, the late Umaru Yar’Adua. But discerning members of his party would insist that the battle for the party’s 2011 presidential ticket had been on before the demise of Yar’Adua.
While Jonathan was in the saddle as Acting President, the immediate past National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, [PDP], Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, had told journalists, after a meeting with the PDP Governors at Kwara State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja that the presidential ticket would remain in the North, until 2015, in deference to the party’s zoning formula.
It was a pronouncement that courted negative reactions for the former PDP National Chairman and led into chains of other developments.
Ogbulafor was arrested for an alleged sleaze which he allegedly perpetrated, while serving as Minister for Special Duties under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
With the demise of the late President Yar’Adua, the coast was thus clear for Jonathan, who had assumed office as the substantive President to prepare the ground for his presidential ambition.
Getting the party structures behind him was very strategic, as Ogbulafor who was battling allegation of graft was compelled to throw in the towel, as PDP Governors from South-East governors told him in clear terms that President Jonathan was not comfortable with a party national chairman who is facing graft charges, as the allegation leveled against him, albeit, unproven in the court, remains a moral burden to the party.
Sweet victory on zoning
Dr Okwesilizie Nwodo coming on board was a huge victory for Jonathan, as he was able to settle the contentious zoning arrangement in the party in President Jonathan’s favour.
His first major pronouncement though upset the pro-zoning camp in the PDP, but it was relished by the anti –zoning protagonists. Nwodo had said that zoning was dead in PDP, as it had been observed in the breach after 1999. The PDP National Chairman equally ensured along with other foot soldiers of the President that the 53rd National Executive Committee [NEC] meeting made a favourable pronouncement on zoning.
Zoning, according to the party, remains, but the incumbent President has the right to seek for the ticket, along with other wiling contenders on PDP platform for the same ticket.
Daily Sun investigation revealed that the removal and a soft landing for his presidential ambition had been the only battle the President had won in the party, since his assumption of office.
Fatal blow on e-registration
While his camp was basking in the euphoria of his victory at the 53rd NEC, his opponents only beat a retreat to strategise.
All the moves by Nwodo, who is perceived as President Jonathan’s Man Friday, is viewed with suspicion by other presidential aspirants and the PDP Governors.
Nwodo had promised party faithful that he would restore internal democracy in the party, remove godfathers in state chapters.
His fancied scheme through which he hoped to restore this normative ideal of equal membership was the on-line registration of members of the party. He believed the scheme would assist the party to generate fund for itself, rather than going cap in hands to seek for funds from governors and other political office holders of the party.
It was a good idea that enjoyed the backing of President Jonathan. But the political implication of the scheme was not lost on the ubiquitous PDP Governors who knew that their grip on their state chapters of the party would be lost. Coming close to election time, when they need the delegates for their party primaries and as instrument of negotiation for the national convention, they were poised for a showdown with National Chairman and the President.
At the PDP NEC meeting and in the presence of the President, who was the first to officially register, the e-registration was shot down and thrown away.
The argument canvassed by the governors which was taken as the superior logic was that the party was not ready for online registration. And the governors won!
Bloodied face on PDP Reform Forum
The rejection of the e-registration was an added victory to the PDP Governors’ collective opposition to reform in the party.
A group, the PDP Reform Forum, which enjoyed the support of President Jonathan while he was acting President and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, [BoT], ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo had been killed in its formative stage by the PDP Governors.
The Reform Forum, which had former Senate President, Ken Nnamani and former Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Masari as Chairman and Secretary, respectively had since been dissolved, following the pronouncement of the party’s highest decision- making organ,, NEC [again at the behest of the governors]
Lost out on order of party primaries, Executive Bill
The idea of a presidential primary before the governorship was a deft move canvassed by President Jonathan’s foot soldiers to help boost his chances at securing the presidential ticket.
Governors who had been labeled as pro-zoning, particularly those of them in the Northern Governors’ Forum got wind of it and set their moles and loyalists to work on the PDP National Working Committee (NWC).
According to a Daily Sun source, “the arrangement was working well for the President and was almost sealed, until a crack was imminent in the NWC. It was Nwodo against the rest of his colleagues in the NWC and the governors won.’’
The PDP governors insisted that the governorship primary election to elect the candidates must hold first and today in PDP that is the order of primary.
The presidential primary by the PDP arrangement and election time table would be the last. Another lost battle for President Jonathan’s camp.
There was also the battle of wits between the other presidential aspirants and governors, on one hand and the sitting President: the Executive Bill.
An initiative of the President, it was expected to boost his chances at the party presidential primary.
It would have ensured that serving ministers, members of board of government agencies, ambassadors and aides of the President and the Vice-President be allowed to vote as delegates.
But Daily Sun investigation revealed that other presidential aspirants, serving PDP Governors in concert with certain members of Northern Senators’ Forum went to work and the bill was unanimously rejected in the Senate.
Nigerian Governors’ Forum: cat with nine lives
Fingers of scorn were also pointed at the Presidency in the recent skirmish between the governors in an attempt to remove the outgoing Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum and Kwara State governor, Bukola Saraki, who was also a PDP Presidential aspirant.
The crisis of succession could have dealt a fatal blow to the camp of the governors, to the advantage of the President who needs the forum to boost his chance of picking his party ticket and winning the general election.
Media reports alleged that the coup to unseat Saraki was planned at the Presidential Villa, as Jonathan wanted the Ogun State Governor and South-West coordinator of Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign, Governor Gbenga Daniel to succeed Saraki.
It was another lost battle as the crisis was amicably resolved in favour of Saraki.
Having lost out in the power game to install governor Daniel as Chairman of the Forum, President Jonathan had been fingered in the attempt to create a new power block in the PDP federal lawmakers, as he met separately with the federal lawmakers last week. The federal legislators have been trying to plant themselves, as automatic members of the PDP NEC.
Party stalwarts appraise Jonathan
Former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) gubernatorial candidate in Rivers State, who is now back in PDP, Prince Tonye Princewill, however, cautioned Nigerians not to see President Jonathan as a weakling.
Even as he noted that Jonathan’s steps do not portray him as a good strategist, the PDP stalwart said that a sitting President with enormous power could still have the last laugh.
“Yes, there are lot of indications that we aren’t dealing with a good strategist here. Certain developments point to the fact that he isn’t doing enough to have a grip on the party machinery. But again, he has his own style.
The battle to get PDP ticket is a very tough one, but don’t underestimate him. He is a sitting president and who knows he could still have the last laugh’’.
Another party faithful, who craved not to be named, equally warned against what he called the creeping perception to take President Jonathan as a weakling, as he noted that the President was living up to his rating as a true democrat.
‘That’s what you expect from a true democrat. Remember, when the PDP NEC announced Dr Nwodo as National Chairman, there were people who were of the opinion that Jonathan should have sacked the entire PDP NWC for Nwodo, but Jonathan resisted this.
Again, when Atiku was seeking for a waiver there were pressures on Jonathan not to allow Atiku secure it, but he turned deaf ears to this.
I think his style shows that he isn’t desperate to be President in 2011. It is the hallmark of a good leader, a democrat. He deserves commendation, not vilification for his style,’’ the PDP chieftain submitted.
Also reacting, former Senate President and Chairman, Congress for Equality and Change, a pro- Jonathan platform, Senator Ameh Ebute told Daily Sun that nothing has happened so far in the PDP, or within the polity that endangers President Jonathan’s chances of picking the ticket.
He disclosed that rather than confront the governors, the President is friendly with them and monitoring the situations at the state chapters of the party, as the chairmen and secretaries, have the delegates.
‘’Everybody has his style. While Obasanjo believes in force to cow the governors, I think Jonathan decides to adopt a friendly posture, instead of confrontation.
The fact that he hasn’t used his supposed powers doesn’t mean he is weak. Besides, nothing has endangered his chances to win the PDP presidential primaries. So, why should he begin to fret? We are on top of the situation, as the PDP chairmen and secretaries in the states are with Jonathan.’’
| Posted: at | |
TRENDING GISTS 
Leo XIV Celebrates First Mass After Historic Election As Pope
He Laughed At Me When I Had Issues With The Authorities -Bobrisky React To VeryDarkMan’s Arrest
PHOTOS: Troops Arrest Notorious Gunrunners, Recover Arms In Kaduna
PHOTOS: Young Woman Brutally Murdered By Suspected Ritualists, Priv@te Part Removed In Ogun
Woman Slams Her Husband For Allegedly Having Unprotected S3x With Random Girls After Publicly Apologizing To Her
Actress, Laide Bakare Crowned UN Ambassador Of Peace
VIDEO: President Tinubu Conferred With a Chieftaincy Title in Anambra State