New Crash: PDP Governors Angry With Goodluck Jonathan

Strong indications have emerged that governors elected on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) are poised for a showdown with the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu and Senate President David Mark over the collapse of the deal President Goodluck Jonathan had sealed with them a month ago.

To express their grievances, the governors are expected to meet with President Jonathan on Tuesday night ostensibly to extract “some commitment from him” before his ratification during the December 10 national convention of the party.


As this emerged, LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that a frustrated governor in one of the South East states has concluded plans to defect to the opposition All Progressives Party(APC).
The governor’s grouse is that he has been stopped from presenting his preferred anointed successor for next year’s governorship election in the state. His albatross are a former governor of the state and a high-ranking member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

As part of the deal between the governors and President Jonathan, they (governors) were to present their preferred candidates as successors, just as those with senatorial ambitions were to be allowed to aspire. About eight PDP governors serving their final terms are reportedly eyeing the senate.
But since the deal was struck a month ago, there have been several dissenting voices, even as incumbent senators have drawn the battle line with their governors.

The highpoint of the high-wire political intrigues was Friday’s curious withdrawal from the senatorial race of Governors Emmanuel Uduaghan and Sullivan Chime of Delta and Enugu states respectively.

A governor from one of the northern states confided in a team of newsmen that his southeast colleague “is already on his way to the opposition” as a result of the shabby treatment meted to the governors.

The governor said: “The PDP we used to know is not the one we are seeing now. The party is rotten, and this is very shameful and unfortunate. Some of us feel like crying for the party we once cherished as the biggest party in Africa.
“It is most ridiculous for the President to reach an agreement with us and renege or rather not to know what is happening, when governors are being pushed here and there by forces who are merely interested in their personal benefits.

“But I can assure you that we have decided to unravel what is really the issue, because we suspect foul play in all that is going on within the party. Imagine forcing sitting governors to withdraw from the race simply because someone somewhere is threatened by the presence of former governors who are desirous of being senators.

“Right now, one of us, a southeast governor, is already on his way to the opposition party. How are we sure even those who will not leave will not work from within to undermine the party.
“This is the height of unseriousness on the part of any political party that intends to win next year. 

This matter has to be tabled, maybe on Tuesday, before the President, because there are reports we need to confirm that this whole thing is being oiled by the senate president and the national chairman,” he alleged.

The governor further alleged that, in particular, the senate president has put up an attitude which seemed to depict that he was uncomfortable with the presence of the cleavage of former governors at the senate.
“We know what the senate president is doing underground. It is to stop as many governors as possible from going to the senate, because he sees them as being too powerful to subject to his control,” he alleged.