The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) might be heading towards two parallel national conventions in Ibadan and Abuja as two opposing camps are jostling for the soul of the party, DECENCY GLOBAL NEWS has gathered.
Those in the know told our correspondent that the two camps are being led by governors elected on the platform of the party and the other one by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
PDP had on Thursday inaugurated a 44-member zoning committee mandated to recommend how the party’s national offices will be distributed across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones ahead of its next elective national convention.
Chaired by the Bayelsa State governor, Senator Duoye Diri, the committee is also to recommend the zoning formula for the presidency and other political offices. While the governors and those sympathetic to them are rooting for the convention to hold in Ibadan, Wike and his allies are working to ensure that the event holds in Abuja
“All of these are being orchestrated by the two camps for the control of the party, and they are not letting go, and if things go the way they are going now, we have a situation whereby there will be two parallel conventions; one in Ibadan and the other in Abuja,” a source stated.
At the centre of the ceaseless pressure by the two camps on members of the National Working Committee of the party to have things done their way is the acting National Chairman, Ambassador Illyasu Damagum, who has pushed the responsibility for the decision on the venue for the convention to the Diri-led committee.
This is coming just as indications emerged that Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State is the one leading the push to draft former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2027 general elections against incumbent Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Another knotty issue in the build-up to the convention is the perceived infringement of the regulation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which states that political parties must give a 30-day notice to it before a meeting where such a decision would be taken.
“I am not sure the party met this stipulation for 30-day notification requirement because as at the time the decision was made to convene the meeting, the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, was out of the country to communicate to INEC before the process could be kick started, hence that may be a booby trap for the party for its enemies to lash on to to further weaken it,” the source said.
On the 2027 poll and the drafting of the Bayelsa-born former leader, sources maintained that he (Jonathan) may have caved in to the ceaseless pressure being mounted on him by some eminent Nigerians to square up against President Tinubu.
Sources who pleaded not to be named in the PDP stated that Governor Mohammed has been personally reaching out to the former President and that to get him to commit himself to contest, he (the Bauchi governor) has also been pressurising him through proxies.
Governor Mohammed served in the cabinet of former President Jonathan as the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory between 2010 and 2015, and he is believed to be quite close to the former leader.
“One of the governors within the party, I mean Governor Bala Mohammed, is the one responsible for the pressure on former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the presidency again in 2027. He has been going to his house to convince him to contest, and he has also been using prominent Nigerians to convince him,” the source said.
According to him (the source), “When the pressure on him became too much, former President Jonathan, whom I am not too sure is disposed to throwing his hat into the ring, gave some prominent leaders, mostly from the North, some conditions to be met before acceding to their request. “From what I know, he (Jonathan) told them to expel some members who are not too committed or have dual disposition to the progress of the party as a show of seriousness, saying there was no way he could contest in a party that is badly divided,” the source stated.
The source also added that the former leader is also trying to extract a commitment from his visitors that he would be given the right of first refusal with regard to the ticket of the party, which means he would be given an automatic ticket.
The response of the lobbyists to the requests were yet to be obtained as at the time of filing this report but the source stated that those who met the former leader on the issue knew that the requests were very hard to meet, prompting speculations that the former President might not be interested in re-contesting for the office he lost in 2015. According to the source, another cogent reason for the pressure might not be unconnected with the need to stop further defections from the party if “former President Jonathan decides to play ball.
