...Jonathan holds talks with Govs Lamido, Aliyu
All is now set for the make or mar meeting between President
Goodluck Jonathan and the remaining two members of the G7 governors, Sule
Lamido (Jigawa) and Babangida Aliyu (Niger) on the efforts to find a lasting
solution to the lingering crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Today’s meeting will determine if the remaining two out of the
G7 governors will remain in PDP or join the other five to All Progressives
Congress, APC, in January.
But while the meeting is going on, the Speaker of the Federal
House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal has reached an advanced stage in his
plots to make a history where he is expected to lead a political revolution
with over 50 members of the House of Reps to defect to the opposition APC in
one fell swoop.
This defection, if carried out, will automatically give the
opposition the leadership of the lower House with Tambuwal still overseeing,
but the Presidency has reacted to such plan, saying that the planned defection
will yield no fruit as the five governors who recently defected lacked
followership in their various states.
Last Sunday, President Jonathan met with Governors Lamido and
Aliyu after the defection to APC of five other aggrieved governors including
Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Rabiu Kwankwaso, (Kano),
Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).
Addressing journalists after the meeting, both Lamido and Aliyu
pledged loyalty to the PDP but insisted that the President must address the
grievances of the governors which include the sacking of the National Chairman
of PDP, Bamanga Tukur, and throwing open the presidency in 2015 for everyone
who is interested.
The meeting ended with an understanding that a formal position
will be taken by the leadership of the party today. But a presidency source had revealed that President Jonathan may continue to plead with the
aggrieved governors to retrace their steps as he is not disposed to either
sacking Tukur or disqualifying himself from the presidential race.
“The President however has agreed to lift the sanction imposed
by the party on some of its leaders including Governor Amaechi, and the trio of
Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Sam Sam Jaja and former chairman and leader of the new
PDP, Abubakar Kawu Baraje. “He has also agreed to allow the defected governors
greater hand to run the party in their states but had also expressed
displeasure on the manner the five governors left the party without full
consultation with the President.”
The President, according to the source, is in constant touch
with the defected governors who have also assured the President that they will
return to the party if their grievances are addressed soon.
Recall that only on Thursday last week, Governor Nyako announced
that both Lamido and Aliyu would join the APC camp in January, subject to
today’s meeting with Jonathan Meanwhile, Speaker of the House, Tambuwal last
week attended the meeting of the APC governors held at the Kano governor’s
guest lodge in Asokoro.
Though, he refused to talk on his mission to the meeting, an
inside source said that the Speaker was invited to brief the
Progressive Governors Forum, PGF, on the possibility of changing the leadership
garb in the lower House and the likely implication.
The Speaker was assured that all the governors under the PGF
will mobilise their members in the lower House to support his plots to work
with the opposition to take over the House leadership. Should the defectors
declare formally for APC, they would be about 192 as against less than 141 members
of the PDP, the remainder would be shared by DPP, LP, APGA (Anambra faction).
According to the House Rules 181, members can form a majority
and decide the composition of the House and should that happen, it is expected
that the PDP dominated House leadership will give way for another to be led by
APC. But the Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, said that the defection plot is more
like a fairy tale as most of the governors have no support of their lawmakers
back home.
According to Gulak, “Who told you that the governors are in
control of their people in the states and that with the defection of the
governors, all their legislators will follow suit? I know that more than 50
members from the states have contacted me individually and collectively, that
they are not going to any APC, that they are indebted to PDP and their duty is
to protect the PDP.”
“And let it be on records that some members of APC at the
national and those at the state assembly particularly those that are elected on
the platform of ACN, CPC and ANPP have come to me individually and
collectively, that they will soon formally decamp to PDP.
In Adamawa for example, we are going to receive them in a grand
ceremony to make a point that not all those in the National Assembly will move
to APC. And even those that are supposed to be APC are crossing over to PDP.
“In the same way, Nigerians will see that politics is about alignment and
realignment.
I have said it severally that the doors of PDP are always open
for people to come in as well for returnees. We have seen that before, people
had left PDP and they returned and PDP allowed them in.”
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