The newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, has begun crucial moves to save the main opposition party from imminent collapse.
As a result, he is leading a delegation of the PDP BoT, comprising some former governors, ex-deputy governors, ex-ministers and other top party chieftains to meet three of the aggrieved PDP governors within 48 hours.
The meeting is meant to placate the aggrieved governors and prepare grounds for further negotiations that will stop the moves by the ruling All Progressives Congress governors to woo the PDP governors to their side as the race towards the 2023 poll intensifies.
The PDP has been enmeshed in a major internal crisis after its presidential primary election that produced former vice president Atiku Abubakar as its candidate.
Governor Wike Nyesom of Rivers State, who came second behind Atiku in the primary, alleged foul play in the process and has insisted that the chairman of the party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, must step down for a candidate from the South.
Following the primary, Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa’s emergence as the running mate to Atiku is believed to have infuriated the Rivers State governor, who was reportedly eyeing the vice president’s slot.
Ayu has insisted he will not resign and the development has further polarised the party with Wike and some aggrieved governors listing the PDP chair’s exit as a condition for supporting Atiku for the 2023 poll.
Already, some governors of the APC and their presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, are reportedly wooing the governors to the fold of the ruling party.
But Wabara, in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday, said he would lead the PDP BoT team to meet the aggrieved governors in the next 48 hours.
“We are starting our moves by paying official visits to some of our leaders posing to be aggrieved.
“Within the next 48 hours, we will be meeting with about three governors to hear them out and appeal to them that what matters is, that we should win come 2023. I have been avoiding press releases or interviews for now, unless I have something to tell Nigerians, my party faithful or the world.
“You will hear from me much later. But we are starting the consultations and interventions tomorrow and in 48 hours’ time, we will be meeting with the three governors.”
On Monday, the PDP BoT met with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.
A press statement obtained later from the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State governor, Onyebuchi Ememanka, quoted Wabara as saying the visit to the governor was meant to ensure victory for the party in next year’s elections.
According to him, the BoT desires to look into the problems in PDP, hence the decision to move around to call on governors and other stakeholders of the party with a view to ensuring victory for the party in next year’s elections, maintaining that the PDP has a conflict resolution mechanism with which to handle its problems.
The meeting later went into an executive session after which Ikpeazu and Wabara spoke to journalists.
Members of the PDP BoT, who were part of the delegation, are former governors of Enugu and Kogi states, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo and Alhaji Ibrahim Idris. Others are a former deputy governor of Abia State, Eric Acho Nwakanma; former minister of special duties, Saminu Turaki; former national deputy chairman of the party, Chief Shuaibu Oyedokun; former Minister Hajia Zainab Maina; and Dr Esther Uduehi.
Ikpeazu was quoted as telling the BoT delegation that if the PDP must win the 2023 presidential election, the party must come up with sufficient courage to take decisions that would stabilise the party.
The governor pledged to assist the BoT to resolve the problems confronting the party with a view to ensuring that the PDP clinched victory in 2023.
The governor stressed that the “PDP must remain angry and hungry for power,’’ adding that the party must correct the mistakes that made it lose the election in 2015.
George expresses anger
However, a former Chairman of the BoT of the PDP, Chief Bode George, has said peace has yet to return to the party because salient issues fuelling the crisis in the party have not been resolved.
George, in an exclusive interview with one of our correspondents on Tuesday, revealed that the immediate past Chairman of the PDP BoT, Walid Jibrin, was forced to resign and replaced with Wabara, describing last week’s vote of confidence in Ayu by the party NEC as “shenanigans”
He was responding to questions on why he had not broken his silence since the PDP primaries and if peace had returned with the decisions reached during the last NEC meeting.
George said, “That is why I said I would not release anything until I see all the plans because, in politics, we like them to resolve issues amicably. But if it deviates, I will make my reactions.
“I am not too sure peace has returned to the PDP. All those shenanigans that they carried out last week are not going to work. How many people came there? It was more of the northern Peoples Democratic Party versus the southern Peoples Democratic Party. Where is the national PDP?
