Uncertainty over PDP convention

Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 12.02.2008

THERE was uncertainty on Monday on the forthcoming convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) meets today to deliberate on the dates of the convention. Some leading members of the party are suspicious of INEC and fear that it may again find fault with the dates.

The PDP, against this background, has scheduled a press conference to be addressed by the outgoing National Chairman, Chief Ahmadu Ali, the purpose of which is to clarify issues about the party’s scheduled convention.

Meanwhile, the convention committees of the party held a meeting on Monday to consider the budgets drawn by each of them on the projected expenses for the convention.

Some top officials of the PDP who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune at the party’s headquarters in Abuja affirmed that they had been worried by the high level of intrigues going on in the party, all targeted at postponing the convention over some unsettled issues.

The PDP members said it was not for nothing that two groups in the party — the G-21 and the Integrity Groups in the House of Representatives–– had been kicking against the arrangements of the PDP for the convention, stressing that the unspoken agenda of the groups was to ensure the postponement of the convention.

The G-21 had sent a proposal to the national headquarters of the party calling for amendment of the party’s constitution on the basis that the last amendment of the constitution in December 2006 was meant to serve the personal interests of some members.

The Integrity Group has of late been expressing displeasure at the planning for the PDP convention and has been making promises to ensure that the next national officials of the party would emerge through a transparent process.

Specifically, a member of the PDP convention committee disclosed that the motive behind the scheming for the postponement of the PDP convention was to fulfil an agenda by the North to dictate events at the convention, a reason he said the March 8 date was considered by the Northern elements too close for such their objective to be achieved.

The North is said to be the spirit behind the G-21 and the Integrity Group headed by Honourable Farouk Lawan, whereas the two groups have reportedly been working to install a stooge from the crowd of PDP chairmanship aspirants, all from the South-East in order to upset the existing balance of power within the PDP.

According to fresh findings by Nigerian Tribune, the North is said to be uncomfortable with the power equation within the PDP and former President Olusegun Obasanjo is repotedly working in league with President Umaru Yar’Adua to install the next national chairman of the party.

The main worry of the North, the Nigerian Tribune learnt, was that the South under the present zoning in PDP could forge a strong solidarity the moment an Igbo assumed the chairmanship of the party under the influence of Obasanjo as the PDP Board of Trustees chairman and with the support of President Yar’Adua.

It is against this background that the North was said to have identified an outgoing national officer in the PDP as its ally and has been scheming to prompt him to contest the party’s chairmanship.

In his reaction, the outgoing PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Chief Bayo Alao, allayed fears over the congresses and convention of the party, expressing confidence that INEC would not have any reason to make the party shift the dates again.