Barring
last minute change in schedule, President Goodluck Jonathan and the
seven aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party governors will resume peace
talks on Sunday (today).
Signs that the talks may end again in a
deadlock began to emerge on Friday when The Presidency hinted that it
was not prepared to accede to unconstitutional demands.
The Presidency made it clear that
President Jonathan would not concede to anything against the letter of
the Nigerian Constitution as well as that of the party.
Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, said this in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, in Abuja, on Friday.
Gulak said as a listening leader of the
party, President Goodluck Jonathan would listen to the aggrieved persons
but would not be party to anything that was unconstitutional.
He said that as a man of peace, the President would engage the aggrieved members only on the way forward.
Specifically, the presidential aide said
the demand for the sacking of the party’s National Chairman, Dr.
Bamanga Tukur, and stopping Jonathan from contesting again were clearly
not a path to the way forward.
He said, “The President is willing to listen to them and discuss the ways forward. He is a listening leader of the party.
“The best he can do is to sit with them
and listen to them. In discussing, however, the President will not agree
with anything that is against the provisions of either the nation’s
constitution or the party’s constitution.
“Sacking of Alhaji Tukur is definitely
not the way forward. The President not contesting second term despite
the fact that the constitution allows him is also not the way forward.
“Simply put, therefore, the President will not concede to anything that is unconstitutional.”
In a related development, the Alhaji
Bamanga Tukur-led PDP has said only its national working committee can
decide what the next step would be if ongoing reconciliatory efforts
with aggrieved members fail.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, said this in a telephone interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, in Abuja, on Friday.
He noted that he was not in a position
to speak on what the NWC was likely to do, because it had yet to meet to
deliberate on the issue.
The party’s spokesman declined comments
when asked if the party was not applying double standards by suspending
four of its members who along with the seven aggrieved governors pledged
allegiance to the breakaway faction of the party.
Those suspended were: the party’s former
Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; former National Vice-Chairman
(South) Sam Sam Jaja; Chairman of the breakaway faction, Abubakar
Baraje; and Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure.
Metuh said, “Only the NWC can take a
decision on such (Suspension/ expulsion) issues. I am not in a position
to comment on it because we are now focused on the Anambra election. Our
party is focused and we will not be distracted.”
Ahead of today’s meeting with the
President, the seven aggrieved governors namely: Rotimi Amaechi
(Rivers); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); Rabiu Kwankanso (Kano); Muritala Nyako
(Adamawa); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Aliyu Babangida (Niger); and
Abdulfatah Ahmed had given fresh conditions to the President that would
enable them to reconcile with the PDP.
The governors had demanded that the
suspension of Amaechi from the PDP be lifted and that the Presidency
should also recognise him as the leader of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
The governors are also insisting that PDP must lift the suspension on Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
They also want the PDP to ensure his
resumption as the National Secretary of the party in accordance with the
Appeal Court judgment.
The ‘rebel governors’ also want the
recall of the factional chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje; his deputy, Sam
Jaja; and Ambassador Kazaure.
They also reiterated their call for the removal of Tukur as national chairman of the party.
The governors are also said to have
requested the President to caution the FCT Minister, Bala Muhammed, over
his perceived assault on the G-7 governors.
They were also reported to have asked
Jonathan to restore the security aides of the governors, which were
withdrawn in the wake of the political crisis and to sanction the
policemen that tried to disrupt their meetings in Abuja.
But reacting specifically to the
statement made by Gulak on behalf of the Presidency, the governors said
Jonathan should ignore Gulak.
The governors said Gulak was actually
not representing the interest of the President with his utterances,
which they said were aimed at putting him(Jonathan) in a bad light.
The governors spoke through the National
Publicity Secretary of the New Peoples Democratic Party, Chief
Chukwuemeka Eze, in a telephone interview with SUNDAY PUNCH.
Eze, who was responding to the claim by
Gulak that the President would not meet the conditions of the governors
at the meeting he is having with them on Sunday (today), described the
adviser as “one of the numerous bad advisers of the President.”
He said, “Who is Gulak to be saying that the President would not meet the conditions for peace in his political party?
“Whose interest is he representing? He
is a bad adviser. He has a hidden agenda and he is out there to
mis-advise the President in order for him and the unseen people that he
represents so that the President will lose control of the party and be
seen in a bad light by Nigerians.
“Nigerians should ask Gulak what type of
adviser he is. It is in the interest of the President and the party to
listen to the seven governors.”
Eze asked the President to learn from the biblical Shepherd, who he said, abandoned 99 sheep in search of the missing one.
Eze said that left to the likes of
Gulak, the President would have become a leper, and be abandoned by his
associates and friends.
He said Gulak and others like him profited from crisis like this, and asked the president to be weary of such people.
