2011: 26 PDP governors sign ‘win or sink’ letter against Jonathan

Two crucial meetings tomorrow

• Saraki is leading choice

• Orubebe heads Jonathan’s team

• The N18 million scam at NEC

•How Tallen saved party

•Activists attack Igbo leaders

Victor Oriola, Dominic Adewole, Asaba, Johnchuks Onuanyim, Abuja & Uwakwe Abugu, Enugu

TWENTY-SIX governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have renewed the bond to actualise their determination to produce one of them as a presidential candidate next year.

The governors signed a letter last week “used as a bond among them,” said a source last night, to ensure that once a candidate is picked, they will all back him.

The preferred choice must come from one of the 19 states in the North where the party, at its 52nd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on August 12, 2010, zoned the ticket to.

But, the party also declared that President Goodluck Jonathan, a Southerner, can use the Yar’Adua/Jonathan ticket in the 2011 elections, a directive which some aspirants from the North, including former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, described as “ambiguous and anti-North”.

There are 28 governors in the party. They are Murtala Nyako (Adamawa); Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); Danjuma Goje (Gombe); Danfulani Suntai (Taraba); Gabriel Suswam (Benue); Ibrahim Idris (Kogi); Bukola Saraki (Kwara); Akwe Doma (Nasarawa); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Jonah Jang (Plateau); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); Patrick Yakowa (Kaduna); Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); Seidu Dakingari (Kebbi) and Magatarawa Wamakko (Sokoto).

Others are Aliyu Shinkafi (Zamfara); Martin Elechi (Ebonyi); Sullivan Chime (Enugu); Ikedi Ohakim (Imo); Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa); Liyel Imoke (Cross River); Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Segun Oni (Ekiti); Gbenga Daniel (Ogun); Olagunsoye Oyinlola (Osun) and Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo). Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State is about to join the party.

Two governors, one from the North and South each, did not sign the letter “for reasons best known to them,” said the source.

The letter stated how the party leadership had tried to rubbish them since the emergence of the National Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, at the 51st NEC meeting in Abuja.

It also said for the continuous progress and unity of the country, the zoning formula, which produced a Southerner, former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007 and a Northerner, the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, from 2007 to 2015, “despite Yar’Adua’s death on May 5,” must be strictly adhered to.

It, however, said for democracy to thrive, any candidate can emerge from any zone as long as Nigerians are ready to vote for him or her.

The letter, however, declared that anyone picked by the 26 governors must be supported “by all of us in the interest of Nigeria and we will plan, strategise, swim, win or sink together”.

The Nigerian Compass had, last week, reported exclusively that the governors were strategising to pick one of them and support him to challenge Jonathan for the ticket.

Although five governors from the North were initially on the list, it was learnt yesterday that Saraki is clearly leading others. The two-term governor of the North-Central state is the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum.

At the weekend, there were frantic calls among the governors on the urgency of the current determination.

The Nigerian Compass gathered that two strategic meetings will hold tomorrow in Abuja.

All the governors must attend, “especially the second one which will hold at 9 p.m.

The first one “involving a special committee,” will hold at 2 p.m. to be chaired by a Southern governor. Two oil-rich state governors and three others from the North are members of this committee which was set up last Friday.

“The motive behind this committee is to strategise and ensure that once one of them is picked, everything will be done to ensure a full-time mobilisation for him,” the source said.

The second meeting is “more important in the sense that the committee, set up last week by the governors to pick one of them, will submit its report.”

There are four members in this committee. Two from the North and two from the South. It is headed by a governor whose state has oil in abundance.

“All the governors will attend the 9 p.m. meeting because it is there that the report will be submitted and a decision will be taken on who to pick.”

It was learnt that since last week when it became public knowledge that the governors have decided to pick a presidential candidate, the camps of Jonathan, Babangida and Atiku have made frantic efforts to penetrate the ranks of the governors.

“It got to a stage on Friday that the chairman of the committee to pick the candidate had to switch off his phone because the calls were too many. Tuesday is Decision Day on the crucial matter for the governors.”

The source also declared that if not for the maturity displayed by Jang’s deputy, Mrs. Pauline Tallen, the 26 governors would have pulled out of PDP a day before the August 12 NEC meeting.

“One of the state chairmen of the party leaked a plot to move against the governors. A top chieftain of the party had already disbursed N500,000 to each of the 36 chairmen, totalling N18 million and when the governors learnt about it, naturally, they were furious.

“They decided that they were going to embarrass the party the next day by telling the chairmen to drop the N500,000 cash given to them at the centre for all to see when the meeting had started in the presence of the President. It was Mrs. Tallen who, like a mother, started begging them, saying ‘it is going to break the party. Please, don’t do it. They have realised their mistake’

“Even at a pre-NEC meeting with Nwodo, the party chairman had told them that he was going to dissolve the executive committee in states where there is an emergency. A South-South governor stood up to him and shouted ‘You are not NEC. If there is an emergency in any state, we want to see the emergency. It is only the NEC which has the power to dissolve exco and you are not NEC’

“When the President heard about the altercation, he summoned the governor to Aso Rock immediately and the governor repeated himself, saying he would never allow Nwodo dissolve his state exco because there was no emergency. That was when the idea to dissolve excos was dropped.”

Meanwhile, a group known as Goodluck-Namadi Presidential Movement (GNPM) has endorsed the President and his deputy for the election.

The group’s Delta State Coordinator, Hezekiah Imonivwerha, a lawyer, also endorsed Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan for a second term.

The members vowed that the election of Jonathan and re-election of Uduaghan, as well as all PDP candidates across the country would be their ultimate challenge.

In a communiqué signed by Imonivwerha, the group said that they are poised to mobilise support for all PDP candidates at all levels, seek and pursue peace among youths through law enforcement agencies.

There is a report that some governors for fear of loosing their second term are secretly pledging allegiance to Jonathan despite the vow.

Bukola Saraki is only looking for a key position,He wants to be the vice president,that is why he is making so much noise and spending so much,He knows the presidency is dtill far away from him.