Atiku on a ‘hot thin roof’

The storm brewing in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, took an unexpected momentum yesterday, when major stakeholders who were appointed into the campaign train of the party’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, threw in the towel.

Prominent amongst those who decided to decline their nomination was the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who alongside others, have insisted on the resignation or removal of the Party’s National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.

Wike and other major powerful members of the party, are asking Ayu to step down in the spirit of equity in the party.But in a swift response, Atiku told Wike and his allies that he could not force Ayu out of office and urged them to reconsider their stand, saying he was surprised by the withdrawal of the Rivers governor and members of his group from the PDP presidential campaign council.

Urging Wike and his associates to join him to rescue Nigeria, Atiku stressed that the decision by the National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to resign or not, remained his personal undertaking.The former vice-president said, as a believer in the concept of the rule of law, any move to remove Ayu must be within the dictates and letters of the PDP constitution.

In the statement, Atiku stated: “My attention was drawn to a news clip in which several very senior and influential members of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), addressed the press and, amongst other things, declared that they are withdrawing, forthwith, from the Presidential Campaign Council set up by our party to judiciously plan and prosecute the general elections set to hold in February and March 2023, on the one hand; and reiterated their earlier calls for the resignation or removal from office of the national chairman of our party, Senator Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, on the other hand.

“The people that addressed the press must have their reasons for withdrawing from the Presidential Campaign Council, and I will not speculate as to what those reasons may be. Personally, I am quite surprised with this withdrawal, because as I have been informed by officials of our party, apart from the Rivers State chapter of the PDP, all the remaining states of the federation submitted names of people, who they wanted included in the Presidential Campaign Council.”

On the calls for Ayu’s resignation or removal from office, he said, “I must reiterate what I have said severally in public and in private; the decision for Dr. Iyorchia Ayu to resign from office is personal to Dr. Ayu and, neither I nor anyone else can make that decision for him.

“As to the calls for the removal of Dr. Ayu from office, however, I will state that, as a committed democrat and firm believer in the rule of law and democratic tenets, and our party being one set up, organised and regulated by law and our constitution, it is my absolute belief that every thing that we do in our party must be done in accordance with, and conformity to, the law and our constitution.

“If Dr. Ayu is to be removed from office, it must be done in accordance with the laws that set out the basis for such removal. In any event, you will all recall that the very body that is empowered by law to initiate this removal from office, has already passed a vote of confidence in him.

“Now, our nation is currently in the throes of a multidimensional crisis encompassing insecurity, economic meltdown, disunity and mutual mistrust and educational dislocations, to mention a few. I have a plan to address these issues and I have, graciously, been given the ticket to lead our great party in next year’s presidential election, with the singular mandate to come and lead the efforts to cure these ills.

“It is in this light that I have reached out to every single member of our great party to join me in the massive undertaking required to reset the ship of state, and help rebuild our country. Every single person, who loves this country, as I do, is needed for the arduous tasks that face us ahead as a nation, and this includes every member of the PDP.

“And it is my fervent hope and prayer that every man and woman of goodwill will join hands with us to help rebuild and reposition our beloved country. In this light, therefore, I will urge those members of our party that have stated their resolve to withdraw from the Presidential Campaign Council to have a rethink, retrace their steps, and join us in these efforts.

“The above, notwithstanding, and for the sake of our country, our children, and those yet unborn, we must not, for one minute, shirk in our responsibilities to rebuild this beloved country of ours. Accordingly, we must forge on with the task and the mandate that we have been bestowed with. It is time, therefore, to move on with the formidable tasks of nation building ahead of us.”

Information reaching Africa Update suggests that a decision on what to do in the face of the political impasse, will be reached before the end of today, as stakeholders from Rivers State are having a meeting at the Rivers State Government House at the time of this report at the instance of the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike.

With Bola Tinubu on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and his close rival from the Labour Party, Peter Obi, as Atiku’s major Presidential opponents, other Political gladiators are also working round the clock to ensure that their Presidential Candidates emerge victorious in the 2023 general elections. Fingers are crossed as party men and women await the outcome of this very important meeting holding in Rivers State.

What happened at Governor Wike’s residence Rising from their meeting at Wike’s Obio-Akpor country home, members of the team insisted that there would be no deal with Atiku until Ayu vacated his office to allow an acting chairman from the South to lead the party.

At the meeting were Wike; Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde; former governors Jonah Jang (Plateau), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Donald Duke (Cross River); former Deputy National Chairman Chief Olabode George; Senator Garkin Lado, former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Prince Chibudum Nwuche, Caleb MutFwang, Senator Sandey Onor and Senator Mao Ohuabunwa.

Others are Chief Dan Orbih, David Emmanuel Obugadu, Mohammed Maifada, Senator Suleiman Nazif, Nnenna Elendu Ukeje, former Information Minister Prof Jerry Gana, Bayou Lawal, Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau, Senator Olaka Nwogu, former Justice Minister Mohammed Adoke and Mohammed Jamiu.

They made their position known in a resolution read by Chief George.They maintained that their position was not negotiable as the chairmanship of Ayu undermined the unity and constitution of the party. George said they were deeply concerned about the division in the PDP despite its age-long internal mechanism designed to guarantee inclusiveness.

He said it amounted to putting the cart before the horse for Atiku to have gone ahead to publish his presidential campaign council list without addressing the structural imbalance in the party.

On his part, Jang accused Ayu of compromising the May 28 and 29 presidential primary through his conduct. He likened Ayu to a bad referee, who assisted one side to score a goal during a football match and later blew the whistle to end the competition.

He said the group was behind Wike, adding that everything the Rivers governor had said remained the only truth.Jang said their support for Wike was neither because he lost the presidential primary nor because he missed out on the slot for the vice-presidential candidate.

Reiterating that they were backing the governor for standing for justice, fairness and equity, recalling that the party was founded on such principles. His words: “We want to take this opportunity to assure our teeming supporters in the PDP that everything Governor Wike has been saying is not for him as a person.

“And it is not because he lost the primaries and he was not taken as a vice-presidential candidate as some people are making it look like. We are gathered here to assure you that we are in support of what he is saying because he has been saying nothing but the truth.

“Some of us who are founding members of the PDP know that we formed this party on the principles of fair play and equity. But as you heard from our elder, former military Governor of Ondo State, it is true that everything is being done for us to have internal democracy in the party.

“But for Senator Ayu to go and embrace Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, calling him the hero of the convention, it meant that there was a private arrangement with Tambuwal to shortchange other contestants, including Governor Wike.

“Here was a referee, who helped one of his sides to score a goal and then blew the whistle. This is not what we formed the PDP to do for Nigerians. Therefore, we unequivocally ask that Ayu must step down so that having got the presidential candidate from the northern part of the country through his assistance, he should as well step down so that the national chairman can move to the South so that the party can be united for the campaign towards 2023”.

Gana said the PDP that intended to restructure the country must first muster the courage to restructure itself. We can’t restructure Nigeria if we can’t restructure party. We are solid party men and women who wish the very best to Nigerians through our great party.

“The PDP ruled Nigeria before for 16 years of excellence. We are desirous that such kind of excellent governance comes back to this country. But that cannot be achieved unless we have a proper structure of the party as designed by the founding fathers. We are men and women who are committed to the issues of justice, fairness and equity.

“You cannot build on a faulty foundation. This call for the chairman to step down or resign is not because any of us is aggrieved, but because we believe it is important to ensure a just, fair, principled and constitutional structure for the party.

“If we want to restructure Nigeria, we should have the courage to restructure our party. That is why we have met and decided that this is extremely important and therefore, we want Nigerians to know. It is because we want to bring back to Nigeria good governance, fairness, equity, the kind of thing that will allow us to have peace and stability in the nation.

“This is why we are making this demand. It is not for personal reasons whatsoever. We also want to emphasise that we have no apology to anybody for supporting Governor Wike because he is a good man, a very committed person.

“We want to assure the nation that what he has been saying is because he loves Nigeria and he loves the truth to be told so that people will know the truth. If Nigeria will be free, then we have to have people who are willing and able and courageous enough to tell the truth. We like to use this opportunity to really salute our governor. We are PDP. But we want things done justly, fairly and equitably.”

Also speaking, Makinde said his demand for Ayu’s exit during last week’s Southwest consultative meeting in Ibadan underscored his support for the group’s position.He said: “Our leaders and elders have basically highlighted all the issues. They are not different from the things I mentioned at the Southwest Consultative meeting.

“That is exactly where we are. We hope that the powers that be listen to the voice of reason and do the needful.” While, former Governor Ibrahim Dankwabo said they would not give up until the party embraced fairness, equity and justice.

Sack of Ayu-led NWC: What Prince Uche Secondus said: But a former national chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, has distanced himself from the suit to sack the Ayu-led NWC. The suit is presently at the Abuja High Court.According to the media aide to Secondus, Ike Abonye, the case said to have been filed by Mr Chuma Chinye, a former staff in the office of the former national chairman, prayed the court to sack the Ayu-led NWC, since Secondus was illegally and forcefully removed from office.

The statement read: “But Prince Secondus, who was never privy to the case said he was distancing himself from it as it runs against his principles of exhausting internal party machinery on any case before going to court.”He noted that he has always been a strong advocate of settling cases in-house, saying the only circumstance that would make him be in court against PDP is if he was defending self.Secondus then told members of the public and the party faithful trying to associate him with the case to be properly guided and note his position.