*** As PDP Makes A Big Catch in Shekarau
By: Politics Editor
In the build up to the formal commencement of campaigns for the 2023 elections, intrigues, negotiations and realignments seem to be the orders of the day.
This is even as parties put final touches to their campaign structures and strategies, as they struggle to address internal issues that seem to pose threats to their outings.
This is even as each if the Frontline candidates have been falling over themselves trying to cash in on the crisis bedeviling the other, by poaching from their ranks.
Governor Nyeson of Rivers State,: though of the PDP, seems to be the beautiful bride in the scramble by candidates to win people over to their camps, with virtually candidates from leading political parties trying to reach out to him.
In the opposition People Democratic Party, PDP, one of the issues in the front burner, remains the internal wranglings, arising from its Presidential Primaries, which produced former President, Atiku Abubakar as the party’s Presidential standard bearer and Efeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta state as his running mate.
Rivers State Governor, Nyeson Wike, who was the runner up in the primary elections has been at daggers drawn with Atiku Abubakar since the emergence of Okowa as the Presidential running mate: which he felt should have been his slot.
Efforts to reconcile issues arising from the primary elections have remained contentious, leading to the setting up of a reconcilation Committee, attendant upon which a meeting of the duo of Atiku and Wike was held in London last week.
There have been conflicting reports of what actually transpired in the meeting, but one factor that remains contentious, was the issue of lack of fairness and equity to the Southern part of the country in the power equation of the PDP.
As a way of appeasing the South, especially Nyeson Wike, who has been in the vanguard for the clamour for fairness to the South, the renegotiation of the power configuration in the party was the first item on the agenda of the PDP.
It is no longer news that, part of the six point conditions given to Atiku Abubakar, Presidential standard bearer of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, by Rivers State Governor Nyeson Wike and his group, at their London meeting last week, was the restructuring of the PDP National Working Committee, with the resignation and replacement of it’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu,, and swapping of key positions in the party hierachy, as topmost.
Other reported demands handed down by Nwike’s group include, a written undertaking by Atiku Abubakar to concede Ministerial slots to his group, producing Ayu’s replacement, picking the Presidential Campaign Council Director General, amongst others.
Our correspondent gathered that, the Presidential standard bearer may have sacrificed the National Chairman of the PDP, Iyorchia Ayu, as part of the condition for his reconcilation with Rivers State Governor Nyeson Wike.
Report from the reconcilation meetings between the two political gladiators indicate that that, members of the National Executive Committee, NEC and the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the party, have agreed to concede to this particular demand from Nwike, in the face of the moral and logical implications of having the party Chairman and it’s standard bearer coming from the North.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jibrin, who is also from the North, was said to have given hints of Ayu’s ouster, when he was quoted as saying that it is indefensible to have key positions in the structure of the party coming from one section of the country.
Iyorchia Ayu himself has been quoted to have said before Atiku’s emergence that, he will be ready to step down should the Presidential standard bearer emerge from the North: in the spirit of fairness.
Reports further indicate that, one of the strongest points in Governor Nwike’s conditions for truce has been Iyorchia Ayu’s ouster: a condition Atiku was initially reluctant to accept, but be after too much pressures, has accepted to concede to.
Our correspondent who has been on the trails of the negotiations reports that, while other demands made by Nwike are being studied against further negotiations, Ayu’s voluntary resignation might have been sealed.
A meeting of all the organs of the party may be coming very soon to rectify this conclusion, and Governor Nwike may be allowed to bring a replacement.
Efforts to reach the embattled chairman for confirmation of this development were not successful, but a close associate of his confided in NationalTrail, that he has accepted to step down in principles, if only to pave way for peace to return to the PDP.
This is coming on the heels of massive decamping into the APC from other political parties in Katsina and Kano, which include former Kano state Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau.
Shekarau and thousands of his supporters were received into the party by the Presidential standard bearer, Atiku Abubakar in Kano on Saturday.
Shekarau defected from the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, following the collapse of his accord with the party’s Presidential standard bearer, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, after he earlier left the rulling APC, to pitch tent with.
Shekarau’s, is seen as a major boost to Atiku Abubakar’s campaign. The massive decampments into the party in Katsina, has also become a morale booster to Atiku, who has been making efforts to boost his camp.
Reports on Saturday indicate that, over 30,000 members of the ruling APC in Katsina State have also joined Atiku’s team, which analyst say has been sending jitters down the spines of Aminu Masari, the state Governor.
The Governor had earlier dismissed other parties in Katsina State, as incapable of making impacts.
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