Tension in PDP Over Nwodo’s successor •North, S/East in intense battle

The removal of former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo is creating some ripples within the ranks of the party, following the move by some leaders of the North to ensure the seat is moved to the North.

Nwodo was appointed mid last year to complete the tenure of Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, who was elected in the March 2008 convention hails from the South East, where the seat was zoned.

But sources claimed that moves by some influential Northern politicians to have the seat in the zone became obvious following the appointment of r. Haliru Mohammed in acting capacity.

Those behind the move claimed that since President Goodluck Jonathan has emerged the presidential candidate of the party, the seat should not move to the North in line with the zoning arrangement.

But leaders of the South East are insisting that the tenure started by Ogbulafor in 2008 must be completed before any talk of fresh zoning can be entertained.

A source said that the precedence has been laid when Senator Ahmadu Ali was allowed to complete his tenure in 2008 even when the zoning arrangement has been modified and the chairmanship seat had moved from North Central to the South East. The source said that since PDP operates four year tenure for its executive committees, the life of the current National Working Committee should terminate in 2012.

But other sources claimed at the weekend that underground scheming by contending forces over the choice of Nwodo’s successor has refused to abate.

Some of the contending claimants indicated that some Northern leaders sold the idea of Nwodo’s removal to the president to hasten the take over of the party by the zone.

It was however gathered that the main contention in the party is not the replacement of Nwodo but the possibility of adjustments to the current zoning arrangements.

Some of the party leaders are saying that since Dr. Jonathan has emerged the presidential candidate, it means that power was returning to the South and that the existing zoning formula should be adjusted.

If that happens, seats currently in the North except that of the President and the Vice President, would go to the South and vice versa.

But a source reaffirmed that even if the seats were readjusted in line with zoning, the South East would still exhaust its tenure as PDP Chairman in 2012.

At the moment, there has not been any arrangement in place by PDP for replacement of Nwodo, just as the Acting National Chairman, Dr Haliru Muhammed Bello has continued to make consolidations, drawing supports from major stakeholders of the party.

When contacted on the issue of Nwodo’s successor, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Professor Ahmed Rufa’I Alkali was non committal as he described PDP as a focussed party which according to him would not allow any issue to derail its attention.

Alkali said as the ruling party, the PDP has been facing challenges and has been overcoming them one after the other, thus indicating that the PDP would always come out of any of its challenges.

The party, he concluded, has evolved internal mechanism for addressing its problems and learning to forge ahead with every challenge that confronted it.

There have been reports that the current Acting Chairman of PDP would hold on to the office till the end of general elections in April, after which the PDP would settle for re-zoning of its political offices in line with the constitution

By implication, some have contended that since the chairmanship of PDP would have been zoned to the North, Mohammed Bello could contest the office to allow the North to get a full grip of the party ahead of 2015 election. All the permutations are however, dependent on the possibility of President Jonathan wining the April presidential election.

Meanwhile, the south-east zone of the federation is said to have resolved not to give up on having Nwodo replaced with another candidate from the zone.
Reports from the zones are indicating that the governors of south-east are eager to meet with President Jonathan on the issue of Nwodo’s successor.
Most of aspirants from the zone have reportedly been mounting pressure on their respective governors to approach the president with their names as likely successor to the former chairman of the party.

Names that have been making the rounds as likely successors to Nwodo include former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, former foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe, former National Vice Chairman, south-east zone, Fidelis Ozichukwu and the incumbent National Vice Chairman, South East, Chief Olisa Metuh.

It was however confirmed that Anyim remains the leading candidate of the lot, just as sources also said that the Presidency has commenced detailed character analysis of the names on parade.

-Tribunewp_posts