Aggrieved governors agreed not to stop President, says Akpabio
The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor’s Forum and Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, said yesterday that the aggrieved governors had agreed to drop their demand seeking to stop President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election in 2015.
Seven aggrieved governors – Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Abdulafatah Ahmed (Kwara), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) – on August 31, broke away from the main party to form the “New PDP” under the chairmanship of Kawu Baraje.
One of the demands of the aggrieved group is that Jonathan should drop his 2015 ambition.
But, reviewing with State House reporters over the Sunday night meeting between President Jonathan and the aggrieved governors, Akpabio said the issue was dropped because ambition is a personal thing to an aspirant.
He said: “That is why I said that the processes are on and, of course, on the issue of 2015, both sides agreed that it wasn’t an issue for discussion because every single person has a right to nurse ambition.”
“Some of the governors may have ambition, like I have ambition to go to the Senate and you can’t discuss anything about another person’s ambition. You are the only person that can discuss your own ambition. Ambition is personal. So both parties agreed to that,” he added
The other demands, including the removal of the party’s national chairman, Bamanga Tukur, and a presidential order stopping the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC’s) alleged witch-hunting would soon be resolved, according to Akpabio.
He said: “In all other issues, we have put in place methodologies of settling them and of course, it’s a process issue. Process is on. It was in the first place an internal issue of the PDP and so we are going to settle it internally and if you want to know how it is going to be settled, then you have to leave being a journalist to join the PDP family.”
On the peace process, he said: “Well. What you heard is true. The PDP family is coming back together. We have started a process of total reconciliation and, of course, you know the house is very large , very robust and PDP is very entrenched and there is no way we can have internal wrangling without being able to resolve. So, clearly speaking, it was just a family disagreement and the processes are in place now to bring everybody on board and Nigerians are very happy.”
He said that there was no specific conditions for the reconciliation as the issues involved differ from state to state.
He said: “The disagreement differs from state to state. So, it wasn’t as if there was a major issue with all PDP governors. There were few states that had difficulties. Some states complained about may be thier delegates were not allowed entry to Eagle Square; some complained about party positions and some had court issues. But these are all things that we cannot allow to affect the fabric of the party and, of course, by implication the fabric of the nation because the PDP is Nigeria.”
“We have been in power for the past 14 years and Nigerians have confidence that this is the only truly national party that expresses true aspirations of all and sundry and, of course, it is also the only party that is not owned by any individual. It’s a party that belongs to all Nigerians. Even the market woman in Sokoto claims ownership of the PDP and, of course, the same thing with the trader in Akwa Ibom state. The same thing with somebody in the Southwest and the same thing in Southeast. So, the PDP is Nigeria and so anything that affects the PDP will affect the entire country.”
