PDP NEC meeting breaks up in chaos

The 54th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ended in chaos after only 20 minutes yesterday in a row over the presence of the Enugu State chairman of the party who was purportedly removed by the National Chairman. The meeting was adjourned to tomorrow [Thursday] to enable the party bosses to sort out the problem.

The confusion ensued only minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan made an impassioned plea for party unity and for the use of dialogue in resolving crises within the party.

Daily Trust learnt that as soon as the meeting got underway, PDP’s National Organising Secretary Prince Uche Secondus asked the National Chairman Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo to ask the Enugu State party chairman Mr. Vita Abba to leave the venue of the meeting. This Nwodo did, and Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime immediately jumped to his feet and said his state chairman would not leave. Several PDP governors at the meeting also jumped to their feet and supported Chime, at which point there was shouting and yelling at the meeting, despite pleas from President Goodluck Jonathan, who was present.

Before the commencement of the NEC meeting, the party chairmen from Oyo, Enugu, Anambra and Ogun had been invited for a meeting whose agenda was not disclosed.

When the row could not be resolved, Dr Nwodo apologised to the gathering and asked the NEC members to stay around in Abuja for another two days so that contentious issues can be resolved.

Nwodo also asked the PDP governors, National Assembly leaders, former party chairmen and former Board of Trustees (BOT) chairmen to go along with President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo to the Presidential Villa for “wider consultations.”

The motion for the adjournment of the meeting was moved by PDP National Legal Adviser Chief Olusola Oke on behalf of the NWC and was seconded by a member from Katsina State. Shortly after the meeting, the PDP governors met briefly at the Kwara State Governor’s Lodge before heading to the Presidential Villa.

PDP’s official explanation for yesterday’s failed NEC meeting was that it was adjourned “in order to include all stakeholders in the process of arriving at mutually acceptable decisions.”

A three-paragraph statement issued after the adjourned meeting by PDP National Publicity Secretary Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali said, “At the 54th meeting of the NEC of the PDP held today (yesterday) at the National Secretariat of our great party, NEC in a brief session resolved that in view of the critical importance of issues to be deliberated upon, the meeting be adjourned till Thursday, 16th December, 2010 to give room for further consultations.

“This decision became necessary because of the need to include all stakeholders in the process of arriving at mutually acceptable decisions. NEC will resume sitting in its 55th session on Thursday at 11am here at the secretariat.”

Several PDP governors have been at loggerheads with the Nwodo-led National Working Committee [NWC] over moves to conduct fresh congresses in eight states that were blacklisted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Some states had harmonized their state executives in response to INEC’s letter, but Enugu and Oyo, among others, are still in court to validate the 2008 Congresses that they say they held. The NWC thus wrote the INEC to reconsider its stand on the party’s congresses after undue pressure from some of the state chapters.

Apart from the skirmish over some state chapters, the NEC meeting was also tense due to the supremacy battle between its governors and members of the National Assembly over who will control the party NEC. The crisis was fuelled by the controversial clause inserted into the Electoral Act by members of the National assembly aimed at making them to automatic members of political parties’ NECs.

The governors threatened to challenge the law in court should the two chambers of the National Assembly go ahead to pass the contentious clause. Similarly, governors of the thirty six states of the federation under the auspices of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) condemned the move as legislative rascality, undemocratic, self-serving and a danger to the entire democracy. The governors called on President Jonathan not to assent the bill if the National Assembly passes it.

The meeting at the Presidential Villa, Daily Trust learnt last night, resolved to   let the ruling party decide the category of people that will form the membership of its National Executive Committee.

The three-hour meeting which had most of the PDP governors in attendance, took place at House 7 inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

A source very close to the meeting said, “We have resolved all issues except NEC membership which we have now pushed over to the party’s executive to decide who should be its NEC member,” but the source couldn’t clarify on the other issues tabled for discussion at the meeting.

PDP governors had on Monday met with Jonathan during which they threatened to defect from the ruling party unless he worked with them to scuttle a bill seeking to make federal lawmakers members of national executive committees of political parties.

Daily Trust learnt that soon after yesterday’s NEC meeting, the governors proceeded to the Villa to meet with the president in a bid push their demand further ahead of the re-scheduled NEC meeting Thursday.

The governors have been protesting against the National Assembly bill already passed by the House of Representatives which gives room for the federal lawmakers to be members of the national executive committees of the political parties which the governors considered as a move aimed at eroding their influence in the party.