The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) embarked on fence-mending moves on Thursday, among which were the resignation of the Chairman of its Board of Trustees (BoT) and the Chairman of the party’s Governors’ Forum
The party also passed a vote-of-confidence on its embattled National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, whose resignation had been demanded by a group supporting Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike.
The two new positions moved from North to the South ion order to pacify party members complaining that positions were too skewed in favour of the North.
Senator Walid Jibrin from Adamawa State stepped down as BoT Chairman and was replaced in acting capacity by a former Senate President, Dr Adolphus Wabara, who is from Abia State, while Governor Seyi Makinde replaced his Sokoto State counterpart, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum.
Wike’s group had insisted that it was against the party’s zoning policy to have the National Chairman, the presidential candidate and the BoT Chairman all coming from the North. While Ayu is from the North Central zone, the presidential flagbearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is from Adamawa State, like Jibrin, who has now resigned as BoT Chairman.
Seventy-four-year Wabara will also serve as Political Adviser to the party’s National Chairman.
Until now, he was the Secretary of the PDP BoT, and will now be appointed to the party’s Presidential Campaign Council.
Wabara became Senate President on 3 June 2003, and was succeeded by Senator Ken Nnamani on 5 April 2005. He represented Abia South district in the Senate for two terms between 1999 and 2007.
Makinde emerged as the new chairman of the PDP Governors Forum shortly after Tambuwal resigned at the meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
The NEC meeting went on to pass a vote of confidence on Ayu and doused the tension generated by clamour for his resignation.
Three hundred and ninety-seven members of the NEC, including past national chairmen of the party, the immediate past Vice President of the country, Namadi Sambo, and the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar were accredited for the meeting.
Ayu got a unanimous endorsement to remain as National Chairman.
But Wike is not pacified. On Thursday, he vowed to sustain the fight for the return of a healthy party structure that would allow an even representation of the interest of the North and South in the national leadership of the party.
At the inauguration of the Ahoada Campus and staff quarters of the Rivers State University, which was performed by Makinde, Wike said the current leadership structure, with the North holding the presidential ticket as well as the national chairmanship, was against the constitution of the PDP and a gross injustice to the South.
The current hierarchy of the PDP, Wike said, did not give room for the interest of the South, particularly when decisions were to be taken.
He said the resignation of the BoT Chairman was a distraction because the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku, had told him that the national chairman of the party, Ayu must relinquish his position.
