This news report published in The Nation newspaper of today, Saturday, 11 October, 2014 is
revealing. It shows that PDP governors like Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State
who is bent on imposing their stooges as their successors are indeed in
trouble.
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The governors elected on the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday kicked against the stoppage of consensus
endorsement of their candidature and others in their states for the 2015 poll
by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
The aggrieved governors alleged that the NWC had acted in
concert with the presidency to halt the endorsement gale.
They also accused the presidency and the NWC of “double
standards” when the leader of the party, President Goodluck Jonathan had
benefited from the same consensus endorsement.
Some of the governors also said they might ask the National
Convention of the party to revisit the endorsement of Jonathan by the National
Executive Committee (NEC).
The National Secretary of the party, Prof. Wale Oladipo, had
on Thursday voided the endorsement of governorship, senatorial and other
candidates by the governors and state chapters.
The party directed the governors and state chairmen of PDP
to cancel such endorsements.
With the annulment of the endorsements, some of those
affected are: the President of the Senate; Chief David Mark, who is seeking the
fifth term in the Senate; the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba(SAN); outgoing
governors already anointed for the Senate, including Godswill Akpabio( Akwa Ibom); Gabriel Suswam(Benue); Emmanuel Uduaghan(Delta); Saidu
Dakingari(Kebbi); Theodore Orji ( Abia); Sullivan Chime( Enugu); Ibrahim
Shema(Katsina); Babangida Aliyu(Niger); and Isa Yuguda(Bauchi)
Others are: second-term- seeking governors like Ramalan
Yero( Kaduna); the Acting Governor of Taraba State, Garba Umar; Ibrahim
Dankwambo(Gombe); Henry Seriake-Dickson(Bayelsa), among others.
Those whose governorship endorsements have been voided are
Emmanuel Ugwuanyi(Enugu); the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi
Chukwu(Ebonyi); ex-Minister of State for Health, Dr. Ali Pate( Bauchi).
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the
governors were shocked that the PDP NWC could give such a directive after it
had lured them to endorse Jonathan’s automatic second-term ticket.
One of the governors, who was devastated by the directive,
said: “We have discussed among ourselves, such a cancellation of endorsements
by the NWC is unacceptable to us.
“Whatever is good for the goose is good for the gander. If
the NWC means business, the ban on endorsements should be across the board.“We cannot be used and dumped by anybody or group. Why are they changing the game now?”
Another governor said: “Such a ban will spell doom for the
party. The National Headquarters should not dabble in what is happening at the
state. Are they just realising that endorsement is not good for our democracy?
“Look, endorsement or consensus-building is part of the game
too.”A third governor said: “The party should let us subject all nomination process to state congresses and National Convention. The party should leave the presidential nomination open and the President should seek second term mandate at the National Convention.
“Since the beginning of the week, we had suspected foul play
when they directed all aspirants to come to Abuja to collect nomination form
for any elective office.
“In any case, I am not bothered because the National Secretary,
who issued the directive, was not elected by the National Convention of the
party. The directive was a product of illegality, it cannot stand.”
It was gathered that some governors were being appeased by
party leaders as at the time of going to the press.
“Nobody was targeted but we do not want endorsement abused
in such a way that it will erode democratic process. We will iron our issues on
this,” a top party leader added.
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