Following the resignation of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) barely 24 hours, President Goodluck Jonathan met with four governors from the North-east geo-political zone on Friday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja in a frantic move to pick Tukur’s successor.
The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) will meet on Monday to ratify the nomination of the new party chairman.
While the position of the PDP national chairman is zoned to the North-east, names of political gladiators from the zone for the job are already making the rounds in the media.
These include the likes of the Transport minister, Senator Idris Umar (Gombe); former Bauchi governor, Adamu Muazu and Dr. Babayo Musa (Bauchi).
The governors who met with President Jonathan on Friday include Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe), acting Governor Garba Umar (Taraba) and Bala James Ngilari (deputy governor Adamawa).
There has been rumour that the governors would not want the new party boss to emerge from their states due to the bad blood that ran between Tukur and Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako which culminated in the major conflict in the PDP.
The governors’ reluctance to allow candidates of the national chairmanship to emerge from their states has placed Borno and Yobe states, which have no PDP governors in a prime position to produce the new party boss.
But Governor Yuguda of Bauchi who did not admit that they were in the villa over the issue of a new party chairman, also denied that the governors were not ready to accept any chairman that emerged from their states.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Yuguda said, “Are we God? It is God that gives power. Supposing he gives somebody from my state, a PDP state, what will I do? I will follow him. Let us not go into that kind of imagination.”
Flanked by Dankwabo, Umar and Ngilari, Yuguda implored Nigerians to be patient till Monday when the new chairman would emerge.
He said, “It is just mere speculation. It’s just speculation. We just came to say hello to the president and wish him a Good Friday. Well, Monday is the day NEC will decide who the chairman will be. So, let’s wait till Monday.”
On what kind of chairman the PDP needed in view of the crisis that accompanied Tukur’s tenure, the Bauchi governor said irrespective of who was selected, there would always be crisis, but that it was the ability to manage such crisis that mattered.
“Crisis will always be there. If there is no crisis, there won’t be managers anyway. So, somebody must be in charge to manage the situation. And even at the family level, you have a leader to manage problems and crisis. So, we cannot be insulated from crisis. It is a continuous thing. The capacity to manage it is what makes you a good leader,” he stated.
On the high turnover of PDP national chairmen, Yuguda said, “Well, I have been discussing that with my colleague from Gombe and he gave me a very wonderful answer that we are on democracy learning curve. So, that’s the dynamics in democracy. So, we are learning. So, we will cross the line very soon, insha Allah.”
On members who defected from the PDP due to Tukur’s alleged dictatorial style of leadership, the governor said now that the former national chairman was no longer in office, the door was open if they wanted to return to the PDP.