PDP governors want Mu’azu to resign

firstclassnewsline.net

Firstclass newslin learnt that the governors were said to have done so
during their meeting at the Akwa Ibom State Governor's Lodge, Asokoro,
Abuja on Tuesday.
Mu'azu, the PDP Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus; and the
National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwon, were said to be present at the
meeting summoned by Governor Godswill Akpabio, who is the chairman
of the PDP Governors' Forum.
Investigations by our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday showed that
the governors accused Mu'azu and the other members of the NWC of
working against the party during the general elections.
Apart from being defeated in the presidential election, the ruling
party also lost majority of the states in the north which was hitherto
known to be its base.
The majority of the states are now under the control of the All
Progressives Congress.
Mua'zu, according to one of the governors, was shocked when he was
accused of working against the party's interest during the
elections.
The governor said they told Mu'azu that he should resign with members
of the NWC and allow a new set of people to pilot the affairs of the
party.
Another governor said that Mu'azu was told that the best thing for
him to do was to quit honourably since he led the party to a
disastrous outing.
He said, "We told him to resign and go with members of the NWC that
he's leading. That is the general opinion of the governors and we told
him.
"We said that having led the party to this level which is historical
because we have never been this defeated since the party was formed,
the honourable thing was for him to leave.
"That is what is expected of him; that is what is done in all advanced
democracies."
The governor, who is from the North, added that there was no way the
chairman and members of the NWC would continue "to force themselves on
the displeased party members."
Another governor from the South, who was also at the meeting, said
they had a feeling that Mu'azu was planning to run for the office of
the President in 2019 on the platform of the APC.
He said this was the reason why they believed that he did not care
about the party and therefore was ready to destroy it before leaving.
The governor added that the body language of the chairman during the
meeting didn't indicate that he would leave.
He said, "His body language did not show a man who's ready to leave.
But either he likes it or not, his predecessor, Bamanga Tukur, tried
to stay on, when the time came, he left.
"Everything that has a beginning will definitely have an end. You
cannot be a party chairman when the members are saying you should
leave.
"Our( governors) opinion is that he should leave. But if he refuses
to resign, some of us won't attend any meeting called by him.
"They call him 'game changer' but succeeded in changing the fortune
of our party for the worse. We won't agree with that."
But Mu'azu's Chief Press Secretary, Tony Amadi, and the National
Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, said it was wrong for any
governor to blame the party's poor performance on the NWC members.
Amadi, who spoke with our correspondent, said that everyone would
have to share from the blame, adding that not all the governors were
able to deliver their states during the elections.
He said, "Did all the governors deliver their states during the
elections? I am sure you know the number of states that we lost during
the elections.
"Did Mu'azu come to their states and make them to lose the elections?
Everybody has his own share of the blame, including the President.
"The party lost an election and everybody is looking for a way to
avoid blame. That is bad. But it is not true that he was bundled out
of the meeting."
Also, Metuh said the actions of the governors contributed largely to
the party's poor performance.
He said, "We were not the ones who handled the campaigns and we were
not part of the elections. Did the NWC members stand for any election?
"The governors are the ones who are running the party in their states
as the party is just a department of the government."
Metuh alleged that every effort made to instil discipline in many
of the party members failed because of the actions of some of the
governors.
Metuh also said he was happy to learn that the APC had overruled the
President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, on the ban placed onAITfrom
covering his activities.
"Could we have done that? If we did, they would be asking the NWC
members to resign. We need to learn from this. That is what is called
party discipline," he added.
Firstclass newsline however learnt on Wednesday that the NWC had
called for a hearing on the cause of the party's poor outing at the
elections .
An NWC member said they believed that governors who arm-twisted them
to get whatever they wanted caused the problems of the party.
He added that except for Ebonyi State, all the PDP governors got the
candidates they wanted as their successors.
Firstclassnewsline.net