No Igbo Chairman for PDP till after Elections
The People's Democratic Party (PDP), may have discountenanced agitation by a flank of the party's south east bloc that a substantive National chairman of Igbo stalk holds sway at Wadata Plaza before the April elections. For now, Acting chairman, Haliru Bello Mohammed, will run the show .
Pointblanknews.com learnt that the crack in the south east caucus over the issue, and the possibility for the issue to be a distraction with weeks to the elections, informed the move to dump the agenda entirely.
Even though the issue was not on the agenda of the last Board Of Trustees (BOT) meeting, sources hinted that President Olusegun Obasanjo was one of those who maintained that since the whole drama would be a distraction, and for the fact that the south east cannot speak with a voice on the issue, it should be shelved for now.
Said the source “ the BOT reasoned that for the party to be engrossed in the issue of chairmanship, could affect last minute preparations for elections. So they agreed to tackle that after the elections. That's why it was not on the agenda. “
However, the move to shelve the issue may not be going down well with a bloc. According to our source” As you know some members from the east want an Igbo chairman before election. But the party is in confusion because the Governors, legislators, and the elders cannot agree on a candidate, so the party decided to put the whole thing on hold”
The BOT , sources added, although agreed to put the issue in the refrigerator for now until after the elections, some members from the south east and members of the Chukwuemeka Ezeife led Elders Forum, are not buying it.
According to Ezeife, “Our decision to address you this time is to express some concerns. The 24 million Igbo voters from the core South-East states and across all zones are not happy. They feel marginalised and removed from the current scheme of things.
He said, “We as leaders are daily receiving a deluge of complaints from different groups, organisations and individuals; to the extent that some have even taken the matter to the Federal High Court, Abuja.
“These people want to vote for President Jonathan, but they need to be assured that they will be protected in the President Jonathan Project.
The issue became thorny after the South East governors failed to agree on who to make chairman. Some of them have vowed to resist attempts to make a member from their state chairman, considering the enormous powers Okwesileze Nwodo wielded in Enugu. Eboyin governor, Martins Elechi, and Abia Governor, Theodore Orji, are against Pius Anyim and Ojo Maduekwe.
It became more complex when some stakeholders in the National Assembly, including the Deputy senate President , shunned the elders' pick of Dan Ulasi and Agunwa Anekwe. One of the aspirants, Ezekiel Izuogu, also condemned the decision of the Anya Anya led screening committee that picked Ulasi and Anekwe.