PDP BoT: Ekwueme, Anenih, Nnamani, Ahmadu Ali in battle royale

FOR failing to arrive at a consensus candidate for Tuesday's emergence of its Chairman and members of the Board of Trustees, BoT, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, organ  is heading for election. The new BoT chairman  replaces  former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who quit the position in April 2012.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that the move to go ahead with the election became imperative after weeks of scheming, political intrigues and nocturnal meetings geared at getting aspirants to the office to step down for one another especially on the grounds of age.
Some party members, as gathered, had spoken with aspirants that it will not go well to allow former Vice President Alex Ekwueme to go through the rigour of facing an election considering his age having marked his 80th birthday last year.

As the BoT prepares for the election scheduled to hold at the Presidential Villa,  the number of candidates that will need the votes of other members have been trimmed from the initial twenty to eleven.

As gathered, South East has  Ekwueme; former Senate President Ken Nnamani; Publisher of Champion Newspapers, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; and Senator Onyeabo Obi; South South: Chief Tony Anenih and Chief Don Etiebet; North Central has only the former PDP National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali; while South West has Chief Richard Akinjide; former Deputy National Chairman, Shuaibu Oyedokun and Yekini Adeojo.

A former BoT chairman of  the Nigeria People's Party, ANPP, Chief Harry Ayaode Akande; Senator Bode Olajumoke, among others, failed to make the list.

The strong contenders for the PDP BoT position are Anenih, Ekwueme; Nnamani; Ahmadu Ali and  Oyedokun, just as if Ali, from Kogi State, emerges, it means the North Central will be most favoured in the Board against the backdrop that the Secretary, Senator Walid Jubrin,  from Nasarawa State, is also from North Central.

The  PDP BoT, the highest decision body of the party, according to the constitution, comprises of men and women of integrity that have contributed critically to the conception and nurturing of the party, and who have sacrificed much for it, and as contained in Section 12.76 of the party's constitution.

The functions of BoT among others are to: ''Ensure highest standards of morality in all the activities of the Party by acting as the conscience of the Party, with power to call to order any officer of the Party whose conduct falls below the norms;
''Ensure high morale of members of the Party and that the Party enjoys a good image before the Nigerian populace and is in good political health; and ''Harmonise, co-ordinate, review and advise on policies, programmes and activities of the Party at the national level.'

Obasanjo, who resigned last year as the BoT chairman, was elected June 2007 at the Kano Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

But Anenih, Obasanjo's predecessor, who wants to bounce back, was conspicuously absent at the Hilton meeting where his head was shaved in his absence. (Vanguard)