The insistence by governors of the Peoples Democratic Party that the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, should be removed may dominate today’s meeting in Abuja between President Goodluck Jonathan and the governors, scheduled to discuss the crisis in the party.

This is as the PDP National Working Committee at an emergency meeting last Monday shelved the planned dissolution of the party’s state executives and composition of caretaker committees in some of the states where the governors have defected to All Progressives Congress.

According to a governor who gave an insight into the expectations at today’s meeting, “My colleagues are seriously campaigning against the national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, but it does not look like they will have their way.

“It was tactical that the last Sunday meeting was adjourned till this Sunday to enable tempers cool down and also to come up with a change of tactics and give room for wider consultation on the matter. This explains why between Monday and Tuesday, there were series of meetings and consultations between the PDP governors and other stakeholders on what should be done.”

The governor explained that the PDP governors were not happy with the state of affairs in the party that had led to the suspension and expulsion of some key members, including Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, as well as the defection of five governors.

He said, “The PDP governors are worried that since after the August 31 special national convention, no National Executive Committee meeting or caucus of the party has been called to address issues affecting the party.

“The NWC under Tukur has not embarked on consultations with the stakeholders and even the state chairmen of the party. There is no meeting; we just read developments affecting the party in the newspapers. This is one of the issues that would dominate our meeting with the president.”

The governors were also said to be unhappy with some ministers in the Jonathan government who had allegedly failed to empower members of the party in their respective states as a way of helping the popularity of the party among the electorate ahead of 2015.

Another issue that may feature prominently in the meeting today is the state of the economy and the increasing incidence of crude oil theft.

Meanwhile, there is evidence of a crack within the NWC, as members at the last emergency meeting called to assess the state of the party overruled the national chairman on the dissolution of the Jigawa and Niger states executives of the party.
The NWC had also planned the dissolution of the PDP executive committees of two states, Kwara and Sokoto states, where their governors defected to APC recently. But after several manoeuvres, the committee decided that the Sokoto State executive committee should be spared while a caretaker committee should be set up for Kwara State after the dissolution of the state executive of PDP any time soon.

Tukur had last Monday summoned an emergency meeting of the NWC, where he presented a memorandum for the dissolution of the state executive committees of the party in Jigawa and Niger states and immediate setting up of caretaker committees to run the affairs of the party till fresh state congresses were conducted.

THISDAY gathered that the memo from Tukur for the sack of the PDP executives in Jigawa and Niger states was based on the fact that the state executives were loyal to the governors of both states, Sule Lamido and Dr. Babangida Aliyu, respectively, whose loyalty to PDP he felt could not be guaranteed.

But the national chairman was said to be surprised when the NWC members rejected the move and urged for caution, especially as it concerned Jigawa and Niger states. Members of the NWC in calling for caution cited the recent rapprochement between Jonathan and the governors of Jigawa and Niger, saying the NWC should encourage reconciliation and not be belligerent.

But the meeting agreed that the Kwara State executive committee should be dissolved.
The Sokoto State executive was believed to be spared because of a move by political adviser to the national chairman, Senator Umar Gada, who recently organised a delegation from the state to pay a courtesy visit to Tukur and pledge their loyalty to him.