• Opposition party undecided on fate of G-5 govs
By Vincent Kalu
Plans by some critical stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to draft former Senate President, Bukola Saraki to become the party’s national chairman and rebuild the party may have hit a brick wall.
The party has been experiencing internal crisis before, during and after the general elections. The party’s National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu was replaced with the deputy national chairman, (North), Umar Damagum in acting capacity after it lost the presidential election to the incumbent, President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Troubled by the state of affairs in the party, some of the critical stakeholders gathered last week in Abuja to brainstorm on how to bring the party back to relevance.
According to a reliable source, the stakeholders planned to bring Saraki as the chairman of the party, considering his clout, influence and reach in and outside the country.
“Though the critical stakeholders have not informed Saraki or the party of their intentions, some associates of the former Kwara State governor, who were privy to the plan, met on Tuesday in Abuja and moved against the plan.
“They contended that Saraki had brought the party back to life after persuading many former members who had defected to the APC to return to the opposition party. But they regretted that the immediate past leadership of the party had, because of their personal wars and vested interests, destroyed the party completely. They said Saraki should not be brought in to start laboring all over again,” the source said.
Saturday Sun also gathered that the party had not decided on what to do with the G-5 governors that contributed to the party’s failure in the presidential election, even though various organs of the party had been meeting to take a decision on the fate of the then governors.
Another source told the newspaper: “The party is meeting; the National Working Committee (NWC) has met, the Board of Trustees (BoT) has met. A special committee called the Select committee met penultimate week. It is expected that as these segmented organs have met, the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting would be called where decision on the G-5 governors and other problems bedeviling the party will be taken. But I don’t know when,” the source emphasised.
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Debo Ologunagba, said the issue of bringing Saraki or not was in the realm of speculations, noting that the party could not make any comments on that. He said the party as an organization was not aware of any such plan.