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| Bisi Akande, APC Chairman |
But the public was yet to digest this “ big news” when a counter information began to spread, debunking the said fusion of the New-PDP into the APC. Seeking clarification for the confusing situation, The Guardian contacted the spokesman of the New-PDP, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, who stated that there was a misreading of the information in the public domain.
He said what the Abubakar Kawu Baraje-led group entered into with the APC was a working relationship, as there was no document signed to normalise the reported merger. “What our communiqué said was a working relationship with the APC,” he said. “There was no Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed to normalise the relationship.”
He promised that a statement would be issued shortly, to correct the misconception in the open. But that statement, of course, signed by Eze, was contrary to the impression he created earlier. It was clear that the understanding was more than a “working relationship.”
It was indeed, a merger reminiscent of the historic one among the political parties that formed the APC.
The tone was not only definitive and declarative, but the New-PDP also sent out a clear message to President Goodluck Jonathan: Start writing your handover notes.
Part of the statement reads: “A meeting of the leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC, and the new PDP met this morning (on Tuesday) at the residence of the Kano State Governor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, in Abuja and after exhaustive deliberations, the two parties agreed to merge in order to rescue our fledgling democracy and the nation.
“The simple meaning of this is that APC is now the majority party in the country while PDP has become a minority party. “In the circumstances, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan must now start writing his handover notes because his ambition to manoeuvre the party structures so as to get a third term in office in 2015 has suddenly collapsed.”
Again, while a bemused population was still to assimilate the clouding pronouncements, another dampener came: a statement from Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State and the chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, categorically denying that he had joined the APC. The denial came through the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Danladi Ndayebo, who said Aliyu was not present at the meeting when the merger deal was struck.
“Governor Aliyu insisted that talks were still ongoing with the president (Jonathan) and would await the outcome of the negotiation before taking a final decision,” Ndayebo said.
Earlier, when The Guardian sought clarification from Chief Eze on Governor Aliyu’s statement, dissociating self from the merger, he responded thus: “Governor Aliyu is being misquoted and misunderstood! What he is saying is that our merger talk with APC is ongoing, as we are yet to sign an MoU, which will be signed after all the dots are removed and the needed are added after the outcome of our meeting with President GEJ (Goodluck Ebele Jonathan). “It is after all these we will make up our minds on a formal and full merger with APC or otherwise. I think that is what Governor Aliyu is saying and that is okay by us but he is part of all that happened today (Tuesday).”
The Interim National Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande, who, along with Alhaji Kawu Baraje, had announced the merger, also attempted to douse the concerns expressed by journalists at the sudden departure of Aliyu and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State at the event. Akande explained that Aliyu and Ahmed took permission to leave the meeting for some crucial assignments. “Please, I want to say that some of our governors left before the end of the meeting,” he said. “They did not storm out; they did not stage any walk out; they took permission before they left.”
Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State was to throw in his spanner in the works, distancing himself from the merger and affirming his resolve to remain in the PDP that he co-founded.
Another sinker came from the camp of Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, that he was still in the PDP. Still, the next day (Wednesday, November 27), at 7.16pm, Chief Eze, obviously under intense pressure, sent out a mixed-message text to journalists, which is presented below in its SMS format:
“I am just bn called that d I issued a statement dat there is no merget bw us ad APC bc d MoU bw us ad d APC has not bn signed. Pls I am just bn corrected by d National Chairman, Alh. A. K. Baraje that d MOU has bn singed ad d Merget has bn effected. So any contrary statement in this regarf shuld be discountined. Thax. Chf Eze Chukwuemeka Eze.”
Interpretation: Chief Eze had issued a statement that there was no merger between the New-PDP and the APC, because the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) had not been signed. But Alhaji Baraje confirmed that the MoU had been signed and the merger effected. So, any contrary statement should be discountenanced.
It was no surprise that Chief Eze sent out a press release at 10.06pm, headlined: ‘APC, NEW PDP MERGER A DONE DEAL, MOU SIGNED *Defecting lawmakers’ seats safe’. The first three paragraphs read:
“It has been brought to my notice that a statement denying the merger between the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been credited to me and my office. I was quoted as saying that the MOU between the two parties is yet to be signed and because of this, the merger is yet to be effected.
“I wish to state that no such statement was at any time issued by me or my office. Instead, I wish to reiterate that the MOU between us and APC has been duly signed by both the nPDP National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, and the National Chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande.
“In this regard, the general public should disregard any statement from whatever source which tries to give the impression that the merger between us and APC is in danger. The truth in that the merger is waxing stronger by the day and that our resolve to save our fledgling democracy is unshakable.”
Chief Eze allayed the fears of members of the legislature that defected to the APC: that their seats were safe, and could not be declared vacant, as being threatened by the PDP.
This was the scenario that had seized the New-PDP/APC camp since the merger was announced on Tuesday. It had been going back and forth on whether the New-PDP had merged with the APC or remained in the mainstream PDP.
This situation has helped to reinforce public scepticism about the breakaway group’s threat to dump the PDP. Indeed, there had been strong indications in the past weeks that the long-drawn feud between the faction and the mainstream leadership of the PDP would be over soon.
However, to keen watchers of the polity, the seeming resolution was not going come by way of the convoluted reconciliation efforts involving the warring factions of the party and notable elders and statesmen across the country.
Informed sources noted that some of the aggrieved G-7 Governors, and their allies in the New-PDP had hit a dead end in their unsettling moves to make the leaders of the ruling party reason with them. Despite their obvious display of bravado, The Guardian learnt that the governors “are fast reconsidering their position in the stand-off vis-a-vis their personal and/or political interests.”
A number of factors were said to be responsible for the re-evaluation of the aggrieved governors’ stand in the crisis that has turned the PDP upside down in recent months.
One is that reforms, which formed the cornerstone of the governors’ agitation, may not be implemented in the PDP, or at best not in the shape they had canvassed.
Two is that the leadership of the party and the government it controls appeared impervious to change, and thus cared less about the implication of the governors quitting the PDP en masse.
Three, the party, buoyed by favourable court judgments, and accompanying nods from the electoral umpire, INEC, was calling the bluff of the agitating governors and their cohorts.
Four, employing its instrument of coercion, the PDP government had made life uncomfortable for the rebel governors either in their states or at places of meeting around the country.
Five, the governors’ political future was said to be “hazy in the PDP and even blurred on the platform of another party,” including the leading opposition APC.
The governors originally made five demands on the PDP, but they had modified them with the exigencies of the times — the pressures from the PDP and its government in Abuja.
Subsequently, their new shopping list included:
• Removal of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman of the PDP.
• Lifting of suspension on Governor Amaechi from the PDP.
• The Presidency should recognise Amaechi as the leader of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).
• Government should halt the EFCC from probing the governors or any of their officials.
• The PDP should hand over the party machinery to the governors.
• The government should restore the security operatives withdrawn from the governors and their.
• The PDP should recall the suspended factional chairman of the New-PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje; his deputy, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja; and the group’s deputy national chair (North), Ambassador Kazaure.
• The PDP must lift the suspension on Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and facilitate his resumption as the National Secretary of the party following an Appeal Court judgment.
• The President should caution the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, over his reported assault on the aggrieved governors.
• The Police High Command should punish the policemen that tried to disrupt the meetings of the governors.
However, investigations reveal that the governors’ demands were based on forlorn hope, as the PDP and President Jonathan would not accede to any of the requests.
An inkling of this was given by the loquacious Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak on Friday.
A national daily quoted him as saying that President Jonathan, though a listening leader of the PDP, would not be party to anything that was unconstitutional — that is, sacking Tukur as the national chair of the PDP, and disqualifying himself (Jonathan) from the 2015 race, as demanded by the aggrieved PDP governors.
Gulak said: “The President is willing to listen to them and discuss the ways forward. He is a listening leader of the party.
“The best he can do is to sit with them and listen to them. In discussing, however, the President will not agree with anything that is against the provisions of either the nation’s constitution or the party’s constitution.
“Sacking of Alhaji Tukur is definitely not the way forward. The President not contesting second term, despite the fact that the Constitution allows him, is also not the way forward.
“Simply put, therefore, the President will not concede to anything that is unconstitutional.” This declaration sealed any hope of the governors getting any concession from the PDP and the president, who, on his arrival from Britain last Monday, postponed the rescheduled meeting.
Well, that appeared to be the last straw, as the next (Tuesday) saw the consummation of the romance between the New-PDP and the APC. But even as at press time last night, there was still confusion, and conflicting statements and pronouncements about who was in or out of the merger.
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