It has been revealed that former president Goodluck Jonathan is currently under pressure to abandon the process seeking
for peace in the PDP.
A report by The Punch has revealed that the immediate past President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan has come under intense
pressure to abandon the peace process he initiated in the troubled Peoples Democratic
Party.
According to The Punch, investigations showed that the former President was also
no longer interested in how to bring the two factions in the party together.
Already, the National Chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has distanced himself from the peace process.
His deputy, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, revealed that the party under Sheriff would no longer take
part in the peace process, which ended in confusion about two weeks ago.
Sheriff, the former governor of Borno State, had led members of his National Working Committee out of the party’s stakeholders
meeting on April 6, in Abuja.
The meeting, which was called by the former President, was aimed at discussing the crisis in the party, with a view to resolving the logjam.
But while Sheriff and his team walked out of the meeting, members of the sacked
national caretaker committee, members of the party’s Board of Trustees and other stakeholders stayed behind with the former
President.
A bewildered Jonathan, who later described the action of Sheriff and his team as unfortunate, had promised to set up a 40-
man team to fashion out how to find a political solution to the crisis.
According to The Punch, the spokesperson for the caretaker committee, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, said on Thursday in Abuja that the
former President had yet to demand the six- man team the faction ought to contribute to
the peace committee.
He stated that the reluctance of Jonathan to continue with the process could be as a
result of the pulling out of the process by the Sheriff group.
He added, “We have not been asked to give the names of those that will represent us (caretaker committee) at the panel.
“Don’t forget that the Sheriff group said it would not be part of the process anymore.
That could be the reason. If they say they are not taking party, who are you then going to reconcile?
“I don’t know and I can’t say what is delaying it, but since the other party said it won’t take part, it is obvious that that could be the determining factor.”
Ojougboh said the party under the
leadership of Sheriff would forge ahead without those he described as vultures. While walking out of the Jonathan’s peace meeting, Sheriff had said, “The party, as of
today, has one national chairman, which is Ali Modu Sheriff. There is no PDP meeting that will take place under any arrangement
that I will not make an opening remark as a national chairman.
“I think that Governor (Seriake) D!ckson (of Bayelsa State) made a proposal, and we have
accepted it. Other people have a programme to bring agenda which is not part of the
proposal.
“And as a national chairman of the party, what I told you people in my office that I will not be a party to anybody using me for his
personal agenda; I will not.”
Since he took the action, it was gathered that some members of the party, including about two governors, had called on the
former President to jettison the idea of setting up any committee.
A source close to the ex-President, who spoke on condition of anonymity, argued that it was in the interest of Jonathan to
allow the matter to be resolved by the Supreme Court.
The source stated, “It is in the interest of the former President to allow the Supreme Court
to settle the leadership crisis in the party once and for all.
“We have told him this. He doesn’t need to allow himself to be disgraced the way Sheriff and his people treated him at the
meeting we had the other day.
“So, instead of allowing himself to be messed up, he should wash his hands off the crisis and watch as events unfold.”
Efforts made to speak with the former President on the issue was not successful Calls made to the telephone of his media aide, Mr. Ikechukwu Eze, were not returned
while Eze equally failed to respond to a text message sent to him.
Eze had told The Punch last week that he was going to find out from his principal when he would constitute the 40-member
committee.
