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Nigeria: PDP - Review Panel Faults BoT's Composition
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This Day (Lagos)
9 May 2008
Posted to the web 9 May 2008
Chuks Okocha
Abuja
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Committee that reviewed the Ekwueme report on reconciliation, yesterday said office of the party's Board of Trustees (BoT), held by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, has usurped executive functions of the party.
As a result, the committee, headed by Deputy National Chairman of the party, Dr Harilu Mohammed Bello, recommended that a mini convention of the partybe held within the first quarter of next year, to amendits constitution, in consonance with the dream ofthe party's founding fathers. Reading the report of the committee, Bello said, "continuous issues were smuggled into the party's constitution in 2006, with the most controversial being composition, election of leadership and functions of the BoT.
"The founding fathers had intended that the body wassimply to be advisory, serving as the conscience of the party, but the way things are now, the BoT is synonymous with the party, with its chairman vested with virtual ownership. "It is the submission of the Ekwueme Report, which our committee fully endorses, that the 2006 constitution should be amended and BoT restored to what the founding fathers had intended it to be," he said, adding that a special convention of the party be held not later than the first quarterof 2009."
Other aspects of the report which the national chairman of the party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor said would be implemented as soon as approved by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party includes removal of the "Leader," as only the president produced by the party, is its leader. The report insisted that internal democracy must be deepened, with the aim of making it people-oriented. By implication, amendment of the PDP constitution and review of BoT membership would mean that former president Obasanjo would lose his chairmanship of the BoT of the party.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had in July, 2007, directed former national chairman of the party, Dr Ahmadu Ali, to set up a reconciliatory committee to bring back foundingmembers of the party.
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