Daily Independent (Lagos)
Olusola Balogun
22 November 2008
The ambition of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to retain his chairmanship of the Board of Trustee (BOT) of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at next year's national convention of the party may be blocked if moves by some elements in the party succeed.
The group led by two serving governors, one from the North Central and another from thee South West, is working round the clock to ensure that Obasanjo does not retain his seat after the new constitution of the party is ratified at the convention planned for March 2009.
The plan of the group, according to sources, is to ensure that Obasanjo is rejected at the convention as a prelude to the reduction of his power in the party.
According to the source, "the idea is that after the party might have ratified the amendment to the section of the constitution that allows only Obasanjo to contest for the BOT, they will now pull the rug under the feet of the man and then put him where he is supposed to be. You know the Alex Ekwueme Committee has recommended that the section of the party's constitution that made the post of the BOT chairman the exclusive preserve of Obasanjo be removed and replaced with a more democratic clause that will make it open to any eminent member of the party. After this has been done, they will now hammer him and cut him to size."
He explained that the grouse of the group was that Obasanjo wields too much power as the BOT chairman and is always in the habit of "bossing everybody around as if he is still the president. The last time was worse. He was commanding everybody around as if he is still in power and Yar'Adua was there seated quietly and that was the final straw. They said no more and it was since then that they started plotting how to get him off the stage."
He revealed that members of the group include some former governors who detested the manner Obasanjo ran affairs of the party, especially under the former chairman, Ahmadu Ali.
According to the source, "it is ironic that this same man that ran the party aground with his evil policies is the same man that wants to run the show again. It is on record that several of the founding fathers of this party left because of him and many of them are now chieftains in rival parties giving us all manners of trouble.
"We know some of them are willing to come back but they won't be comfortable meeting the same thing that forced them to leave the party so they have to move to correct things," he added.
Part of the agenda of the group is to ensure the return of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, as well as the full integration of the founding chairman of the party, Solomon Lar.
The source added: "Although they did not see any problem with the integration of Lar, it is Atiku that is the biggest coup and I must say we will see it as the biggest achievement towards taking the party away from Obasanjo."
He added that "the group sees in Atiku a man that will add a lot of impetus to the campaign to return the party to where it was before, as well as reposition it to the vision of its founding fathers."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
