Ayodele Olalere
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s National Working Committee, NWC, on Tuesday pledged its loyalty to the party’s governors forum led by Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed.
Members of the committee pledged their loyalty when its delegation paid an unscheduled visit to Governor Bala in Bauchi.
It is recalled that the NWC had rectified the recently held PDP’s River State chapter’s congress controlled by the former governor of the state and FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, which inadvertently handed the party structure to Wike against the incumbent Governor Fubara.
Both Fubara and Wike have been at loggerheads with the latter claiming he regretted supporting Fubara to be the governor and vowed to work against him for a second term in office.
Before the Congress, the PDP Governors Forum had met in August and unanimously decided to support Governor Fubara to take over the structure of the party in the state and make him the leader of the party in Rivers State as stipulated by the party’s constitution.
Therefore, the decision of the NWC to approve the Wike controlled party’s congress was seen as a support for the Minister against the PDP governors decision.
However, during Tuesday’s visit to Governor Bala, the National Legal Adviser of PDP, Kamaldeen Ajibade Adeyemi, (SAN), who spoke on behalf of the delegation said the NWC is ready abide with whatever decisions the governors made.
“We feel it is imperative for us to identify with you and to tell you that whatever step taken by the governors forum, we as your representative as National Working Committee will always be glad to implement,” Kamaldeeen said.
He added: “Secondly, Your Excellency, we are here to also identify with you and to salute your courage as the Chairman of PDP Governors Forum. We cannot pretend, a lot of things have been going on in our party, we cannot pretend to say that all is very well.
“We are grateful and we are glad that you and other colleagues governors have taken the bull by the horns. So, we made it necessary for us to come and identify with you and tell you that whatever steps taken by the Governors Forum under your leadership, We as representatives of the National Working Committee will accept it and are ready to implement,” Ajibade added.
While reacting to the threat by Wike to ‘put fire’ in the states of the PDP governors for supporting Governor Fubara, Governor Bala dared the Minister by saying “no one can put fire in Bauchi because we have a volume of water to quench the fire”.
“We are together; nobody can put fire in Bauchi. We have a volume of water that will quench the fire. Even my friend who said that did so because he is annoyed. Maybe I have said something that annoyed him but it is not personal. My friend is my friend, my job is my job and leadership is leadership,” Bala said.
Expressing his surprise at the visit of the NWC , the Governor said the visit was an indication that there is hope for the party.
“This unsolicited visit by the National Working Committee shows that in Nigeria, we have hope,and we are connected by the value and the stability of PDP for peace and stability in our party and in our country.
“Yes, none of the parties is isolated in terms of crisis here and there. Crises are there; that is why leadership is also there. That is why we have to take the bull by the horn to discuss and look at the constitution of our party PDP. All the parties must do things by the rule of law. We must respect people, we must put our interest aside, we must respect our diversity, we must meet and close ranks especially when the issue has to do with our party, the PDP. Our party has a pedigree.”
He noted that the developments Nigeria had witnessed in recent times were brought by PDP and carpeted the current led APC for doing nothing to develop Nigeria.
“Most of the developments in this country were done by the PDP. When PDP left, nothing was done. You can see all the members of the national working committee here are square peg in square holes. Even if we are quarreling, we are together. Nobody should misunderstand that,we are not a splinter group,” he said.
