Contrary to popular expectations and media speculations, the trio of Governors Babangida Muazu Aliyu (Niger), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano) are not leaving the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) anytime soon.
This was part of a statement they released yesterday as they reiterated their commitment to the ruling party, saying that reports of their plans to dump the party were speculative and misleading.
Some sections of the media had reported that the governors had informed President Goodluck Jonathan of their intention to quit the party ahead of the 2015 elections at a meeting, following irreconcilable difference with the party leadership.
But the governors denied that the meeting with the president last week was as a result of their resolve to rescue the PDP and not to dump it.
The governors spoke as President Jonathan said he was unaware of any such notice from the governors that they were leaving PDP.
Governor Muazu who spoke through his director of press, Government House, Danladi Ndayabo, said that any report linking him with the plan to defect to another party was misleading.
Ndayabo said: “The governor uses this medium to clarify and restate that he remains a true member of the PDP and that he has no intention whatsoever to dump the party. In the first place, it should be placed on record that at no time did the governor of Niger State, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu, alongside other governors, issue a threat to defect to another party or float another party.
“For record purposes, it must however be stated that the visit of the governor, alongside his colleagues, to the president was not abnormal as it was meant to save the ruling party from suffering further crisis as well as a means to save our democracy.”
Nyako’s chief press secretary, Ahmed Sajoh, also said any report that his boss was planning to dump the PDP was not “only misleading but mischievous”.
“The report is absolutely false; it is not just misleading, it is mischievous and I state unequivocally that Governor Nyako has maintained that he will remain in the PDP, that he has no intention to leave the party.
“Let me say that Governor Nyako has a subsisting mandate as governor on the PDP’s platform; hence, I urge you to disregard the report that has linked the Adamawa governor with a move to dump the same party that gave him such a mandate.
“However, it should be noted that Governor Nyako’s meeting with the president, including other governors, was to avail the president an opportunity to know certain things that have gone wrong in the PDP under the current leadership.
“More contradicting in the report is the fact that the governors only went to the president to save the PDP and democracy as the leader of the country and of the PDP; so it is only laughable to read that such governors with that level of passion for the party have issued a notice to quit the PDP.
“The report is absolutely incorrect; however, I will use this opportunity to say that the leadership of the party, particularly President Jonathan who is the leader of the PDP, has a duty to call some members of the Adamawa State chapter of the party to order. I say this because a situation whereby someone will give a 14-day ultimatum to the governor to revalidate his membership of the party calls for concern.
“More worrisome is the fact that the so-called directive did not allow for such re-validation to be done through the wards, but that all such should be done at a particular office; I say this is condemnable,” Sajoh said.
Governor Kwankwaso’s chief press secretary, Aliyu Dantiye, merely said that the Nigerian people should ignore the report of the governors’ purported plan to dump PDP. “Ignore the report, there is nothing like that at all,” he said.
The special adviser to the president on political matters, Ali Ahmed Gulak, said his boss was unaware of the governors’ threat to dump PDP.
“Speaking for my principal as his political adviser, there is no iota of truth that Mr President was told by the governors of their plan to dump PDP; it is absolutely untrue and does not represent the true picture of what transpired between the president and the governors when they met,” Gulak said.
The governors are currently on a nationwide tour for what they refer to as “consultations to save democracy and the PDP” on the heels of the crisis rocking the ruling party.
They insist on the recognition of Governor Rotimi Amaechi as chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) having secured 19 votes to defeat the Plateau State governor, David Jonah Jang, who scored 16 votes in the May 24, 2013, election of the forum, saying the recognition accorded Jang by the presidency and the PDP could undermine the country’s democracy.