Crisis Deepens Over Consensus PDP Chairman As N’ West Leaders Back Lamido

…Why Govs Picked Turaki

The crisis over the choice of Mr Tanimu Turaki, SAN, as consensus candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman appears to be deepening.

Leaders of the party in the North West are challenging the decision of the Governors to “impose” Turaki as consensus chairmanship candidate.

According to them, the former Special Duties Minister was not the popular choice of key PDP stakeholders in the zone.

Rather, the leaders are pushing for a former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido as national chairman.

The PDP governors and other stakeholders had, after a marathon meeting on Wednesday night, announced Turaki as consensus candidate for national chairman.

The nomination is coming ahead of the November 15-16 PDP nation convention slated for Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

With the governors arrangement, delegates at the convention would be made to ratify Turaki’s candidature with affirmative vote at the convention.

Turaki is from Kebbi State, in the North West geopolitical zone, to which the chairmanship seat has been micro zoned.

To compound matters for Turaki, the Kebbi State chapter of the PDP has also kicked against his nomination.

Speaking on behalf of the leaders in the chapter, the State PDP Publicity Secretary, Sani Dododo, said the governors did not consult the leaders of the state chapter before settling for Turaki.

Dododo, who spoke after a meeting of the PDP state leadership, said the former minister has never identified with any of the party’s activities in the state.

The chairmanship seat is being contested for by two other aspirants from the North West —former governors Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna) and Sule Lamido (Jigawa).

And while the Lamido camp is unrelenting in the call for a reversal of the PDP governors’ decision, the Makarfi camp has been quiet.

The argument of those backing Lamido for the chair, mainly conservative older members of the party in the North West, is that the PDP needed a strong and experienced leader like Lamido at this critical and uncertain period.

They argued further that as one of the foundation members of the PDP, Lamido is one of the few chieftains who have remained with the party “through thick and thin” since its formation in 1998.

Those supporting Makarfi’s aspiration, point to the stabilising roles he played during the turbulent days of Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff as national chairman.

Makarfi acted as PDP’s Interim National Chairman and fought his way through the Sheriff-instigated leadership crisis that lasted for 16 months.

It took the commitment and calm doggedness of the former Kaduna State governor to wrest the leadership of the PDP from Sheriff’s suffocating grip.

His supporters recalled that he delivered on the assignment without blemish, and piloted the affairs of the PDP towards a successful convention in 2017, following which he handed over to Prince Uche Secondus who was elected chairman in December 2017.

THE WHISTLER, however, gathered that the governors and other stakeholders considered several factors before picking Turaki over Makarfi and Lamido.

A highly placed party source, who spoke with our correspondent in confidence on Sunday, said the choice of Turaki was informed by what the governors considered his “temperate disposition.”

Turaki, who served as cabinet minister in the Goodluck Jonathan administration, was rated as the most “flexible” and “amenable” of the three aspirants.

“You know that the governors, more or less, are the owners of the party. With the benefit of hindsight, they are being cautious not to repeat the experience the PDP had under Dr Iyorchia Ayu’s leadership.

“Recall that as chairman, Ayu was at loggerheads with some PDP governors and were working at cross purposes in the build up to the 2023 general election.

“The fallout of that unresolved disagreement was one of the major reasons the PDP lost the 2023 presidential election.”

The PDP Governors however, appear not to be willing to shift grounds on Turaki’s nomination.

While reacting to the mounting opposition to the choice, the Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, said such said disagreements are normal in any democratic setting.

In a chat with journalists in Abuja at the weekend, Lawal said some people would still be aggrieved if the governors had chosen a different person.

Lawal said, “No matter what we do, some people will still be aggrieved. Even if we bring you, some people will say no, you have an issue. It is normal. It is part of politics. What we are doing is try and bring everybody together in the interest of this party.

“It is an ongoing process and I can assure that things will be okay. But it is normal to have agitation. You can see we have got through a lot in the past and now, things are getting better, day by day. I am very sure, very optimistic that we will bounce back. In fact we are already bouncing back.

“In the constitution of our party, there is a provision for consensus. So there is nothing new. It is okay. It is normal. It is part of our constitution in PDP.”

The Zamfara governor sounded optimistic about amicable resolution of the controversy the nomination has generated.

“Well, I don’t think that should be something we should be concerned about, because in politics, it’s about give and take. No matter who is selected, there will always be agitation from the other members.

“So it’s normal, it is something that is internal. And we are working on making sure everybody is on board so that we can have a very, very successful convension.

“We have just started, and I am sure there will not be any major issue. There may be issue, but there will be no major issue. And we will have a very successful convention in November, by the grace of Allah,” he said.