President, G7 Governors in Make or Mar Meeting Today

 President Goodluck Jonathan  

•President’s 2015 candidature, Tukur’s fate on the agenda
Chuks Okocha   
               
President Goodluck Jonathan and the Group of Seven Governors who broke away from the Peoples Democratic Party to form a splinter group will today in Abuja go into another round of meeting, which sources said would be crucial.
The meeting will attempt to resolve the two knotty issues deferred at last Tuesday's meeting for discussion today: Jonathan’s candidature in the 2015 election and the fate of PDP National Chairman Bamanga Tukur.
Seven issues were discussed by President Jonathan and the G7 governors represented by Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto).
Ahead of the meeting, the National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, who is expected to be at the talks today, had gone round meeting the dissenting governors in a new rapprochement to soften the ground for the crucial meeting.
The Chairman of PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, who was at last Tuesday's talks with Governors Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Liyel Imoke (Cross Rivers) and Captain Idris Wada (Kogi) in company with the President, is also expected to attend the meeting.
But between Tuesday and now, there have been two major developments, which may rub off on today’s talks.
The President had on Wednesday dropped nine ministers from his cabinet in a political move aimed at paving the way for loyalists who would help him secure victory in the 2015 election.
A day later, Amaechi, one of the G7 governors, was barred from accessing the Government House, Port Harcourt, by policemen who barricaded the entrance after the closure of the new office of the Rivers State chapter of the New PDP, the splinter group of the dissenting governors.
The removal of the nine ministers may, however, create an opportunity to accommodate and redress some of the grievances of the dissenting governors.
For instance Kwankwaso had always complained that he was never consulted in all the key appointments from Kano State by the President including that of the Chairman of National Planning Commission, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, one of the nine ministers removed last Wednesday.
Some of the other ministers removed were either nominated by some of the aggrieved governors or some other forces believed to be opposed to the President’s 2015 ambition.
The removed Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufa’i, was nominated by Lamido while former Foreign Affairs Minister Olugbenga Ashiru was nominated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Sources said the reconciliation between the President and the G7 governors needed to be concluded quickly before the National Assembly resumes as if not done before then the New PDP and their allies in the parliament may up the ante when they resume.
The two chambers of the National Assembly resume on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, as the president meets the G.7 Governors today in continuation of the peace talks aimed at reuniting PDP, a governor from the North-west has told THISDAY that the idea of discussing with the aggrieved governors on an individual basis is an attempt to divide them.
He said, “The problem we are having should not be seen and treated as an individual affair. The problem in the states and the national leadership of the party is not to be seen as an individual thing. We have made our complaints, it is expected that such complaints should be seen and treated as a national issue and not peculiar to us on individual basis.”
Already, the chairman of the New PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, has listed the demands of the group to include the sack of PDP National Chairman Bamanga Tukur; return of party structures to governors in Adamawa, Rivers, Kano, and other states; agreement by Jonathan not to seek re-election in 2015; resolution of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Rivers State crises, including the lifting of Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s suspension, and discontinuation of the “harassment” of perceived unfriendly governors by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.