LAGOS — President Goodluck
Jonathan early Thursday,
directed the top hierarchy of the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to
reinvigorate the party
machinery towards meeting
fresh challenges arising from
the merger of the major
opposition political parties into
the fledgling All Progressive
Congress, APC.
The president’s directive was
conveyed at the national caucus
of the party which commenced
Wednesday night in the
presidential villa during which he
also mandated the party to
commence preparations to win
Anambra State in the
forthcoming gubernatorial
elections.
Also reflective of the
president’s ascendancy over the
party’s governors, it was also
resolved that the National
Executive Committee, NEC, of
the party should be summoned
within the next three weeks. The
NEC meeting has not been held
since July on account of palpable
fears by some in the national
leadership that the party’s
governors could force their
views on issues.
APC-PDP
The caucus meeting which was
attended by six governors
representative of the six
geopolitical zones, Vanguard
learnt, also discussed varying
strategies to combat other
issues confronting the party
including the poor state of the
party’s finances.
The national chairman of the
party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, it
was learnt, told the caucus that
the party was practically broke
and unable to meet its
obligations. Upon the assertion,
the president was reported to
have directed that strategies
should be employed to shore up
the finances, though with the
strict warning that nothing
should be done to compromise the
integrity of officials of
government.
“The president and those who
spoke said that in the light of
what happened after the second
republic when governors were
hounded for financial
impropriety because of the way
they financed their parties, it
was stressed that the governors
must be protected from such
temptations.”
The president it was learnt told
the party executives to put
machinery in place to be able to
confront the emerging challenge
from the APC, one source
present at the meeting said.
“Well it was not actually a wake
up call, but just a necessary
thing or something that is
expected of us,” another source
present at the meeting offered.
The president also at the
meeting directed that the party
must begin the process of
preparing for the elections in
Anambra State and it was
stressed that the will of the
people must be allowed to prevail.
As part of the strategies of
winning the state, it was learnt
that the preparations must
begin early enough to enable
hurt feelings from the primaries
to heal well ahead of the
election.
“The president was insistent
that the will of the people must
prevail,” a source disclosed.
One other source disclosed that
the party’s fund raising
committee headed by Vice-
president Namadi Sambo should
be further tasked with the duty
of exploring options for raising
funds for the party.
The decision to seek independent
ways of raising funds it was
understood could end up finally
taking the party away from the
influence of the governors who
until recently were allegedly
strong financial supporters of
the party.