PDP Governors, Mu’azu Clash Over Senate Tickets

Vincent Ehiabhi,

State Governors elected under the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Thursday clashed with the National Chairman of the party over their Senatorial ambition ahead 2015 general election.
The Nation reports that the governors who would be completing their second tenure in May next year, and were already nursing senatorial ambition are reportedly mounting pressure on the party’s national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, to give senatorial tickets to their various zones.

PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu

It was gathered that a peace meeting between the governors and Mu’azu on Wednesday night over the matter ended in a deadlock as the governors had insisted on getting automatic tickets from their senatorial zones. A decision the PDP leadership strongly opposed as it would see present occupants of the seats out of contention.
The agitating governors said they deserved to be rewarded for initiating the idea of the automatic presidential ticket that was granted President Goodluck Jonathan by the party’s National Executive Committee in August.

The party’s chairman who was amazed with the governors demands, especially as they insisted on projecting their desired candidates as their successors in the coming elections, urged them to give the governorship tickets to the senators they intend to replace, a request that was said to have angered the governors.

A source at the meeting revealed that the chairman’s opined that the party needed the experience of its ranking senators in the next dispensation, for stability of the government, an opinion that still did not go well with the governors.
The source revealed that the party is expected to have an enlarged meeting with other prominent party chieftains at the weekend to find a lasting solution to the matter. It also revealed that immediately after the meeting with the party’s chairman, one of the governors reportedly from the South South states brought a senator from his zone to see the President Goodluck Jonathan.
It was gathered that the governor pleaded with the President to find something else for the senator, as he would be replacing him in 2015. The senator reportedly took exception as he was not initially hinted on the purpose of their visit to the President.
“The truth is that the pressure has always been there since the issue of the President’s endorsement was concluded at our last NEC meeting. It is now taking a very dangerous dimension because our desire is to strengthen our National Assembly, especially the Senate. We believe that the polity could benefit from their wealth of experience but the governors, with their desire to all go to the Senate, are constituting a big constraint on our desire for this. While we believe that the governors are our field commanders, we cannot say in the same breath that our senators are no more useful and should be discarded. So we have outlined some acceptable conditions that will guide both the governors and the senators, because there is no way the governors can have everything to themselves without consideration for others,” the source said.
However, some of the PDP governors with senatorial ambition comprised Sullivan Chime of Enugu; Martin Elechi of Ebonyi; Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta; Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom; Gabriel Suswam of Benue; Isa Yuguda of Bauchi; Jonah Jang of Plateau and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State.