Northern Elements Agitate For PDP National Chairmanship

PHOTO: PDP WADATA PLAZA HEADQUARTERS, ABUJA.

ABUJA, May 16, (THEWILL) - The battle for political dominance in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have taken a new twist as some politicians from the north are now agitating for the position of the National Chairman of the party following the resignation of Chief Vincent Ogbulafor last week.

This is coming on the backdrop of insistence by some power brokers in the north that the region should provide the party chief since President Goodluck Jonathan is from the south-south zone.

The agitation is based on the zoning formula which provides that the position of the President and that of the Party Chairman should be alternated between the north and the south an arrangement.

This arrangement produced National Chairmen of the party from the north during the eight years tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and turned the other way to produce Ogbulafor from the South when late President Umaru Yar’Adua who is from the north took over in 2007.

Already some members of the PDP from the north are said to have been meeting to adopt a common position on the matter ahead of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party scheduled for Monday to decide on a new Chairman.

The northern elements who met in a hotel in Abuja are fine tuning strategies to checkmate moves by the party Executive Committee to kick start processes for the selection of a new National Chairman for the party likely from the south-east geo-political zone where the former party Chairman hails from.

Already some politicians from the south have started jostling for the position.

Some of them include former Imo State Military Administrator, Senator Ike Nwachukwu, former Senate President Pius Anyim, former Senate President Ken Nnamani and former Ebonyi State Governor, Sam Egwu among others.

It was gathered that the NEC is expected to consider the possibility of adopting one of them as National Chairman.

However sources hinted that the northern elements have decided to meet other top officials of the party Sunday night in an attempt to get the proposed NEC meeting shelved.

It was gathered that the northern elements see the clinching of the position as a major strategy to help the north strengthen its hold on the party and actualize the bid to produce the President in 2011.

The region is insisting that it has yet to complete its eight years tenure started by the late President.

A top PDP member from the zone who confirmed the move said the region presently does not have any particular candidate in mind but seeks to secure the slot first.

However it was learnt that a candidate is likely to emerge from the north-east or north-central since the position of the Vice President have been yielded to the north-west.