By Olusegun Olanrewaju
For the embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Iyorchia Ayu, the bell is sounding loud on his tenure in office.
Calls for Ayu’s sacking have been on a high note since his role in the emergence of the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, got into the public domain.
Yesterday, the call resonated on a louder note when the South-West chapter of the PDP joined the push for Ayu’s resignation.
They expressed reservation that with the majority of the top party positions in the North, it might be difficult to woo the electorate in the south during the campaigns.
Of the 21-member Ayu-led national executive, northerners occupy nearly all the key posts, further compounding the woes of the national leader.
The PDP had always preached equity, federal character, and restructuring, but at the moment, its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Board of Trustees Chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, and National Chairman, Ayu, are all from the North.
Also, the party’s Chairman of the Governors Forum, Aminu Tambuwal, is from the North, while presidential campaign spokespersons, Dino Melaye and Daniel Bwala, are also from the North
There is a deputy national chairman (North), Umar Damagum, who may be favoured by the party’s constitution, should Ayu be fired, thus retaining the status quo of northern leadership.
A PDP stakeholder in Niger State, Isah Madu, said it would unfair for the party to go into the 2023 elections with its top positions occupied by northerners.
Madu said campaigning in the south for the election will be a herculean task.
“How can we campaign in the south when we have all the top positions in the party occupied by the north? With top positions in North, it’ll be difficult to campaign in the South. It is unfair and we think it is just right for Ayu to relinquish his position,” he said.
A former deputy national chairman of the PDP, Bode George, on Saturday, told one of the weekend titles of Punch newspaper that Ayu ‘must leave immediately in the spirit of fairness.
George said as a national leader, he was not just speaking on behalf of the South-West, but there was a need for the region to be given a sense of belonging as all the key positions in the party were being occupied by northerners.
“Ayu needs to resign as chairman immediately while the South-West gets the position in the spirit of fairness. I cannot campaign for the party in the South-West in an atmosphere where there is no fairness. What will I tell our people?” George, who was the Director-General (DG) of the PDP presidential campaign in 2007, said.
He argued that refusing to consider Nigeria’s diversity would make the PDP no better than the APC, which is pushing a Muslim/Muslim ticket.
According to the South-West leader of the party, “NEC can appoint an acting chairman from the South-West to give the region a sense of belonging. Ayu promised to leave office once the PDP produces a northern presidential candidate. For the sake of fairness, he needs to step down immediately.
He added, “The PDP as presently constituted does not reflect Nigeria’s diversity. The north produced the presidential candidate, the national chairman, and the BoT chairman, and they want the south to accept this. Would the north have accepted this if it was the other way around?” he asked.
Recently, the Kano State chapter of the PDP called for the resignation of Ayu based on equity.
The state chairman of the party, Shehu Sagagi, at a press conference recalled how Ayu made a promise in Bauchi State to resign his position should the presidential candidate of the party emerge from the North.
He said since the party now has a presidential candidate from the North in the person of Atiku, Ayu should honour his words by resigning from office.
In addition to the above calls, there have also been consistent demands from the camp of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, for Ayu to resign as the party’s chairman.
Wike, who was outsmarted from clinching the PDP presidential ticket last minute at the national convention of PDP that threw up Atiku, has since given conditions to the party before reconciliation could be achieved.
He is still said to be aggrieved over Atiku’s refusal to pick him as a running mate, and one of his demands before the reconciliation process gets headway is that the national chair, Ayu must resign.
Though the Wike and Atiku camps have begun meeting to ensure that a compromise is reached before the commencement of campaigns next month, the South-West chapter of the party is not comfortable with the Ayu leadership.
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Meanwhile, speaking at a meeting of the National Working Committee with former national publicity secretaries, zonal, states publicity secretaries, and other stakeholders at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, Ayu said all efforts and resources would rather be channelled toward peace and unity, instead of punishing people.
He was responding to calls by some former national officers who called for Governor Wike to be sanctioned. They argued that refusal to do this would breed indiscipline in the party.
A source at the meeting said, “After the meeting went into a closed-door session, some of the former officers called for sanction to be imposed on Wike because of his utterances. They said he didn’t respect the party’s leadership and its presidential candidate, among other things.
They even accused the National Publicity Secretary (Debo Ologunagba) of not doing enough to address the issues in his interviews and press releases, but Ayu told them to be patient. The chairman said this is not the time to discipline, expel or quarrel with anyone. Rather, he said this is the time to build, unite and tolerate one another.
“He said he could feel the pulse of those agitating for discipline to be meted out to the governor, but insisted that Wike is a formidable member of the party. He appealed to them to be patient and that the governor would support Atiku and the party.”
In the communiqué released after the meeting by Ologunagba, he said after “a very comprehensive session, the meeting of former and serving spokespersons for the party restated confidence in Ayu and the NWC in running the affairs of the party.”
He noted that the meeting restated “confidence in the capacity, experience, and competence of Atiku to rescue, redirect and rebuild this country to meet the aspirations of Nigerians and earn the respect of the international community.”
Meanwhile, Atiku and Wike met last week at the residence of the former Minister of Information, Prof Jerry Gana, to find a solution to the festering misunderstanding.
After the meeting facilitated by Gana, the two leaders agreed to set a committee within 48 hours that will draw up a framework for reconciliation of their differences.
Atiku and Wike agreed to nominate seven persons each for the committee, which will look at all the issues raised by the Rivers State governor’s group and advise the two leaders on how to address them.
Wike’s camp issued the PDP a precondition for negotiation with Atiku over their roles in his campaign
A party leader confided that the crisis in the party has been delaying Atiku’s composition of his campaign organisation.
This was why, sources said, at the Abuja meeting, some groups insisted that Ayu must step down to allow another person from southern Nigeria to take his place.
The leaders said this would be their precondition for any meeting with Atiku over their roles in his campaigns for the 2023 election.
However, a member of the National Working Committee who wished to remain anonymous said removing Ayu now would be too risky.
The official, who sought anonymity, said the call for Ayu’s sack may not hit the target because the PDP constitution states that whenever a national officer of the party resigns, he must be replaced by someone from his region.
