…Call For His Resignation As Forum Chairman
The clamour for who flies the flag of their party might have pitched the Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against each other.
In the latest development, a crack has emerged among the governors with a camp including Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State demanding the resignation of Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as chairman of the PDP Governors Forum. The demand, it was gathered, was based on the insistence that he cannot be chairman of the influential Governors’ Forum and be a participant in the contest for the party’s presidential ticket, a report by Vanguard said.
While the governors remain united in removing the APC from the presidency, they are divided on strategy with zoning increasingly becoming an issue among some of the governors.
The division among them was sharpened earlier in the week with the announcement by Tambuwal, chairman of the PDP Governors Forum that he would be consulting on his 2023 presidential prospects.
That announcement, it was gathered, has ruffled some feathers and reportedly including Wike who have asked him to resign as the chairman of the Governors Forum.
“You cannot be chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and be part of the process that you will be expected to arbitrate,” Vanguard said, quoting a a source privy to the angst of the governors.
The Rivers Governor has been especially trenchant on the need for the presidential candidate to be picked from the Southern part of the country.
Tambuwal had on Monday announced his decision to initiate a nationwide consultation for the 2023 presidency.
His announcement was followed a day later by a terse rebuff by Wike who insisted that it was the turn of the South to produce the president of the country in 2023.
Without mentioning his onetime best friend, Tambuwal at a meeting with political stakeholders in Port-Harcourt last Tuesday, Wike had said:
“It’s not to come out to say you’re consulting. You’re consulting, yet, you’ve declared. Is it not after consultation that you declare. You’ve already declared and you say you’re consulting. What are you consulting again then.
“And people take the South for granted saying that they are not together. No problems. If we don’t know yesterday, today we know.”
Affirming the capacity of the Rivers State political machine and nay, the South to swing the pendulum, he added:
“When we come out, we will choke them. They know it. So, everybody should relax, let the south do their homework and then they’ll make a proper statement.”
