The meeting was originally scheduled
for today but the New Peoples Democratic Party, through its National
Publicity Secretary, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, announced in a statement last
week, that it had been cancelled because most of the seven aggrieved
governors were billed for the 2013 Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
He had said, “This decision was
taken during the Caucus Meeting of the New
PDP held at the Adamawa State
Government Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, during which it was discovered that the date
of the proposed peace meeting clashes with this year’s Hajj, in which several
of our key members are billed to participate.”
But in a statement in Abuja on
Sunday, Eze said the chairman of the New
PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, gave the directive that Amaechi,
Aliyu and Kwankwaso should officially notify the President of the need to shift
the meeting to a later date.
Eze said, “Alhaji Baraje, the national
chairman of the New PDP just called from Saudi Arabia around
9pm on October 6, 2013 to direct that the governors and stakeholders of
the (New) PDP
that include Rotimi Amaechi, Babangida Aliyu, Rabiu
Kwankwaso, who have yet to travel to Mecca should meet with the National Leader
of our party and President, Dr. Jonathan by 9am on October 7,
2013 to formally obtain permission from Mr. president to shift the
meeting date to a more convenient date when all our leaders may have come back
from Hajj.
“Shifting the meeting to morning
period is to allow the mentioned governors apart from Amaechi to travel to
Mecca later in the day (October 7) for the Haji operation.”
The statement explained that “this
step is born out of the plea by President Jonathan and
respect we have for his office.”
The other governors in the New
PDP are Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Sule Lamido(Jigawa), Abdulfatah Ahmed
(Kwara), and Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto).
Before Eze’s statement, there
had been indication that the Presidency was not formally informed
of the postponement of the truce meeting.
A Presidency source had
told journalists in Abuja on Sunday that the President was not aware of
the postponement and therefore would not act based on
newspaper reports.
He wondered why the aggrieved
governors who, he said, had access to the President chose to use a statement to
announce the postponement of the meeting.
The source said, “President Jonathan
is not a local government chairman and there are procedures for passing information
to the President. He was not contacted and the President is looking forward to
tomorrow’s(today) meeting.
“If the governors in question said
that they were proceeding on Hajj for their religious obligations, President
Jonathan is certainly not against such, but what is right is right. As far as
the President is concerned, he was not informed of the shift and he cannot act
on press statements carried by the media.
“Let it be said in clear terms
that President Jonathan is not and will never stand against the religious
obligation of any Nigerian, let alone the governors, whom he has great regards
for. But the right thing in protocol ought and should be done. For crying out
loud, Dr. Jonathan is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
Asked what the President would
do, the source said, “ Oga (Jonathan) is waiting for the meeting. Humility is
not an offence; that the President is humble is not a crime”.
However, Eze defended his statement
last week, saying he was asked to issue it after a meeting by the leaders of
the PDP faction at the Adamawa State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.
“I was asked to issue the
statement and I did as directed. I cannot say whether the governors got
in contact with President over the shift of the meeting or not,” he told one of
our correspondents in Abuja on Sunday.
When contacted, Special Adviser to
the President on Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak,said he was not aware
whether members of the New PDP informed the President formally that
they would not be able to attend the Monday peace meeting or not .
Gulak said he only read the position
of the PDP splinter group on the pages of newspapers.
“I am not aware whether the President
has been informed or not. I don’t know if they had communicated
with him on their position. I just read it on the pages of newspapers,”
he said.
The presidential aide said
that members of the group had not been sincere from the beginning.
He, however, said whenever they
were ready, the President would listen to them.
Gulak had said, “I don’t believe they
are sincere from the beginning. If you have followed the trend of events, you
will see that the President has been bending backward to accommodate everybody.
He is ready to go to any length to achieve peace. But it just appears that they
are not ready for peace.
“Immediately after the last meeting
was adjourned till October 7, they went to the National Assembly and you know
there was no need for that. It was a fundamental breach of the agreement
reached at that meeting, that all parties should refrain from further actions
until October 7.
“Nigerians now know that they are not
sincere. So whenever they are ready, I believe Mr. President will be
ready to listen to them once more.”
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