Former
president Olusegun Obasanjo has backed out of the move to end the raging
crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following the
failure of the presidency, the party leadership and the G-7 governors to
honour the truce terms reached by all the stakeholders.
Obasanjo and
other leaders had mobilised former PDP national chairmen including
Senator Barnabas Gemade, Senator Ahmadu Ali and the chairman, Board of
Trustees of the party, to wade in the feud between President Goodluck
Jonathan and the seven aggrieved governors caused by the alleged bid by
the president to seek a second term in 2015.
They met with the warring factions and appealed to them to sheathe their swords, an appeal the parties have failed to honour.
According to
sources close to the former leader, in the mediation effort, the
leaders told the presidency and the governors to allow the interest of
the party to prevail because “no sacrifice is too much for them to make
for peace to return to the party”. But none of the warring factions
shifted ground, a development that did not go down well with the party
elders.
In the
interim, the sources said Obasanjo had resolved to wait till the time
the feuding parties would come back to them in the interest of the PDP
and their personal ambition as 2015 draws closer.
An aide of
Obasanjo told LEADERSHIP Sunday : “From all indications, both the
presidency with the party leadership and the seven governors are not
ready and willing to embrace peace; they are poised to fight to the end
but this would never help the party. The party elders have done their
best by intervening in the dispute, but the two camps are not listening,
and so the likes of Obasanjo have given up, watching the shameful
scenario. It is a pity.”
He further
said: “In the rule of swimming, when you see a man drowning, those who
know how to swim would not jump into the river while the man still have
enough strength to swim into safety. This is because saving him at that
time might lead to the drowning of the two. He has to wait until the man
loses hope and surrenders to the torrent. Baba (Obasanjo) has done his
best; he called some elders of the party with a view to intervening, but
the two camps are not ready to listen to the voice of elders.”
The source
further disclosed that Obasanjo was unhappy with the dimension the
crisis had taken and “foresees a problem for the party in 2015”.
“From the
experience, Obasanjo moved in when he foresaw a bigger problem ahead. He
has met with the governors who are angry and those that are with
President Jonathan including the president himself, but neither of the
two camps took heed of the advice of the elders. Remember, I told you
that Obasanjo strongly believes some of presidential aides are fuelling
the crisis. He has urged them to refrain from the media war, that it
would not help. And for saying that, they began to accuse him of setting
the stage for the crisis.
“Then, when
the governors met with the president, the outcome was read by the
governor of Niger State (Babangida Aliyu) and another meeting was fixed
for October 7, but, shortly after the meeting, some aides to President
Jonathan began to disclose what was discussed and what was not. As a
response, the aggrieved camp shifted the battle to the National
Assembly. It seems some people are benefitting from the crisis and the
earlier the president and the PDP leadership is aware of this, the
better for our party,” the source said.
Leadership
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