The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday denied that its National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu was planning to resign over a political squabble he had with President Goodluck Jonathan, his wife, Dame Patience, and some members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO).
Though the party had maintained that the working relationship between Mu’azu and the President was intact, Huhuonline.com can confirm that Mu’azu had complained about the campaign of calumny carried on by members of the PDP against Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate.
Sources at the PDP headquarters have confirmed that he had categorically complained about Femi Fani-Kayode, the spokesman of the campaign organisation, Dame Patience Jonathan, who not only insulted Buhari, but extended it to other northerners when she said people in the area give birth to a number of children they are unable to care for. He also complained of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State.
The PDP had on several occasions denied that Fayose was pursuing the party’s course each time the governor made disparaging statements about Buhari.
The source, an aide to the PDP National Chairman, told Huhuonline.com that the chairman was not finding it easy, as it seems all his efforts to bring the party together to earn the goodwill of Nigerians, especially of the northern extraction, were being thwarted by statements from some party members.
“My boss has faced embarrassments from some people in the north including those who are even apolitical and this is not too good,” the source said.
“We don’t know if he is planning to resign. The decision is actually his to take, but we are hoping that the party understands his travails.”
A member of the APC also told Huhuonline.com in Lagos on Thursday that the party was anxiously waiting to welcome Mu’azu if he eventually decided to resign from the party.
“You know what his resignation would mean for us at this point,” he said.
Meanwhile PDP has said that its campaigns are on course, reassuring its supporters that it is already winning the 2015 general elections, following the soaring nationwide acceptability of President Goodluck Jonathan and its other candidates ahead of the polls.
On Thursday, the PDP said it was still going on with its campaign and even assured of winning the 28th March presidential election and other elections in the country.
The party, which thanked its members and supporters who showed concerns over the alleged crisis, said Mu’azu’s purported resignation was a mere rumour.
The party however charged the supporters to remain focused on the campaigns and not to be distracted, especially as such is not unusual in an election year.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh in a statement said the party is very impressed with the quality of leadership President Jonathan is providing in the campaigns, which runs on his enviable performance and numerous verifiable achievements in all sectors of the economy.
“President Goodluck Jonathan has left no one in doubt that he is a national leader and one of the greatest bastions of Nigeria’s unity.
“He has remained committed to the stability and progress of our great country, a stance, which has continued to endear him to the electorates. Indeed, the PDP is very proud of him and his leadership,” the statement said.
The PDP said the achievements of the Jonathan-led administration have touched various sectors of the economy, positively impacting on the lives of all cadres of Nigerians across the zones and amongst all tribes, irrespective of class, creed and gender, pointing out that this is one of the major factors that stabilised the polity in the face of daunting challenges.
The party therefore urged Nigerians to be unrelenting in their support for President Jonathan’s re-election bid so as to move the nation to the next level of development with the consolidation of the gains already achieved through the Transformation Agenda of the current administration.
“Our focus is on a new era of prosperity driven by the fruition of our people oriented policies and programmes, with a dynamic economy where market forces are combined with the forces of partnership, solidarity and cooperation for the benefit of all Nigerians,” the party said.
The party therefore charged its members to close ranks and redouble their efforts to ensure the overall success of the campaigns especially seeing that Nigerians are solidly behind the party.
