As the Senate sets to conclude the screening of the ministerial nominees tomorrow, Huhuonline.com gathered that governors of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Southeast felt disappointed over the non-inclusion of their ministerial nominees submitted to the president on the list sent to the Senate last week.
As part of their political deals with Buhari-led APC during the last presidential election, some Southeast governors – Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia); Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and David Umahi (Ebonyi) – were said to have submitted names to the president for consideration as ministers.
But a source in the presidency said the governors predicated their decisions on the need for the president to form a “government of national unity” taking into consideration the seeming rejection of the APC and President Buhari in the geo-political zone.
However, sensing the political implications of the PDP governors’ moves, some APC leaders, led by the former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu and APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, reportedly told the president that assenting to the PDP governors’ requests would undermine the ruling party in the Southeast.
“Few days before the release of the ministerial nominees by President Muhammadu Buhari, some PDP governors from the Southeast put so much pressure on the president to accept the names they submitted for ministerial appointment.
“But we told our leaders and the president that accepting the names would amount to finally killing our party in the Southeast geopolitical zone. It would have been impossible to rationalize the decision and explain to APC leaders in the zone, who took the risk of campaigning for us during the last general election.”
A senior official of PDP told Huhuonline.com that the party’s leadership was aware of the failed moves by the governors, but stated that their actions did not have the support of the party. “We are aware of the shameful act by some of South-east governors; but they are on their own. Our party is still in court contesting the fraudulent so-called victory of President Buhari and APC at the Presidential Election Tribunal. And we are sure of retrieving our victory,” the PDP chieftain, who pleaded anonymity stated.
The PDP bigwig spoke on how the same governors almost frustrated the PDP presidential campaign in the zone during the last general election. “You remember it took us time to fix the South-east presidential zonal rally; none of the South-east governors was ready to host the rally. For example, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State told us specifically he would not host.
“It was when they discovered that their people were hugely against their move to strike a deal with APC that they quickly made a U-turn, pretending to be supporting our candidate, Atiku Abubakar. They were not happy that Atiku Abubakar nominated Peter Obi as his running mate. And all efforts by our presidential candidate and the leaders of the party to pacify them failed,” the senior PDP member said.
Against the PDP governors’ plan, Buhari last week nominated Dr. Uchechukwu Ogah (Abia); Dr. Chris Ngige (Anambra); Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi); Dr. Geoffrey Oyeannma (Enugu) and Dr. Emeka Nwajuba (Imo) as ministerial nominees from the South-east.
