Marginalisation: S/West PDP leaders to meet Jonathan next week

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As ACN accuses PDP of playing ethnic card…

ABUJA—Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from the South West Zone of the country have resolved to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan next week over perceived gross marginalisation of the zone in appointments and political recognitions.

This came as Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is exposing its own folly by blaming the glaring marginalisation of the Yoruba by the Jonathan Administration on ACN, saying, “PDP has nothing but total contempt for the Yoruba in particular and Nigerians in general.”

Rising from a meeting of the leaders of the PDP in the zone convened by the Board of Trustees,  South West in collaboration with the zonal leadership of the PDP, Abuja, they expressed deep concern over perceived marginalisation of the zone in national affairs and leadership positions.

According to the party leaders in a communiqué by two former Deputy National Chairmen and members of the Board of Trustees, BoT of PDP, Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun and Chief Olabode George at the end of the meeting, they argued that the neglect of the zone was uncalled for despite being the first zone to adopt President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2011 presidential election, adding that the meeting with President Jonathan would help redeem this deplorable situation.

The communiqué read, “the meeting which had in attendance delegates from each state of the South West – Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ogun, Lagos, also had in attendance former governors, National Assembly members, ministers and party elders. a state by state discussion of the conflicts in the zone, the party leadership resolved as follows: The meeting underscored that lack of unity among the party leaders in each state has led to attrition and confusion of party members in the zone, there is the need for reconciliation in the party as a platform to reposition the party.

“The meeting was acknowledged as the beginning of a serious and sustained effort at total reconciliation of all disaffected groups in the Party across the South West zone.

ACN accuses PDP of playing ethnic card
However, reacting to the allegation by Dr Doyin Okupe that the ‘’Yoruba people in the ACN conspired against the Yoruba’’ to scuttle the election of a Yoruba as House Speaker, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in a statement yesterday, that ACN was not bound by the shifty and phoney zoning formula of the PDP.

According to ACN: ‘’If the PDP had indeed wanted a Yoruba as speaker, the party should either have won enough seats in the South-West or used its majority in the House to push through its anointed candidate.

“Failure to ensure the election of its candidate is a reflection of the insincerity of the PDP about the zoning of the post to Yoruba and the gross indiscipline in the party of tattered umbrella.

“In any case, the last option open to the PDP would have been to support any other Yoruba for the post across party lines. We the ACN have very capable members in the House to serve as Speaker. But the truth is that the ruling party wants a PDP member, not a Yoruba, for the post.

‘’Therefore we are not surprised that the PDP easily acquiesced to the defeat of its Yoruba candidate for the post of Speaker of the House. The PDP zoning formula is pivoted on convenience rather than principle,

“After all, the zoning was easily jettisoned to pave the way for Jonathan to  contest as President. Even if the PDP had not succeeded in giving the post of House Speaker to Yoruba in accordance with its so-called zoning formula, it could have rewarded them with known choice ministries or other top appointments, instead of totally relegating a whole people into irrelevance in its scheme of things.”

ACN, therefore accused PDP of playing the ethnic card, and rejected the “cheeky and devilish move by the PDP to pigeon-hole the ACN into an ethnic cocoon.

‘We are a national party and our spread attests to it. We have shown by supporting the election of Aminu Tambwal as Speaker of the House that our agenda is not sectional but national, and we have no apologies to offer for that. ‘Let the PDP continue to wallow in insufferable arrogance and disdain for the electorate, by sharing posts before elections are concluded. It is like sharing the parts of an animal that has yet to be killed. This is the stuff of which the PDP is made, and that is why it is crumbling now like a pack of cards.’’