By Abiola Olawale
The North Central Caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has begun consultations among party leaders to retain the National Chairmanship slot of the party, to see out the truncated tenure of Dr. Iyiorchia Ayu.
This is as former Senate President Bukola Saraki who is from Kwara State and Senator Gabriel Suswam who is from Benue State have emerged as the front-runners for the national chairmanship position of the PDP.
It was gathered that the North Central Caucus of the party had a crucial meeting that included party executives from across the six states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
An insider source said during the meeting, the stakeholders agreed that the North Central should serve out what is left of Ayu’s term while Damagum whom most of them agreed, “has done well in acting capacity,” should revert to his original position as Deputy National Chairman.
According to the source, many stakeholders in the North Central caucus of the PDP believe the decision of the party to zone the National Chairman post to the region is still intact as Ayu has not yet completed his four-year tenure.
The source also explained that Governor Caleb Muftwang of Plateau State is expected to convene a meeting of the Zonal Caucus to put final touches to the strategy on how this can be achieved, ahead of the party’s National Caucus/ National Executive Committee meetings scheduled to hold on April 17th and 18th, 2024.
The source said: “With the litigation over the 2023 elections now over, we expect the party leadership to do the needful to reposition our party for better performance.
“Ayu’s time as Chairman has effectively ended and we in the North Central have put our heads together and agreed that his replacement should come from among us because the position which was zoned to us in 2023 still subsists. The constitution of our great party makes it so.
“We have been holding meetings on this issue. If you will recall, our State Chairmen met here in Abuja, after a meeting with the NWC last Wednesday.”
“When asked about names being considered for the job, the source said, “We are still consulting but I assure you they are people whose names and pedigree are known nationwide.
“Sooner than later His Excellency, the Plateau State Governor, Caleb Muftwang will convene a meeting where final decisions will be taken.
“As party members, we are grateful to Amb. Damagum and his team in the NWC for their good work so far. We ask that our zoning arrangement as contained in our constitution be respected so that Ayu’s replacement should come from his zone.”
The New Diplomat reports that the PDP chairmanship position was zoned to the North Central ahead of the 2023 general election and Ayu emerged unopposed.
Ayu was chosen to replace Prince Uche Secondus who was shoved aside in a power play orchestrated by his erstwhile political benefactor, Nyesom Wike.
Ayu suffered a similar fate when he fell out with the Wike-led Group of five PDP Governors popularly called G-5 a direct fallout of the party’s presidential primary election which former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar won.
Following a series of litigations that dogged Ayu’s final days in office, the Deputy National Chairman (North), Amb. Illiya Damagum, who hails from Yobe State in the North East, was elevated to act as National Chairman.
He has been acting in that capacity since March 28, 2023.
The New Diplomat also reports that the position of the National Chairman of the PDP has always been a hot seat. Except Ahmadu Ali who completed his four-year tenure in 2008, no other chairman, including the first, Solomon Lar, has seen out their term. The others are Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Vincent Ogubulafor, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Bamanga Tukur, Secondus and now Ayu.
Secondus, who was suspended five months to the end of his four-year tenure, is the longest-serving, behind only Ali. Ogbeh and Tukur held the seat for three years while the others did two years or less before being forced to resign.
