Jonathan, PDP begin fresh truce meetings with aggrieved members

Indications have emerged that President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party are panic-stricken over the seeming growing acceptance of the All Progressives Congress and its candidates among Nigerians ahead of the forthcoming elections.

This, a party official told our correspondent on Tuesday, was the main reason behind the series of meetings that have been lined up by the party with a view to turning the tide.

The meetings, the official said, were apart from the many consultations that would still be done in all the parts of the country before the first round of elections slated for March 28.

“Since 1999 when democracy returned to the country, we have never had this kind of election that will task our leaders this much. The truth is that there is panic in our PDP camp. This is the first time a sitting President and party leaders will be meeting party candidates at all levels at the same time,” the official said after a meeting of the PDP Ward Volunteer Scheme held inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.

The meeting afforded Jonathan and the party leaders to meet states Houses of Assembly, National Assembly and governorship candidates of the PDP.

The candidates were warned at the meeting to stop individual campaigns but to ensure that while going about campaigning, they sell all candidates of the PDP at all levels.

The Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria that had produced massive campaign materials for Jonathan for the next and final stage of campaign made several units of the items available to volunteers who were expected to move to the grassroots to sell the President’s candidature.

The Director, Contact and Mobilisation, Presidential Campaign Organisation, Prof. Jerry Gana, made it clear at the well-attended meeting that they should not be afraid to campaign for Jonathan because he had performed well.

The Director-General of the PCO, Senator Ahmadu Ali, assured all party chiefs that those who work for Jonathan’s victory at the polls would be adequately rewarded in the coming dispensation.

Apparently referring to a recent statement by the party’s National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, that “monkey dey work, baboon dey chop” in the PDP, Ali declared that in the next dispensation, “monkey go work, monkey go chop.”

Jonathan himself said at the meeting that party members had not been marketing the PDP enough despite its achievements, saying that was why smaller parties with no achievements intimidated them.

Shortly after that parley, Jonathan also went into a marathon meeting with all the state governors elected on the party’s platform.

The meeting, which lasted over five hours, also dovetailed into a meeting with the party’s governorship candidates across the country.

The Vice President, Namadi Sambo; Mu’azu; and some top officials of the PCO also attended the meeting.

Jonathan had given an indication that he would hold a similar meeting with the party’s National Assembly candidates before the March 28 elections and meet with states Houses of Assembly candidates before the April 11 elections.

He said he would arrange the remaining meetings in a way that they would be held zone-by-zone because of the number of people expected to attend.

“All these meetings are aimed at reconciling and restrategising in order to increase the party’s electoral fortune ahead of the general elections,” the party official explained.

At the end of the Monday meeting, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State confirmed to journalists that the issue of the opposition was discussed at the parley.

He said Jonathan was asked to be ready to engage the APC in a presidential debate because “the more we speak to Nigerians and explain the policies and our intentions, the more Nigerians will understand us better.”

While confirming that the meeting was meant to take stock, the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum also confirmed that the meeting deliberated on the reconciliation of members who felt aggrieved after the party’s major primaries.