Indications emerged on Thursday that the North is divided over the adoption of a former Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki, SAN, as the consensus National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the party’s November 15 National Elective Convention fixed for Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. The position had been zoned to the North after the party ceded the presidential ticket for the 2027 poll to the South.
Leaders and stakeholders in the North, after a consultative meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday night, had agreed to the micro-zoning of the office to the North-West and also ‘unanimously’ endorsed the choice of Turaki as the consensus candidate.
Adamawa State Governor, Honourable Ahmadu Fintiri, a key stakeholder from the North, and Chairman of the Convention Organising Committee (NCOC), had announced the decision of the region after the meeting.
‘We have met this evening to deliberate and take a decision on the office of the chairman of our great party, the PDP, which was zoned to the North.
‘In our meeting, we have reflected deeply and widely through consultation and going to Ibadan for our national convention, we have adopted a consensus candidate to represent the North, and by extension, Nigeria, as the chairman of the PDP.
‘That gentleman is KT Turaki, SAN. This is our decision this evening, and he is the person we are presenting at that convention as our chairman to represent our party, on the 15th and 16th of November in Ibadan’, he announced to reporters at the venue of the meeting.
However, 24 hours later, some individuals from the North-West led by the outgoing National Organising Secretary, Honourable Umar Bature, kicked against Turaki’s choice, alleging that he was imposed on the zone without due consultations with party members from the geopolitical zone.
Bature specifically accused Fintiri of unilaterally picking Turaki, who is from Kebbi State, a decision he said should have been left to members from the North-West to make by themselves without interference from other geopolitical zones.
He claimed that a meeting the North-West called at the instance of the Governor of Zamfara State, Mr Dauda Lawal, was later postponed, adding that as a result, the zone never held any consultations on the choice of a candidate for national chairman.
Addressing a select group of reporters in Abuja, he said, ‘This meeting was at the instance of the Governor of Zamfara with a view to adopting a particular individual for the national chairmanship position zoned to the North-West.
‘A meeting was held yesterday with other leaders of the northern zones, and the name of an individual was reportedly adopted.
‘The North-West has not met to agree on that position. That’s why we came for this meeting, and unfortunately, that meeting again was postponed.
‘So, what we want to make clear to everybody is that this zone has not adopted anybody as a candidate from this zone for the Peoples Democratic Party.
‘There is a lot of resentment due to a lack of consultation among the leaders of this zone. We believe we are the strongest zone in the PDP, and the attitude of our leaders in this regard made us take this position that we disagree with the governor’s position of yesterday, and we are going to have our own candidate that we will nominate for that position.
‘North West is the zone to which the national chairmanship has been zoned.This position has been determined by other zones, and we feel it is unfair for other zones to determine a particular candidate when this zone has not been consulted. That’s why we are taking this position.’
He added that since Fintiri, who is from the North-East, had made a choice for the North-West, the other members in the zone had the right to also pick their own candidate.
‘We are all stakeholders here. We are all party chairmen. We are all members of the National Assembly. None of us was consulted. We were at the meeting when these positions were zoned to the North West.
‘So, if Governor Fintiri can adopt his own in the North-East, why can’t we, stakeholders of the North West, be allowed to sit down and adopt our own candidate? I present him to you’, he added.
Those sighted at the session with Bature were former governorship candidates of the party in Jigawa, Kaduna, and Katsina states, as well as some state chairmen and a former National Secretary, Ibrahim Tsauri.
Incidentally, Governor Lawal, whom the Bature claimed was part of those opposing the choice of Turaki, was listed among those who attended and signed the attendance sheet at Wednesday’s consensus meeting.
Among those who were listed to be part of the Fintiri meeting were the National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Damagum; the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed; Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Muftwang; Governor of Zamfara State, Dauda Lawal; Governor of Taraba State, Agbu Kefas; Secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Ahmed Makarfi; Minority Leader of the Senate, Abba Moro; and former President of the Senate, Olusola Saraki.
Also on the attendance list were Sule Lamido, Professor Jerry Gana, Senator Hassan Dankwambo, Ibrahim Shekarau, Mike Omeri, Humphrey Abba, and Mohammed Goronyo.
Investigations by Tribune Online indicated that Bature’s grouse might be linked to his being excluded from the opportunity of re-contesting his position or being part of the next National Working Committee (NWC), like some colleagues.
For instance, Damagum, who was the National Chairman (North) before he was elevated to acting chairman in 2022, is opting to retain that position at the Ibadan convention.
This development, it was learnt, did not go down well with Bature, especially since he would be completely eased out of the next NWC.