Governors’ Meeting with Jonathan Stalled, May Resume on Tuesday

A meeting at the high level on August 31, 2013, Saturday, to broker peace between embattled President Goodluck Jonathan and a splinter group of governors of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) has been stalled.

President Jonathan had initiated the meeting after several simmering disputes within the PDP boiled over, creating a schism in the party. At the party's mini-convention at the Eagle Square in Abuja last week, former Vice President Abubakar Atiku walked off the venue with a group of eight governors. After storming out of the convention, members of the Atiku group converged at the Musa Yar'Adua Convention Center in Abuja where they announced the formation of a "New PDP." The group elected its own set of national officers and read a litany of grievances against Mr. Jonathan and the Bamanga Tukur-led faction of the party.

According to insider PDP sources, President Jonathan, who was caught shaking his head and dozing off at the venue of the convention, was badly shaken by the emergence of two factions within the party.

Nevertheless, the Saturday's peace meeting did little to narrow the gulf between the two factions.

A source at the Presidency blamed the lack of progress on the fact that only 16 governors bothered to attend.

"We heard that some of the governors practically rushed out of Abuja to avoid meeting with Mr. President," the source revealed.

"It is serious that the president summoned PDP state governors to attend a meeting to seek [a] solution to issues that divide us as a party and only 16 of them showed up at the meeting," a top aide to President Jonathan said in a private talk. He added that four of the governors in attendance were part of the group that staged a walk-out at the mini-convention.

President Jonathan, reportedly, pleaded with the governors at the deadlocked peace meeting to "sheathe their swords and allow a bigger forum of PDP governors to discuss their grievances."

Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano had been mandated to convey group's two conditions to the President:

"We are demanding that he should renounce his intention to run in 2015 as a presidential candidate on the platform of the PDP and secondly to allow a fresh, all-inclusive convention of the party as soon as possible."

Finally, the decision to resume the peace meeting on September 3, 2013, Tuesday, has been made. The pause should enable all parties to "consult with their groups and harmonize their positions."

sahara reporters