PDP crises: Senators’ face-off with Jonathan deepens

•Mu’azu with mic flanked by President Goodluck Jonathan (right) and PDP National Secretary Prof Wale Ladipo

The face-off between the Peoples Democratic (PDP) senators and President Goodluck Jonathan over the ward congresses of the party deepened yesterday.

Seething with anger, the majority PDP Senators forced the adjournment of plenary till next Tuesday.

On Tuesday, after returning from recess, the senators adjourned without doing any legislative work in plenary till yesterday, only to adjourn again.

But the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) senators kicked, describing the sudden adjournment as “selfish and uncalled for”.

Signs that the Senate might be adjourned as threatened by PDP senators on Tuesday emerged early yesterday when some of them were seen holding group meetings.

Senate President David Mark, who presided, merely read a prepared address on his intention to intervene in the crisis rocking the House of Representatives over the adjournment of the lower chamber for about one month.

After the short address, Mark informed the senators that a meeting of the PDP Caucus in the Senate would hold immediately.

Thereafter, he signaled to Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba to move for adjournment.

The Senate Leader promptly complied and moved that the 12 items on the Order Paper be stood down till another legislative day.

The PDP senators moved to Room 1 venue of the closed- door meeting.

After the over one hour meeting, the Senators made no comments. Ndoma-Egba told reporters that the parley was a continuation of the one they held on Tuesday over the party’s ward congresses.

He said: “I am sure that you are aware that the PDP caucus met yesterday (Tuesday) and today (Wednesday) on fundamental issues affecting democracy in Nigeria, arising from the ward congresses of our party last Saturday.

“The issue needed to be addressed very urgently by relevant PDP stakeholders in the interest of our democracy.”

A Senator who attended the meeting said part of their resolution was to meet with President Jonathan, PDP Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu and members of the party’s National Working Committee. That meeting was slated for last night.

He said the parley was scheduled for the Presidential Villa on the assumption that the President would return from his trip to Burkina Faso.

He said the senators were insisting on the cancellation of congresses where they were allegedly schemed out.

Another senator, who also attended the meeting said: “It is not a hidden fact. The meeting is in furtherance of the protest of senators against the violation of the processes of the ward congress.

‘Senators are endangered, we are trying to see how to save the day. How far we can go, I can’t tell.”

According to him, “it is obvious that the governors control the party structures at the state levels”.

“It is also not in doubt that President Jonathan needs the governors more than the senators to win the 2015 election,” he said, adding:

“So, no man can give what he does not have. Every politics is local. The governors have the state party structure; they call the shot at the state level.”

APC Senator Babafemi Ojudu decried what he called the self-centeredness of PDP senators.

Ojudu, who represents Ekiti Central Senatorial District, said PDP senators should not prevent them from performing their constitutional duty.

Ojudu noted that if opposition senators had their way, they would continue to sit.

He said: “The Peoples Democratic Party senators are now victims of their party’s impunity in a democracy; now they are complaining. We have suffered PDP impunity for three years.

“If we have our way, we will come here tomorrow and sit. It is not about personal interest it should be about our people.

“Now they have seen injustice; they are fighting. We have seen injustice for more than two and half years.

“We wanted to fight, our colleagues did not allow us to fight.  Why must it be that it is when it affects us that we act? People should have standards. Now that they have seen that a lot of them are no longer welcome back in their homes, now that they have realised that they have made themselves slaves to the executive, they are shouting.

“When you present yourself as a slave, definitely, you will be treated as a slave. That is the consequence of their actions over the years.  But Nigerians voted for them to come here and work. We must work.

“Unfortunately, under the rules, we cannot work. That is why the opposition senators were busy shouting, “nay, nay, nay” when the motion for adjournment was moved by the Senate Leader.

“If we are working for Nigeria, we should be seen to be doing so. Now that the PDP senators have problems with their party, the president and governors, they are not allowing us to work.

“We really want to work but the system does not allow us.

“It is unfortunate that the 2015 budget will be affected but we are in the minority, we will have our say but they will have their way.

“We are going to call a meeting of our party caucus and we are going to discuss this. We even expected that they will call us to an executive meeting and then we discuss this matter.

“They don’t have to come in and adjourn like that. Some of us came from our constituencies in far away places so that we could sit for this week.  But here we are, we are not allowed to sit.

“At the moment, Mubi has been taken over by insurgents. This is the time when all of us should guard our loins and fight on behalf of our compatriots who are being displaced.

“Go and look at the photographs of people who are running away from their homes. If you had lived in a place for about 20 to 30 years and you have to carry a small bag and run away from there, do you know how traumatic that can be? Instead of thinking of ourselves alone, we should be thinking of those people.”

A PDP Senator who does not want his name in print described the action of his colleagues as “absolute mark of insensitivity, especially when Boko Haram has overrun a greater part of the Northeast.”

Mark, who read a short speech to senators before adjournment, said it would be inconceivable for him to fold his arms or pretend that all is well.

The Senate President, who is also Chairman of the National Assembly, was referring to the crisis of confidence rocking the House of Representatives following the defection of Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal from the PDP to the APC.

Mark said: “We are not to interfere in the internal affairs of each House. However, as Chairman of the National Assembly, I cannot fold my arms or pretend that all is well in the current crisis.

“Furthermore, the matter is already in a court of law, we cannot, therefore, discuss the issue in this chamber. I am, therefore, going to do all I can to resolve the current impasse.

“Furthermore, the matter is already in a court of law; we cannot, therefore, discuss the issues here.

“I want to assure all of you that I will do the needful to protect and defend the legislature at all cost.”