A crisis is brewing in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and some governors under the platform of the party are set for a showdown with the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu.
Mu’azu, who became the national chairman less than three months ago, is having a running battle with his NWC members because of his leadership style, which was described as “complicated and inimical” to their personal and group interests.
Our investigation revealed that some NWC members are angry that Mu’azu’s style has alienated them and made them idle because he has not cultivated a harmonious working relationship with them.
The chairman, it was learnt, hardly goes to the office and has never allowed meetings of the NWC to hold for more than 30 minutes, “if at all he ever allowed one to hold.”
Financial matters are said to be at the root of the current problem in the PDP, with an allegation that Mu’azu has unilaterally been deciding how the finances of the ruling party should be dispensed without due consultation with the National Treasurer and Auditor.
An NWC member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged that Mu’azu took delivery of funds made available to the PDP from different sources and has not been carrying the party’s financial officers along on how such could be disbursed.
The chairman is also said to be uncomfortable any time the NWC members came close to him, giving fillip to the reason why it was felt he treats some of them with contempt.
It was also learnt that some PDP governors are angry with Mu’azu and are not in good terms with him, given his resolve to create a support base for himself from among his former colleagues when he served as governor.
A top PDP member disclosed that the PDP governors are dissatisfied that Mu’azu has started leaning towards his former colleagues from Kaduna (Senator Ahmed Makarfi), Jigawa (Ibrahim Saminu Turaki), Kebbi (Adamu Aliero), Rivers (Peter Odili), Enugu (Chimaroke Nnamani) and Abia (Orji Uzor Kalu) on party matters rather than continuing in consultation with them.
Mu’azu, a former governor of Bauchi state, was also said to have lately demonstrated preference for his colleagues on party matters by deploying Aliero and Odili to conduct the PDP primary elections which held recently in Osun and Ekiti states respectiveely.
He was also alleged to be invoking the wrath of some PDP members from the South-west, given his romance with Buruji Kashamu.
Other allegations said that the chairman has been standing in the way of free interactions by NWC members with state governors, even as it was gathered that he has not been taking kindly to an idea that NWC members would have the free will to visit the Presidential Villa under any guise in an effort to put them in check.
It would be recalled that it was leadership style that caused the party’s stakeholders to gang up against the then National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, which led to his removal.
