President Goodluck Jonathan and Peoples Democratic Party are heading for a showdown over who becomes the partys next national chairman.THE PUNCHlearnt that the governors had already reached an agreement to oppose any aspirant that enjoys the backing of the President for the post.A senior official of the party, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said the governors were upset that Jonathan ignored their plea for the Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, to be allowed to participate in the PDP governorship primaries on November 19.Since the President ignored the governors pleas for Sylva, they (governors) have ceased to trust the President and they do not want to allow him to solely choose the chairman of the party. It will be too dangerous for Jonathan to be totally in charge, the PDP official told our correspondent on Wednesday.It was gathered that the governors, who are yet to pick their candidate for the position, were waiting for the President to unveil his candidate first.The PDP official said the governors would meet to decide on whom to support against the Presidents candidate at the partys convention, which is slated for February 2012.The candidates aspiring to lead the party are Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Dr. Musa Babayo, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, Ambassador Idris Waziri, Prof. Rufai Alkali, Alhaji Shetima Mustapha, Alhaji Gambo Lawan, Prof. Jubirl Aminu and Adamu Muazu.A handful of the aspirants have also met with the governors and members of the National Assembly to canvass their support.However, a source close to the governors said they had resisted giving their commitment to any of the aspirants.Rather, they encouraged the aspirants to continue with their campaign, with the hope of gaining support from other stakeholders.A governor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said since he and his colleagues would be the ones to bring delegates to the convention, they would not have problem in telling them who to vote for.He said, We did it for the President when he was looking for the presidential ticket of our party. We are going to do it again when it comes to who will lead the party in February.The chairmanship of the party is very important to us and we will not allow anyone to foist somebody we cannot trust.The source said with the way the President colluded with the present leadership of the party to deny Sylva a second term ticket, it would be difficult for them to allow him to single handedly pick the partys chairman.Though as a party leader his input is important, we will not allow him to impose a candidate on us, the source added.Meanwhile, the present members of the National Working Committee of the PDP are said to have commenced moves to alter the zoning formula of the party.At some of their meetings, some members were said to have argued that since they had been having good working relationship with the President, they could convince him to retain the present team.But a chairmanship aspirant said there was no way such idea would be accepted by the partys stakeholders.He said the zoning formula released by the party was the reason all the chairmanship aspirants were from the North-East.The aspirant argued that the North-Central, where the present Acting National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, hails from, already occupies the office of the President of the Senate.The party zoned the office of the chairman to the North-East, while the South-South was to produce the deputy national chairman.The office of the National Secretary is zoned to the South-West; National Treasurer and National Organising Secretary, North-West; while the offices of the National Legal Adviser and the Youth Leader are zoned to the North-Central.The National Caucus of the party had met on July 25 in Abuja where the decision was taken. The meeting was attended by both Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo, and meeting was presided over by Baraje.Meanwhile, the National Executive Committee of the PDP is billed to meet in Abuja on Thursday (today).Issues expected to be discussed at the meeting include the final ratification of the zoning of national offices.It was gathered that the governors might decide to raise Sylvas issue at the meeting, but an NWC member said they (governors) would be told that the matter was already before the court.
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