The Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayo Fayose and a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Bala Mohammed, have disagreed on the zoning of the office of the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Governor Fayose differed on the zoning arrangement for the next national chairman of the (PDP) in his speech when Alhaji Mohammed paid what appeared like a consultation visit on his ambition to become the PDP’s national chairman, to Ekiti State.
During the visit to the governor on Sunday, the ex-FCT minister, who was in Ekiti in company with Ambassador Liya Damagon and Ahmed Gulak, former Special Adviser on Political Matters to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, met with Governor Fayose behind closed doors.
After the meeting, Senator Mohammed said he was “just paying a private visit to the Ekiti State governor” and would not like to disclose the details of the meeting.
However, when asked if he was in Ekiti over his ambition to contest for the national chairman of the PDP, he said it was “no longer news” that he was contesting for the post but didn’t respond to further probing on whether he was actually consulting the Ekiti governor on the matter or not.
Governor Fayose, who later spoke with journalists shortly after the meeting, declared that the time was not right for the party to have a substantive chairman.
He contended that the present care-taker chairman, Mr Uche Secondus, should be allowed to pilot the affairs of the party for the next five months, to enable him conclude the on-going restructuring and reorganisation of the party.
Fayose said: “It is a normal thing to have ambition. It’s a good development but in my opinion, I think the party needs the caretaker committee now rather than a substantive chairman.
“Secondly, we need somebody who could take his time and use this interregnum and put the party into proper position. We do not need somebody who is trying to just finish the tenure of a former leader. The time we are now is quite challenging and it is not a time for someone to say he wants to just complete tenure.
“We should allow the caretaker committee to take over and put proper elections in place for new executives of the party.
“You would recall that I told Muazu he has to go and he’s gone now. This time we must entrust the party into the hands of credible people who would not use it to redeem their name or for personal gains. So, to me, there isn’t much that a substantive chairman can do in just five months now.
“And I advise that everyone should go back to their base and do the needful at the grassroots. You can even be a leader without followership.
“What I also wish to say again is that for me, it is the turn of the South-West to be the national chairman of the party.”
