GEJ’s Chairmen

                      WITH the resignation of the embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the curtain has fallen on the tenure of Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu as the party’s leader.
The clamour for Mu’azu’s exit was fuelled by the poor performance of the party which under him for the first time lost in a presidential election and lost control of the two houses of the National Assembly.

Mu‘azu became the eleventh national chairman of the party that was founded in 1998 and the sixth to have worked under President Jonathan who first came to power in 2010.

Mu‘azu’s emergence was generally perceived as the final antidote to the two year instability that shadowed the time in office of the five others that preceeded him. It was as such not surprising that he was immediately hailed as the Game Changer. He, however, to the pain of the party members changed the game negatively.

Mu‘azu was alleged to have pulled back from joining other party leaders in the abusing the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari and by that incurring the wrath of those in the inner circle of the president.

Those who preceded him in office during the Jonathan era were

Prince Vincent Ogbulafor

Chief Ogbulafor emerged as chairman of the party after Dr. Ahmadu Ali and is remembered as the one who boasted that the PDP would rule Nigeria for 60 years. Having emerged as chairman of the party under the tenure of President Umaru Yar‘adua and given the intrigues that played out during the period of the Cabal, Ogbulafor was alleged in quarters to have been sympathetic towards the cabal and against the emergence of Dr. Jonathan as acting president.

Not long after Jonathan settled in as president, the once forgotten case about a financial case that preceded his emergence as national chairman was revived and he was dragged to court. Not long after, Ogbulafor was forced out.

Nwodo

Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, a former scribe of the PDP, was seen to have a deep understanding of the workings of the NEC having first served as a National Secretary of the party.

Nwodo’s plans of reinventing the party along acceptable democratic practices and the strained relationship with the governor of his home state, Sullivan Chime, contributed in cutting short his tenure as PDP chairman. Particularly, Ogbulafor came up with the membership registration exercise, a scheme he had earlier convinced the president would remove the party from the hands of the governors. President Jonathan was said to have accepted the proposal and flagged off the membership registration exercise by registering himself. However, once the governors got to know the purpose of the exercise, they compelled the president to stop the registration exercise and quickly used the case he had with his home governor, Sullivan Chime to chase him out of office even at the national convention of the party in December, 2011.

Mohammed

Dr. Haliru Mohammed Bello, who was Nwodo’s deputy stepped in and ably marshalled the Jonathan campaign to victory in the 2011 election. His tenure brought much stability to the party and he was subsequently compensated with the appointment as a minister.

Baraje

Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, who hails from Kwara State, was never confirmed a full-fledged Chairman and stepped in following the exit of Dr. Harliru Mohammed and he was there until Dr. Bamanga Tukur was elected national chairman in March 2012.

After his exit and following the crisis that broke out in the party in August 2013, Baraje emerged as the national chairman of the New PDP, nPDP which subsequently fused into the All Progressives Congress, APC in November 2013.

Bamanga Tukur

Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s tenure as chairman of the PDP was characterised with crisis from beginning to the ending. Tukur like Nwodo, sought to remove the party from the influence of governors and it was during his tenure that the party for the first time suspended a governor, Chibuke Amaechi and also suspended another governor, Aliyu Wamakko supposedly for not answering the chairman’s phone call. The crisis culminated in the exit of five governors, a development many directly link to the defeat of the party in the recent general elections.

HIGHLIGHTS OF MU’AZU’S ERA IN RETROSPECT

    January 19, 2014: Alhaji Adamu Muazu succeeds embattled Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the eleventh national chairman of the party.

He was picked as a consensus candidate at a meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and governors of the party at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

    March 28, 2015: Muhammadu Buhari defeats President Jonathan in the presidential election.
    MAY 7,2015: Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose accuses Muazu of sabotage, wants him to resign for leading the party to its first presidential election defeat in 16 years.
    May 2, 2015: Muazu accuses Jonathan’s aides of being responsible for the party’s defeat.

He said praise singers and insincere people misled the President during the electioneering period leading to his defeat.

    May 6, 2015: Fayose claims to have evidence that Muazu worked for the APC.
    May     7, 2015: Mu‘azu  says Fayose’s  death wish advert on president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari led to the President’s defeat.
    May 9, 2015: Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu calls on Muazu to resign.
    May 11, 2015: Muazu says PDP would be buried if he resigns, adding that no organ of the party should try to extricate itself from the misfortune that befell the PDP.
    April 19, 2015: Femi Fani-Kayode calls on Muazu led National Working Committee to resign. He said there was need for a change at the top if the PDP move ahead.