Former Governor of Bauchi State, Adamu Mu’azu, has been chosen as the new Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party by President Goodluck Jonathan and governors. He will replace the former chairman, Bamanga Tukur, who resigned from his position last Wednesday.
Mu’azu was picked as a consensus candidate at a meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the governors of the party at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Sunday night. The meeting ended at 1:22 am on Monday morning.
Sources at the meeting said that the governors had rejected the choice of Mohammed Wakil by the President and his wife, Patience, citing his alleged inability to carry people along when he was a principal officer of the House of Representatives.
NewMailNG gathered that the President was bent on picking Wakil, who had earlier undergone screening by the security agents for a ministerial position.
A governor from one of the core north told our correspondent that the President wanted Wakil at all costs but was vehemently opposed by the governors, arguing that, the meeting lasted long because it was difficult for the President to accept defeat.
“Yes, we have picked Mu’azu. He will be presented to the members of the PDP NEC on Monday(today) for ratification,” the source said.
Mu’azu was last week sworn in as the chairman of the National Pensions Commission by Jonathan. He was born on June 11, 1955 and was governor of Bauchi State from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007.
Before the Villa meeting, the North-East governors, met at the Bauchi State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja, in which the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill Akpabio, and Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson were said to have attended.
Before the two meetings, the President had a private meeting with Seriake ostensibly over who would emerge as the new chairman of the PDP.
Sources hat told our correspondent that before the Sunday, a former National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Rufai Alkali (Gombe State); ex- Acting National Secretary, Dr. Musa Babayo (Bauchi); and a former Minister of Commerce, Amb. Idris Waziri (Taraba), were touted as some of the five top contenders for the job.
An ex- Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Ibrahim Bunu (Borno) and the current Minister of Transport, Sen. Idris Umar, who is believed to be the choice of the wife of the President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, were also in the race.