Former Governor of Bauchi State, Adamu Mu\u2019azu, 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.<\/p>\n
Mu\u2019azu 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
NewMailNG gathered that the President was\u00a0 bent on picking Wakil, who had earlier undergone\u00a0 screening by the security agents for a\u00a0 ministerial position.<\/p>\n
A governor from one of the core north told our correspondent that the President wanted Wakil at all costs\u00a0 but\u00a0\u00a0 was vehemently opposed by the governors, arguing that, the meeting lasted long because\u00a0 it was difficult for the President to accept\u00a0 defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we have picked Mu\u2019azu. He will be presented to the members of the PDP NEC on Monday(today) for ratification,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
Mu\u2019azu was last week sworn in as the chairman of the National Pensions\u00a0 Commission\u00a0\u00a0 by Jonathan. He\u00a0 was born on June 11, 1955 and was governor of Bauchi State\u00a0\u00a0 from May 29,\u00a0 1999 to\u00a0 May 29, 2007.<\/p>\n
Before the Villa meeting,\u00a0 the North-East governors, met at the Bauchi State Governor\u2019s Lodge in Abuja, in which the\u00a0 Chairman of the PDP Governors\u2019 Forum, Godswill Akpabio, and Bayelsa State Governor Seriake\u00a0 Dickson were said to have attended.<\/p>\n
Before the two meetings, the President had a private meeting with\u00a0 Seriake ostensibly over who would emerge as the new chairman of the PDP.<\/p>\n
Sources hat told our correspondent that before the Sunday, a\u00a0 former National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Rufai Alkali\u00a0\u00a0 (Gombe State); ex- Acting National\u00a0 Secretary,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dr. Musa Babayo (Bauchi); and\u00a0\u00a0 a former\u00a0 Minister of Commerce,\u00a0 Amb. Idris Waziri (Taraba),\u00a0 were touted as some of the\u00a0\u00a0 five\u00a0 top contenders for the job.<\/p>\n
An\u00a0 ex- Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Ibrahim Bunu (Borno) and the current\u00a0\u00a0 Minister of Transport, Sen. Idris Umar, who is believed to be\u00a0 the choice of\u00a0 the wife of the President Goodluck Jonathan,\u00a0 Patience,\u00a0 were also\u00a0 in the race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Governor of Bauchi State, Adamu Mu\u2019azu, 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\u2019azu was picked as a consensus candidate at a meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2751,282,6265,4038,3009,6263,6262,6264,6066,116,26],"yoast_head":"\n