•Move against PDP’s zoning
•Party settles for consensus candidate, to sanction errant Reps-elect

By JIDE AJANI & HENRY UMORU

Following its meeting   of Friday, May 20, 2011,  some northern political leaders are already demonstrating their desire to continue their opposition of  the Jonathan presidency by carrying the battle to the floor of the House of Representatives, using the contest for the job of speaker as the platform, Sunday Vanguard can reveal.

This is being done with the instrumentality of tacit mobilization for Hon. Aminu Tambuwal who is seeking to upturn the zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as well as confront President  Goodluck Jonathan on the matter.

Three of the nation’s six top offices have already been shared to the southsouth (President Goodluck Jonathan), northwest (Vice President Namadi Sambo) and southeast (Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; SGF) by the PDP leadership while allocating the Senate presidency and the House speakership to the northcentral and  southwest respectively.

The party chairmanship is allocated to the northeast. But Representatives-elect are resisting the speakership allocated to the southwest on the grounds of the PDP poor showing in the zone at the polls, rooting instead for the candidature of  Tambuwal from the northwest.

Sunday Vanguard was informed that Tambuwal had already held a meeting with a former head of state in his on-going consultation and has been “given the green light to march on”.

It was also learnt that logistics support  was also being provided.

Leaders of political groups like the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Unity Forum, UF, as well as the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, along with a former vice president and a former Nigeria leader, have entered the fray and are mobilizing to ensure that Tambuwal gets the votes for the speakership.

At their meeting, one of the options agreed to be employed in confronting  Jonathan was the possible use of the current crisis surrounding the zoning of the office of the speaker and the Senate presidency.

At their meeting, one of the leaders in attendance reminded participants of an earlier advice that “Mr. President should be put under check”, using all means possible.

This position was generally accepted to the participants.

What Sunday Vanguard discovered over the weekend was that some of the leaders are already campaigning and reaching out to both old and new members of the House and impressing it on them “to once and for all confront the leaders of PDP”.

The desire, at the end of the day, according to sources, “is to ensure that the House of Representatives is used as a bulwark of opposition to President Jonathan just as it was between 2000 and 2003 when the House demonstrated to then President Olusegun Obasanjo that he could be confronted”.

Tambuwal, who is the out-going deputy chief whip of the House, and was the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, leader between 2003 and 2007, has also been holding talks with leaders of the Northern Political Leaders’ Forum, NPLF.

Also, he is alleged to be receiving massive mobilization from his state governor.

The group of northern leaders, in addition, plans to frustrate Jonathan by insisting on rigourous oversight function under a Tambuwal speakership.

Consensus option
In the meantime, PDP  has reportedly concluded arrangements to ensure that it comes up with a consensus candidate before the inauguration of the House  tomorrow.

According to a very senior member of the National Working Committee, NWC, the  PDP is also  to invoke Article 21 of its constitution  to sanction any of its member who fails to respond or follow its  decisions of the speakership.

The NWC member, who noted that the leadership had, in the last couple of days, held several meetings with members of the House elected on the platform of the party, also used the governors to appeal to them, used major stakeholders and leaders to talk them, all to no avail. He stressed that the party will  have no option than to deal with the  errant Reps-elect since they were elected on the platform of the PDP.

Sunday Vanguard  gathered  that the last-minute move it to ensure that the PDP produces a consensus candidate is borne out of the fear that if  it allows for two candidates to emerge, a combination of some PDP members and those of the opposition parties in the House might distort and kill the zoning formula of the PDP.

Also as part of moves to actualize the plan of the PDP, a group of returning  House of members from the North-East led by Hon. Jerry Manwe (PDP-Taraba) yesterday launched a last-ditch campaign for members to support the zoning formula adopted by the party that would allow for the South-West and North-East to produce the speaker and deputy speaker.

This is coming on the heels of a seemingly failed suit instituted by Manwe and another pro-zoning lawmaker, Hon. Bitrus Kaze to stop the use of open secret ballot for the purpose of electing the presiding officers of the House tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the two-day retreat organized by the PDP in collaboration with the Peoples Democratic Institute was yesterday turned into a major campaign ground by Hon. Mulikat Adeola-Akande and Hon. Dogara who are vying for the positions of speaker and deputy speaker, respectively.

Adeola-Akande was seen throughout the event moving quietly from one table to table speaking to her colleagues while Dogara too took time to reach out to members of the lower chamber who will tomorrow determine who occupies the leadership positions in the House.

But at yesterday’s  retreat, other contenders  viz: Tambuwal, Ihedioha and Muraina Ajibola were absent even as this was against the directive of the leadership of the PDP that attendance was mandatory for all PDP elected members.