President Jonathan to meet with G-7 governors today

All is set for today's meeting between President Goodluck
Jonathan and the G-7 governors at the presidential villa,
Abuja. The president who travelled to London for the
international investors' conference is expected to return to
Nigeria by 8pm today to meet with the governors after a
one-hour rest.

Ahead of the parley, some of the affected governors
yesterday evening left their states for Abuja. But an aide
of one of the governors told LEADERSHIP Sunday that
the attendance of his boss would depend on the directive
of the leadership of the "new PDP" led by Kawu Baraje.

The aides of governors Mauzu Babangida Aliyu of Niger
State and Aliyu Wamakko confirmed to our
correspondents that the two state chief executives will
attend the meeting.

A presidency source disclosed that, contrary to
speculations, the meeting will not be an explosive one
because the issues at stake are clearly understood by all
the parties, adding that both President Jonathan and the
governors want to forge ahead in providing Nigerians
qualitative leadership.

It was however learnt that the meeting was not in the
president's itinerary, rousing that it might not hold.
The source added that Jonathan was set to make today's
parley his last engagement with the governors on their
areas of disagreement.

He said the president would come out clear at the meeting
by asking the aggrieved governors what they really want
and the real problems they have with the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP).

According to the source, the president has chosen the
meeting to be 9pm, adding that he and other critical
stakeholders have come to the point that the governors'
agitations should be finally buried so that the party could
move on.

The aggrieved governors are Aliyu, Wamakko, Rabi'u
Kwankwaso of Kano, Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rotimi
Amaechi (Rivers), and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State.
LEADERSHIP Sunday learnt that the governors would,
among others, demand a soft-landing for suspended former
national secretary of the PDP, Prince Olagunsoye
Oyinlola, and other members of the "new PDP" hierarchy.
Besides, the president, the source further revealed, would
ask the governors to put in writing their grouse with any
officer of the PDP for onward transmission to the
appropriate arms of the party for necessary action.

"What is certain is that the president would align himself
on what he had told former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He will not deviate from that. First, that he is not PDP
national convention that has the powers to remove the
national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. Second, that
he will not unilaterally hand over the party structure in the
states to any of the governors, since the issues involved
are already subjects of litigations. Third, that he will not
interfere with the functions of the anti-graft agencies," the
source said.

President Jonathan, it was learnt, had told Obasanjo that
none of the governors had come out with his problems,
despite what is being reported in the media, adding that
they are only saying that some of them have issues with
Tukur and, as such, he should be removed.

The president, continued the source, also told the former
president that any of the governors that wanted Tukur
removed should wait for the party's national convention
that elected him in the first place.

However, it was learnt that the G7 governors are
requesting that the president should concede to some of
their requests, especially the issues that revolve around
Amaechi and Nyako. One of the governors expressed
dismay at the statements credited yesterday to the
presidency by a sister publication, LEADERSHIP
Weekend, that Jonathan had given up on Amaechi and
Nyako. He said such open declaration was against the
spirit of the deal they reached at the last meeting. He
however indicated that he would attend the meeting today.

Although Wamakko was still in Sokoto at the time of
filing this report, his aide said the governor's advance
party had embarked on the Abuja trip. His senior special
adviser on media, Sani Umar, told LEADERSHIP Sunday
that the governor was in town but would leave for Abuja
later yesterday.

An aide to Amaechi said last night: "The governor said it
yesterday (Friday) that he will attend the meeting
convened by President Jonathan. Other six governors in
his group will be there; so there is no-how he will be
absent."

Via: Leadership