Is President Olusegun Obasanjo's proposed National Dialogue the way forward for Nigeria?
Letter to Obasanjo, a Party Decision � Ogbeh
�Why Wabara was not copied �Caucus meeting may not hold From Chuks Okocha and Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja, 12.15.2004
National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, yesterday said his letter on December 6 to President Olusegun Obasanjo on the Anambra State crisis was a collective decision of the party's national executive committee. Also, indications emerged yesterday that Ogbeh may have decided not to send a copy of the letter to Senate President Adolphus Wabara, on account of the exchange both men earlier had on 10 crisis which recently rocked the Abia chapter of PDP. THISDAY, however, gathered that the national caucus meeting of the party scheduled to hold this night at the Presidential Villa to discuss the face off between Ogbeh and Obasanjo may have been suspended. THISDAY gathered that while addresing members of the party's National Working Committee (NWC) yesterday in Abuja, Ogbeh refered to minutes of the NEC meeting where members jointly agreed that he as Chairman should write the President and communicate the party's position on the Anambra State crisis to him. The explanation according to a source at the NWC meeting was prompted by concerns expressed by some members that Ogbeh ought not to have written such a letter to Obasanjo. Yesterday's NWC meeting took place at the office of the National Chairman at about 12.30 pm and ended without any address to the press. A source at the meeting said Ogbeh noted that members of the NEC had prior knowledge of the content of the letter to Obasanjo. The source said the PDP Chairman explained that the only thing he did not do, was to give the draft copy to NWC members for their endorsement before he finally dispatched the letter to the President. With that explanation, members of the NWC were said to have further expressed concern over the leakage of the letter to the press. At this stage, Ogbeh was said to have sworn that he did not leak the letter to the press. He added that the letter was not the first he would send to the President on the State of the Nation. It was at this stage that the NWC members decided to meet with the President last night to discuss the matter. Also, a source at the Senate indicated to THISDAY that Ogbeh excluded Wabara from the list of people he sent a copy of the letter to Obasanjo because Wabara had earlier accused the party chairman of "inconsistencies and doublespeak" over the crisis rocking the Abia State chapter of the PDP. Wabara had in a letter dated November 11, alleged that Ogbeh's recall of suspended Abia PDP chairman, Chief Uzodinma Okpara, was borne out of "motives that are not noble." The Senate President also decried "the surprise reversal of the full and final decision of the National Working Committee (NWC) in respect of the former state chairman of our party in Abia State." He stated that "the issue (of suspension of Okpara) was decisively dealt with by the duly constituted 75th NWC meetings of 21st and 27th October presided over by the PDP Deputy National Chairman (North), Alhaji Iro Safana." He continued in the letter: "Nothing from the outcome suggests that the meeting was inconclusive. You may wish to recall that Chief Uzodinma Okpara was not only suspended, but removed for anti-party activities, gross indiscipline and insubordination to the national leadership of the party, amongst other grievous offences. "Mr. Chairman, you were correctly quoted in the special meeting of the NWC, summoned at your own instance on 13th July, 2004 as saying inter alia; �it was the height of indiscipline for Uzodinma Okpara to shun the meeting, inspite of all errands by the National Secretary and myself. I am greatly worried about the situation in Abia. I recall that in 2002, the NWC had to subdue the interest of the National Secretary and some leaders in Abia, to effect the replacement of Chief Ukasanya in favour of the current state chairman (Okpara). I lament the rampant state of indiscipline in the party.� "Since there is no place where it was recorded that Chief Okpara ever acknowledged the invitation of the NWC on the say in question, I am therefore at a loss at understanding the reason behind the re-visitation of the issue of his removal. Is it, Mr. Chairman, that the NWC is impotent without your goodself? Or is it that Alhaji Iro Safana was incompetent, as Acting Chairman, in your absence, to preside over the meeting of the NWC? If not, why the isolation of the Abia case, which from what I have been able to gather, was not even listed for deliberation on Tuesday 9 November, 2004. "Mr. Chairman, I believe that without fear of contradiction that the landmark decisions of 75th NWC meetings are sacrosanct. Nothing except motives that are not noble could be the reason behind the purported recall of Chief Okpara. With due respect, I doubt very much if what transpired on Tuesday 9 November, 2004 could stand the test of the virtues of party discipline and cohesion which you have been espousing lately. "I am indeed constrained to make this assertion in knowledge that several members of the NWC were absent at the said meeting. From my estimation, I am of the firm conviction that something is really amiss as to the untidy fashion you single-handedly exhumed a long interred case. Were you hoping to replay Lazarus miracle? Coming sadly on a day that a notable Abia son, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu was marking his 60th birthday, it was most unfortunate. "Mr. Chairman, we in Abia refuse to accept your inconsistencies and double speak this second time around. As far as we are concerned the NWC decision of 27th October 2004 subsists. We are aware that in your sober moments, you will appreciate why we and all right thinking members of our party cannot accept the charade of Tuesday 9th November, 2004. "You may therefore wish to make a clean breast of this rather sensitive matter by publicly apologizing to aggrieved Abia PDP members whom I have continually asked to remain calm and faithful, as we attempt to roll back this apparent ring of evil that seems to have enveloped our party." The Senate President, however, copied Obasanjo, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Board of Trustees chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, the PDP National Secretary, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, and the Abia State governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. It is believed that the tone of Wabara�s letter and his perceived close relationship with one of the factions in the Anambra crisis may have influenced the PDP chairman�s decision not to send the Senate President a copy of his letter to President Obasanjo. However, it was gathered that the decision to call off the national caucus meeting might not be unconnected with the quick intervention of some elders of the party's Board of Trustees (BOT), particularly Chief Tony Anenih, and Alhaji Lawal Kaita, who have embarked on trouble-shooting mission since the bitter exchange of letters between Obasanjo and Ogbeh became public at the weekend. Sources told THISDAY that the BOT members were of the view that the national caucus meeting be called off to enable tempers cool down. The NWC meeting is expected to continue today to consider the outcome of yesterday�s separate meetings with the President and Ogbeh. Ogbeh had in a letter called the President�s attention to the gravity of the Anambra crisis and the seeming inaction of the Federal Government to stem the descent into anarchy in the South-east state. He stated that �on behalf of the Peoples Democratic Party, I call on you to act now and bring any, and all criminal, even treasonable activity to a halt. You and you alone have the means. Do not hesitate. We do not have too much time to waste.� But in his reply, the President accused Ogbeh of incompetence and insubordination. Obasanjo had stated that �unfortunately, as in many other instances, you failed to do what you should have done as the chief executive of the party and rather prefer to insult me not only as the president of the nation but also as the leader of the party which you seem never to recognise or acknowledge.� Meanwhile, the Special Assistant to the President on Public Matters, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has refuted insinuations by the Anambra State government that the President lied when he said he witnessed an encounter between Governor Chris Ngige and his enstranged godfather, Chris Uba where the former admitted that he did not win the 2003 governorship elections. According to Fani Kayode "the President is not a liar and neither did he lie." Rather, he said, "The President is a man of unimpeachable integrity and honesty. It is those that are claiming that Mr. President is lying on this issue, that are the real liars."
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