by Adeola Balogun

As the crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party rages on, President Goodluck Jonathan has said that he will only negotiate with the aggrieved parties if they present reasonable terms.

A statement to this effect was released by the Presidency through the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak.

Gulak, who said this in an interview, explained the President’s stand on the crisis within the party caused by the formation of a rival faction by seven governors and some chieftains of the party at the party’s mini convention in Abuja last Saturday.

Gulak also reportedly said that the aggrieved governors should concentrate on governance and stop overheating the polity. The presidential aide explained that Jonathan was in support of various reconciliatory efforts by the leadership of the party. He, however, said the President would only accept “reasonable terms” in the efforts to reconcile with a faction of the party called, New PDP.

Gulak said that conditions such as the governors’ call on the President to stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from probing them was ridiculous and unheard of, saying the President would not accept such. On Jonathan’s stand on the peace moves initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he said as the leader of the PDP, Jonathan had no objection to any move that could restore peace to the party.

He added that the President had no reason to believe that Obasanjo was behind the governors since they were matured enough to take personal decisions. On whether the President would support the move by Dr. BamangaTukur to declare the seats of pro-New PDP lawmakers vacant, the presidential aide said since members of the National Working Committee were elected to run the affairs of the party, Jonathan would not interfere in their assignment.

Gulak said it was not true that the President was ready to negotiate with all the aggrieved governors, except Governor Rotimi Amaechi, saying Jonathan’s peace move was all inclusive. But the Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, has said neither he nor any of his colleagues in the new Peoples Democratic Party has made any unreasonable demand.

He said this in response to a statement by Gulak that the President would not accede to unreasonable demands.

Nyako who spoke through his Director of Press, Ahmad Sajo, told Saturday PUNCH that the members of the new PDP were only asking for a return to constitutional order within the party.

He said:

“What we are asking for is simple. All the decisions that were taken that were arbitrary or in breach of the constitution must be reversed and constitutional order restored within the PDP. This is the minimum we ask.

“The sanctity of the constitution must be respected once they do that; there will be no crisis in the PDP.

“I don’t see what is unreasonable about this demand because even the President will not be President if there is no constitutional order.