As the national convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) draws closer – December 9 – media reports have emerged that former President Goodluck Jonathan and the governor of Rivers, Nyesom Wike are at loggerheads over the candidature of Prince Uche Secondus – a former acting Chairman of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC).

According to The Nation, Mr Jonathan is mobilising serious opposition against Mr Secondus and, he is determined to stop him from emerging as the National Chairman.

According to the report, Mr Wike was said to be angry that instead of collaborating with him and other South-South governors to ensure that his fellow Ijaw brother becomes the next chairman, the former President was busy working against Mr Secondus.

This was borne out of the belief that Mr Wike and another governor from South-South frustrated an initial plot by his key loyalists to return him as PDP’s Presidential candidate in 2019.

The report says sources unveiled a failed grand plan by Jonathan’s loyalists, especially former ministers and other key aides who served under him, to hijack the party’s structure and pave the way for him to return as its standard bearer.

A stalwart of the PDP, who spoke in confidence, said: “Jonathan has continued to blame the failure of the plan on Wike and the other South-South governor. He believes that the duo frustrated his ambition to return as the party’s presidential candidate.

“His next move is to stop any aspirant for the position of the national chairman who has links with Wike.

“He does not want Secondus, knowing that Wike is the one behind his ambition.

“If Secondus is out of the way, Jonathan and his wife, Patience, will go for the structures of the PDP, especially in Bayelsa and Rivers states, to enable them to play key roles in the 2019 elections.”

It was also said that Mr Jonathan was collaborating with the PDP stalwarts in the north against Secondus.

The party source added: “Jonathan is serious with his anti-Secondus campaign in the north. The north has many of the delegates and presidential aspirants, and Jonathan is reaching out to all of them.

“While he is openly backing a former minister, Nenadi Usman, to become the national secretary of the PDP, Jonathan wants any chairmanship aspirant other than Secondus to emerge victorious at the party’s national convention.

“His actions are creating divisions in the party ahead of the convention. The Ijaw stakeholders in the party and the South-South are not happy with the former President for not supporting their own.

“But like he failed in his previous plots, he will definitely fail again, because Secondus is unstoppable.”

A group, the South-South Coalition for Good Governance, yesterday confirmed that Mr Jonathan’s moves against Mr Secondus were real.

The group, in a statement signed by its Co-ordinator, John Boma-Harrison, said the grand plot was being hatched by Mr Jonathan, with the support of Northern allies.

While condemning the former President’s “divisive attitude”, they wondered why he would move against his own Ijaw brother who enjoyed the overwhelming support of  majority of PDP supporters across the country.

 

They said: “We have uncovered a plot by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to scuttle the chances of the most acceptable candidate for the position of national chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus.

“We have it on good authority that the former president is using northern delegates to mobilise against Secondus who hails from the south, and an Ijaw man like him.

“We are disappointed in him, but we want to use this medium to advise him to retrace his steps.

“He is a statesman, and he should play that role.”