Gov Chime
Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State has assured faithfuls of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state that the attempts by a handful sons of the state to thwart the will of the people will fail.
The governor said that at the heart of the troubles was the attempts by those whose ambitions are not favoured by the zoning arrangement in the state to ensure that the system that has served the state well since it creation crumbled.
There have been an unrelenting wave of manouvring by power bloc in the state to rubbish the zoning arrangement and especialy the concensus aspirant adopted by the party in the state.
Some members of the National Assembly from the state, notably Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and Chairman of the Works Committee in the Senate, Mr. Ayogu Eze, who are said to be enjoying the back of the President, are said to have hijacked the ward congress in the state and ensured that only their members were listed and submitted to the party’s hedquarters as the delegates of the party.
According to reports, the Ekweremadu group are now claiming that November 1, 2014, ward congress during which the materials meant for the exercise in the state were said to have been deposited at the Wuse Police Station following disagreements by the five-man panel on how to conduct it actually held.
Governor Chime during a stakeholder’s meeting of the party on Tuesday, addressed some of the issues, while dismissing insinaution of defection.
Excerpts of hs address:
We’ve assembled here today (November 18) because we’re one big, happy family called PDP. For sometimes now, PDP Enugu state has had some challenges. Well, we had similar challenges in 2010/2011 and now that elections are getting closer, such distractions are to be expected. The good thing is that it’s all within our party because anyone who wants to achieve his or her political ambition comes to the PDP.
As you all know, we’ve always triumphed because we have disciplined party members. It’s those of you here who elected all of us that made the party to become great. The elections are almost here but from the presidential poll to the House of Assembly election, PDP will come out tops in our state.
What guides us in Enugu State is that we’ve long abandoned the issue of godfatherism, no imposing of candidates on our people. It’s their right to choose their leaders. We have always, through wide consultation, chosen our flag bearers during elections. We’ve always agreed not to oppress anybody, we see ourselves as equal because we hold the positions we occupy today in trust for our people.
We have conducted four local government elections and all our (PDP) chairmanship candidates were returned unopposed in the last polls. This was possible because we consulted widely before the people chose their candidates. I didn’t sit at the Governor’s Lodge to hand-pick the chairmanship candidates, the stakeholders from the distinct local government councils did.
We’re having similar challenges today like it happened in 2010/2011 because some of our brothers and sisters (in the National Assembly) now want to go contrary to the agreements we had earlier (on zoning and distribution of elective positions). It’s quite lamentable that today, their thinking is that they will split the party if they don’t succeed but with the overwhelming support of our people, such plots will fail.
We’ve not stopped anybody from aspiring to any position but we’re saying that if you must use the PDP vehicle, you must comply with our party’s directives. Power comes from God.
You are all witnesses to the unwarranted attacks on me in the media and through other platforms orchestrated by some of my brothers but that will not change my ways. We have a fully refurbished and digitized ESBS (Enugu State Broadcasting Service) with radio and television arms with such a very wide reach but we will never use it against our people. I was not elected to fight our people but to give services, to develop our state and to better the lives of our people.
In the face of these attacks and unnecessary provocation from these our brothers and sisters, all I have for them are prayers, prayers for their well-being and prayers for them to come back to the family. If they love our people and are willing to work for the re-election of our dear President and our others candidates, they should come back so that we sit down to chart the way forward.
I want to make it explicitly clear that I have no personal squabbles with anybody. The disagreement is people not respecting agreements earlier reached. It’s a thing of regret that few persons are descending to this level where they want to pull strings and cause disaffection just to have their ways. But I want to reassure our people that I’ll do everything to sustain the peace we’ve had in our state these past seven years.
The truth is that if you serve our people well, they will ask you to come back. Like I said, you don’t need to pull strings, to try to shortchange the people and the system. We are used to having proper congresses where our people meet and decide on the path they want to follow.
The idea to write names compiled a day earlier or to stay in one room to write names and purport them to be duly elected delegates is alien to Enugu PDP and is, therefore, unacceptable to us. Like you’ve all massively demonstrated now, it’s your collective decision that the proper thing must be done. I want to assure all of you gathered here and even those not here that I’ll take this decision to anywhere and any forum so that the world can hear your voices.
