•President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Photo: Sun News Publishing

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The growing unease in the relationship between President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and his predecessor in office, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is at the root of the uncertainty hovering over the convention of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Daily Sun can now authoritatively report.

The convention, which was initially slated for December 8, 2007, was postponed till January, 2008 and there are feelers that it may not come on till March, next year.
Contrary to earlier speculations, Daily Sun learnt on good authority that the Federal Government indeed, favoured the empanelling of a caretaker committee which will go a long way in erasing the dark clouds of dictatorship in the party and set the pace for a post-convention, strong and united PDP that will function in line with the government’s professed principles of rule of law, due process and respect for separation of powers of the three arms of government.

A source close to Obasanjo and the government confirmed the development, describing it as a “desperate search for a new PDP.”
Close associates of Yar’Adua, the source said, are incensed by Obasanjo’s unrelenting interest to perpetually pull the levers of power, seven months after leaving office.
It came to a head when the group learnt of his deft moves to work against his successor, who he installed last May 29.

In the new push, the caretaker committee will come on stream between now and March, next year and it will respect the zoning arrangement of the party, which implies that the chairman will come from the South-East geo-political bloc.
According to the zoning formula of the party, the South-East will get chairman, deputy legal adviser, deputy publicity secretary and deputy financial secretary. The South-West will get the national legal adviser, youth leader, four ex-officio positions as well as national vice-chairman. The North-West will produce the financial secretary, deputy treasurer, four ex-officio members and the zonal vice-chairman.

The North-central zone gets the national secretary, auditor, deputy youth leader, four ex-officio members and national vice-chairman. The South-South will have the national treasurer, organising secretary, deputy auditor, deputy woman leader, four ex-officio and zonal vice-chairman, while the North-East produces the deputy national secretary, national publicity secretary, woman leader, deputy organising secretary, four ex-officio members and zonal vice-chairman.
Despite the amended section of the party’s constitution, which, ipso facto, confers more powers on the chairman of the Board of Trustees, the seat of the national chairman still remains number one.
Those who constitute the caretaker committee will, however, not be eligible to run for offices at the convention.

Also in the calculation of the Yar’Adua group is the “dis-empowerment of Obasanjo, who will, however, retain his position and be given full due respect as ex-president.”
However, the source said: “Obasanjo is not sleeping and may have intensified subtle efforts to cage the two-term Katsina governor, whose presidential victory is still being challenged by the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Action Congress (AC) candidates, Major General Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.”

The “misunderstanding” between the duo is already a source of worry to some members of the ruling party. To them, the clash may leave scars that may be difficult to heal. They cited the dislocation the ex-president’s “unwholesome dumping of his godfathers and founding fathers of the PDP” cost the party.
Obasanjo, the source said, is angry with Yar’Adua for committing several “sins” within a few months and is wary that if the President is not checkmated now, he may turn full circle against him after consolidating his power base.

He has, therefore, resolved to either get the President whipped into line, or get the boot.
A clear battle-line has been drawn and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has been drafted into the game plan.
Professor Maurice Iwu, INEC Chairman, ever so loyal to the ex-president, has already set to work. The source said Obasanjo used him to cancel the convention of the party, which was to hold last Saturday because INEC was not given 21 days’ notice.

A certain governor from the North-West and one of Obasanjo’s former aides’ are the other foot soldiers working hard on the project.
To reinforce the “troops,” overtures have been made to the former BOT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, by the Yar’Adua group. They believe he can make a lot of “fixing” since the relationship between him and Obasanjo has broken down irreparably.
The powerful Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), which was the structure on which Obasanjo rode to power in 1999, has also been revived and may be deployed in the “battle.”
A top member of the party said: “This battle is essentially one for survival and the victor is likely to be in full charge of governance in this country. That is why both camps are not taking it easy.”