Ministerial Nomination – PDP Chairman Prepares Exit Notes

Chuks Okocha

23 June 2011

Indications that the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , Dr. Haliru Mohammed was successful in the Joint Security Screening of ministerial nominees when news filtered through the national secretariat of the party that he was preparing his hand over notes to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.

Bello was among other ministerial nominees screened Tuesday at the Department of State Security Services (DSS) in Abuja.

Though, the NWC meeting scheduled for Wednesday was very brief apparently due to the fact that the hand over notes of the Acting National Chairman was not ready.

A source at the PDP National secretariat stated that the hand over notes by the Acting National Chairman is necessary because by the next meeting of the PDP NWC next Tuesday, the names of the ministerial nominees would have been submitted to the Senate.

The senate is expected to resume next Tuesday and the submission of the list of ministerial nominees would be submitted by next week Monday. Also, the source said that the Joint Security Screening Panel is expected to wind up by Thursday and the list submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan who in turn will send the list to the Senate by next week Monday.

By the PDP constitution, the Acting National Chairman, Dr. Bello is expected to submit his hand over notes to the next in ranking from his zone, who is Dr. Danladi Abdullahi Sankara who is the Vice Chairman (North central), but he is now a senator having won his senatorial election to represent Jigawa state.

But in the absence of this, he is expected to hand over the National Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje who is next in the line of ranking in the PDP hierarchy. According to a source in the Wadata Plaza Secretariat of the party, arrangements had been concluded to hand over the control of the party to the National Secretary of the party, Abubakar Baraje.

However, it was gathered that the Baraje may not last more than a month as the Acting National Chairman of the party, as plans are under way to convey a Board of Trustee (BoT) and National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party to take far reaching decisions on issues affecting PDP.

At its last NWC meeting on June 15 2011, Bello and other members of the PDP NWC agreed on the need to hold the meetings of the BOT and the NEC immediately after the consultations for the constitution of the President’s cabinet.

The meeting said that it was necessary to formally notify the NEC and the BOT of certain occurrences in the party.

One of such incidents it was gathered was the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal from the North West, contrary to the party’s position to zone the position to the South West.

Both the BoT and NEC meeting is to consider the need to have a Caretaker Committee to oversee the affairs of the party pending when the national convention will hold or the need to hold a national convention immediately. The tenure of office of the present NWC is expected to expire March 2012.

An NWC member confirmed to THISDAY the issue of the hand over note was the thrust of discussions among the few members of the NWC.

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