Patience Jonathan Anoints Umar to Replace Tukur as PDP Chairman
As the battle to replace the embattled chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, shifts to the arena of party leaders, indications have emerged that the wife of the president, Dame Patience Jonathan, has a preferred candidate for the job: the current minister of transport, Idris Umar from Gombe State.
Tukur was said to have submitted his resignation letter to President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday, but he denied it while speaking to State House correspondents.
It was gathered that the first lady has made efforts to ensure that remains in office despite the mounting pressure for his sack.
But after the effort failed, the president’s wife extended her tentacles to party leaders, soliciting their support for Umar as PDP national chairman.
The first lady’s choice of Umar has been criticised by some leaders of the PDP who are of the view that she was part of the trouble in the PDP.
The source said: “We have been on this struggle for long, even before the G-5 governors made good their threat to dump the PDP; but each time we tried to effect it, we were always hitting the rocks because the president’s wife was convinced that it was only Tukur who could deliver her husband in 2015
“And, unfortunately, there are some close aides of the president who, in connivance with the chairman, were always drumming it to her ears that those who want Tukur out were indeed after the president; all these are tissues of lies that actually prolonged the ultimate decision.
“But, again, even with his resignation, there is yet another challenge that is now threatening the unity of the PDP, and it is the influence of the president’s wife who again insists on Senator Idris Umar, the transport minister, to be made chairman.
“She has reached out to almost all those who matter in the party to support Umar but we will not bow to this because it is high time Her Excellency was counselled to be circumspect in the affairs of the PDP.”
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