Tukur bows to pressure, set to convene NEC meeting

Parley to ratify amended party’s constitution, and set up committees to help President Jonathan achieve his transformation agenda.

Nearly a year after the last meeting, the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has finally bowed to pressure to convene the meeting of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party.

A statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, on Friday, did not state when the meeting will hold. However, a source at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, said it might hold either next week or the upper one.

Section 12.74 of the PDP Constitution requires NEC to hold its meeting at least every quarter of the year. The last meeting was held in July last year, about three months after the National Working Committee, NWC, led by Bamanga Tukur, assumed office.

Mr. Tukur was allegedly not disposed to convening the meeting because of the various challenges confronting the party, which he felt may lead to his ouster. He was said to be afraid of the governors elected on the party’s platform, with whom he had disagreement.

Membership of NEC include the national chairman and other members of the NWC; President and Vice President of the country who are members of the party, chairman and secretary of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT, state governors who are members of the party, leaders of the National Assembly, and state chairmen of the party.

“All is now set for the convening of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),” the party announced in the statement.

It also said that one of the items to be decided by NEC at the impending meeting is the issue of setting up of standing and ad-hoc committees in the party, which, according to it, will help the national leadership in driving the vision and manifesto of the party and the success of the transformation agenda of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

NEC will also ratify the corrected version of the PDP Constitution, which was approved at the 2012 National Convention of the party. Among the sections amended are 17, 18, 23, 6(7), 8(8), 50 (10), 50 (11), and 35(2).

The statement said, “The approval of NEC in this regard will assist in widening the scope of participation by party stakeholders in the mobilization and sensitization efforts and help the national leadership in driving the vision and manifesto of the party to ensure the success of the Transformation Agenda of the President Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP administration.

“Also, the corrected version of the PDP Constitution approved at the 2012 Convention will be presented to NEC for ratification,” he said.

The NWC, in the statement, also clarified that the on-going ministerial briefing is aimed at assessing and evaluating the performances of federal ministers in delivering their mandates in the interest of all Nigerians.

It added that a report on the exercise will be exhaustively discussed between the President and the leadership of the party.