Indications are strong that Mr.Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, a member of board of trustees of Nigeria's ruling party,the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and a national chairmanship aspirant, may emerge the compromise candidate at the oncoming national convention of the Party.
The PDP had zoned the positions of Deputy Senate President and Party national chairman to the South-east geo-political zone of the country. The South-east zonal caucus of the Party subsequently zoned the Chairmanship position to Imo and Ebonyi states. Iwuanyanwu is from Imo state.
The strategy of narowing the choice of National Chairman to members from Imo and Ebonyi states is the brainchld of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chairman of board of trustees of the Party, who according to one of our PDP inside sources has sworn to continue to control the Party's machinary at the national level.
Mr. Obasanjo, according to this source had everything worked out from the begining with the last exco. The plan was for Dr. Sam Egwu, former Governor of Ebonyi state and a respected political figure in the South-east to be presented earlier as a candidate of the Obasanjo group to test the waters and to divert attention, while Iwuanyanwu, the main candidate of the group will be presented later as compromise candidate.
Obasanjo who knows the political behaviour of South-easterners, knew from the onset that the contest will be a crowded affair,that will necesitate a compromise candidate, the source further revealed.
For about three weeks now, Obasanjo's men in the Presidency, we were told, have been persuading President Yar'Adua to accept Iwuanyanwu as a compromise candidate.A Presidency source told us that "a security report have even surfaced". The security report was said to have characterized all the contestants with the exception of Iwuanyanwu and Egwu as unrepantant apostles of Igbo Presidency, who as national Chairman of the Party will likely truncate any second term bid by the incumbent President, if Yar'Adua is convinced, the Presidency will use its influence to pressurize the other contestants to step down, meanwhile,we can now report that the recent media reports in which it was reported that the other candidates had rejected the idea of a consensus(compromise) candidate was only a strategy to raise the bargaining stakes, when the time comes.
The PDP national convention where the National chairman and other national executive members will emerge, barring any unforeseen developments, will hold on 8th March, 2008 at the Eagle square in Abuja.
When our reporter visited the party's national secreatariate at about 12.15pm on friday, 29th february 2008, we were told that no national officer was available to take our questions. A female staffer whom our reporter made efforts to speak with, declined comments.
