Self-defined former military president of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida, and some other presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party, sensing their diminishing political value, have boycotted a meeting with the national leadership of the party.

Although no official reason was given for their absence, our correspondents gathered that the contenders were aggrieved with the party‘s decision to narrow the choice of its presidential candidate to state governors.

The meeting, which was held behind closed doors in Abuja, was called by the party to explore ways of pruning the number of PDP presidential aspirants back to a manageable figure.

As at Thursday, the party had 29 presidential aspirants out of which 10 were state governors.

But the parley, attended by 14 of the aspirants, the Chairman of the party‘s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, and all the members of the National Working Committee, ended in deadlock.

The deadlock followed complaints by some of the aspirants that the party had made up its mind to field one of the governors in the race as its candidate.

The meeting was, therefore, adjourned till December 3, the scheduled date for the party‘s fundraising dinner.

The aspirants at the meeting were Governors Umaru Musa Yar‘Adua (Katsina); Victor Attah (Akwa Ibom); Peter Odili (Rivers); and Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa).

Others in attendance were former Chiefs of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (rtd), and Admiral Mike Akhigbe (rtd); Second Republic Senator, Dr. Andreaus Sawa; retired educationist, Dr. Mary Olutimayin; a diplomat, Ambassador Elizabeth Ogbon-Day; and a former Director General of the State Security Service, Chief Albert Horsfall.

The former Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Relations, Chief Rochas Okorocha; Mrs. Sarah Jibril; Mr. Dennis Ehederu; and Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim also attended the meeting.

Those that absent were a former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana; a former Military Administrator of Lagos State, Brig-Gen Mohammed Marwa; Imo State Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa; Ebonyi State Governor, Dr. Sam Egwu; Cross River State Governor, Mr. Donald Duke; former Minister of Works, Maj-Gen. Mamman Kontagora.

Also absent were a former National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau; Governors Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna); Saminu Turaki (Jigawa); Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu); a diplomat, Ambassador Ralph Uwechue; banker turned politician, Dr. Godson Nnaka; Chief Zeb Abule; and Mrs. Mary Onyeka.

Explaining the absence of Marwa from the meeting, Director of Media Campaign, Mr. Bola Bolawole, said Marwa was occupied by his national consultations.

He, however, added that he was sure the aspirant must have explained his absence to the party.

Bolawole said, His schedule is so tight. A lot of consultations are going on across the country. I am aware he has to go to Katsina, Jigawa and I also know he is packaging another visit to Edo, Delta and the South-East.

I can assure you that he must have been in contact with the National Chairman to explain his absence.”

The media spokesman for the IBB campaign organisation, Mr. Kassim Afegbua, said Babangida went for medical checkup in Nigeria here and that was why he couldnt attend the meeting.”

Our correspondents gathered that the aspirantscomplaints followed the remarks by the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, that the party had received the report of the ad hoc committee set up by the governors to recommend one of them as likely successor to President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The committee was first chaired by the suspended governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose, and later by the Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Agagu.

Whatever the party leadership has done through the Governors Committee must not be seen as an abridgement of the right of any aspirant to seek the floor votes at the party convention.

We are only counting on aspirants‘ sense of party loyalty and need to play down on personal and sectional sentiments”, Ali told the aspirants.

A source at the meeting told our correspondents that some of the aspirants interpreted the PDP chairman‘s comment to mean that the party had resolved to give the presidential ticket to one of the governors.

He said immediately the meeting retired to a closed session, some of the aspirants, including Akhigbe, Jibril and Ibrahim, took up Ali on his comments, saying it would be undemocratic to narrow the presidential ticket down to any group.

Akhigbe was quoted to have said that his understanding of the chairman‘s speech was that the presidential ticket of the party had been made the exclusive preserve of the governors.

He was said to have further argued that it would be unfair to shut anybody or group out of the race.

Jibril, who was said to have been irked by Ali‘s comments, reportedly told the party that the time for a woman president in Nigeria had come and that Nigerian women would not allow themselves to be schemed out of the presidential race under whatever guise.

She was said to have warned the PDP against taking any step that would make nonsense of its assurance that there would be a level-playing field for all aspirants.

Ibrahim, it was gathered, introduced a comic relief to the gathering when she reportedly pleaded with all the aspirants at the meeting to step down for her.

She was quoted as saying that she was more qualified than the governors that were being favoured and should naturally be the consensus candidate of the party.

Adamu, the source said, doused the tension at the meeting.

The governor reportedly assured his fellow aspirants that the presidential race was not for state chief executives alone.

Our source said when the parley was not making any headway, Ali called on Okorocha to make a closing remark. The meeting adjourned till December 3.

While making his remark, Okorocha prayed God to give Nigeria good men who would lead it to the right path.

But Ibrahim promptly cut in, saying Okorocha was not gender sensitive in his submission.

The PDP chairman had noted, in a speech he read before the meeting went into a closed session, that the party wanted a rancour-free presidential convention.

He said he had decided to encourage the governors ”to take a close look among themselves and the diverse resource base of skills and experience which they collectively represent, and still venture beyond themselves and identify possible presidential prospects.

”While this was not to be exclusive to governors, party leadership was merely acknowledging the reality of global trends, and the unique promise of gubernatorial experiences represented by heads of the second tier of government.

”There was a reasonable assumption that such a collection of responsible leaders possesses competence and objectivity in locating presidential leadership not only among its group but elsewhere.”

Ali described the report of the Agagu committee as having a ”clear analysis, a sense of history and an overriding commitment to the national mission.”

He added that the party was making a conscious, even if difficult, effort to whittle down the number of candidates to a manageable level.”

He said, ”In arriving at both the figure and faces of likely front runners, due regard will be given to political realities, a consensus on qualities most germane to the task of leading and transforming Nigeria through an acceleration of the reform programme, and general acceptability.”

Akhigbe told journalists after the meeting that he and his colleagues were willing to make sacrifices that would allow PDP arrive at a popular and formidable presidential candidate.

But Sawa vowed that he would not step down for anyone.

However, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. John Odey, while briefing journalists after the parley, denied that the aspirants were not comfortable with the party‘s soft spot for the governors.

He said, ”None of the aspirants alleged that. I was at the meeting. The chairman did not say the party has soft spot for any particular group of aspirants. They are quoting the chairman out of context. What we are trying to do is horse-trading and it is normal in politics.”

Odey also denied that the party had categorised the aspirants into four groups, namely: governors, retired generals, women and others.