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President Goodluck Jonathan is worried that the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is fast losing grip of the South West
zone, which he believes might affect the party’s outing in the 2011
general elections.

The President is said to have expressed his fears,
during a meeting with the national chairman of the PDP, Okwesilieze
Nwodo last weekend.

Three of the six states in the South West region are
controlled by opposition parties while there are protracted crises in
the others controlled by the PDP.

The six states in the zone are Oyo, Ogun, Osun Ondo,
Ekiti and Lagos. While Oyo, Ogun and Osun are controlled by the PDP,
Lagos and Ekiti are run by Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
administrations. The Labour Party controls the government in Ondo State.

According to a source at the national secretariat of
the PDP, Mr Okwesilieze, who returned from his overseas trip last
Friday, was said to have met with the President to discuss the state of
affairs in the ruling party.

Mr Jonathan was said to have mandated the PDP
chairman during the meeting to explore all avenues towards resolving
the crises and unite the various factions in the party in the zone.

“Jonathan gave Nwodo the mandate to explore all
avenues towards resolving the crises so as to avoid a situation where
the main opposition party in the South West, the Action Congress of
Nigeria could exploit the crack within the PDP state chapters to its
advantage,” the source said.

Both Messrs Jonathan and Nwodo were said to have
discussed the crisis in Enugu State, especially the dissolution of the
party’s executive in the state.

The President, the source said, insisted that the
matter should be left to the court to determine since some members of
the party had challenged the dissolution in court.

It was learnt that the President, who is the leader
of the party, was aware of the plan to dissolve the executive in Enugu,
having held a meeting with Mr Nwodo and some members of the National
Working Committee (NWC) before he (Nwodo) went on vacation abroad.

Our source indicated that Enugu State chapter was
dissolved because it was among the chapters whose members did not
challenge their 2008 congresses in court but merely quarrelled over the
matter.

When contacted yesterday, Ike Abonyi, the media aide
to Mr Nwodo said he was not aware that Mr Jonathan is worried over the
state of PDP in the south west zone.

“I am not aware of the President’s position on the matter you are
talking about. All I can say is that the PDP chairman returned from
abroad last Friday. I have not been briefed about his meeting with the
President,” Mr Abonyi said.