There are strong indications that all is not well with the national chairman of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Adamu Mu’azu and the fold of the influential PDP Governors’ Forum as there is mutual suspicion between both parties.

According to a report by Leadership, most of the serving governors are not happy with the chairman’s efforts to fully integrate his former governor colleagues who desire to return to the party after a stint of absence.

Mu’azu was said to have started the reintegration process without the knowledge of the serving governors and this did not go down well with them as the south-east governors shunned the inauguration of the party’s integration committee a few days ago.

Speaking on the matter, a PDP governor who pleaded anonymity described the integration as worrisome.

He said: “I can tell you that most governors are unhappy over the move because it is nothing but blackmail. If, in 2011, the PDP won those states without the former governors, I do not see their relevance now.

“This is becoming worrisome to most of us because it is not healthy for former governors to want to have the same leverage in party matters with sitting governors; and this is what the national chairman is encouraging, maybe because of their political age and bracket in being former governors. If not, how would one explain the warm reception the national chairman gives to anti-governor groups in some states? It is ridiculous.”

The governor listed Abia, Enugu, Akwa Ibom and Plateau as some of the states where former governors had the tacit support of the national chairman in carrying out their ‘subversive’ moves.

However, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) who spoke on condition of anonymity blamed the governors for whatever cold war is ongoing on the issue of integration.

According to him, it is out of place for any of the governors to blame the national chairman as the governors in most of the states where integration was discussed had seemed indifferent and some openly made efforts to stop other people from joining for selfish reasons.

“I think the governors’ fears, if any, are misplaced; they do not need to entertain any because they do really need the former governors and even new would-be members because we are looking for votes; we are seeking votes from the electorate,” he said.

Meanwhile, the PDP has said that even though mutual suspicion was unavoidable in politics, especially as it affects the integration process in the party, all misgivings about it had been clarified and resolved.