As the leadership crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deepens, Associate Editor Sam Egburonu and Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, report on the efforts to resolve the crisis and the likely new leaders of the party,
SINCE the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost control of the Federal Government of Nigeria, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 Presidential Election, the party, with a symbolic huge umbrella, which governed the country for 16 years, has remained largely divided. As soon as Jonathan acknowledged defeat and congratulated Buhari, immediately after the historic election, the blame game, which punctuated the long-drawn crisis, deepened, even as PDP chieftains take turns, almost on a daily basis, to defect to All Progressives Congress (APC).
It would be recalled that many had blamed the party’s National Working Committee, then led by Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, for being high-handed and for promoting imposition, but it has been observed that the blame game has continued after Mu’azu resigned his appointment as the National Chairman of the party since May 20, 2015.
Today, the crisis has become even more pronounced as many stakeholders lay claim to Mu’azu’s seat, with the powerful organs of the party, like the NWC, Board of Trustee, Governor’s Forum, National Assembly caucuses and others holding varying views on the matter, a development many fear may mark the end of the once largest political party in Africa.
The challenge in the party can be traced back to multiple disagreements between the party leadership and some powerful members before the 2015 elections. The resultant leadership crisis led to the emergence of a splinter faction that had in its ranks, seven protesting state governors. The opposing group evolved to what was called the New-PDP. The crisis peaked when five serving PDP state governors, out of the original seven, formally defected to All Progressives Congress (APC), a newly formed political party then.
That development, which some analysts described as PDP’s gravest error, set the tone of the 2015 General Election in which PDP eventually lost at the centre to the relatively new political party, the APC. Since then, the battle for the soul of the 36 states of the federation had been fierce between PDP and the ruling APC, even as PDP had to contend with additional seemingly unending internal problems both at the centre and in the states.
Some insiders allege that the party’s problems became complicated when some close associates and aides of the former President Goodluck Jonathan attempted to take over the control of the party, soon after the presidential election. Perhaps the most vocal of the aides is Jonathan’s former Political Adviser, Ahmed Gulak, who first blamed Mu’azu openly for the defeat and advised him to resign his position as PDP National Chairman. According to him, “If the belief of the majority of the members of the PDP is anything to go by, you could say that the party chairman was the number one culprit for the dismal outing. There is no party chairman of the PDP, since 1998, that has led the party to such a disastrous outing. As a result, the National Chairman should consider himself one of those that have to give way for a new leadership to come up. In fact, he doesn’t need to be told to turn in his resignation.”
The NWC did not take that attack lightly. Its response confirmed the flag-off of the battle for the chairman’s seat. “The NWC is aware that these same individuals who mismanaged the presidential campaign funds are now desperately seeking to cause crisis in the PDP with a view not only to divert attention from their misdeeds, but also to ensure they remained politically relevant by hijacking the party structure for their selfish purposes,” It said, adding, “The party is aware that the same group has been sponsoring series of amorphous bodies and negative publications in a section of the media to peddle false allegations against the NWC to back their heinous and unconstitutional demands that the NWC be sacked. The NWC is duly elected and its tenure ends in March 2016 in line with the provisions of the party’s constitution. The PDP is a party built on the rule of law and democratic ethos. Its NWC is elected and not appointed and as such cannot be sacked at will. Besides, no section of the party’s constitution prescribes that the NWC should quit if the party loses in a general election.”
Between Secondus and Gulak
Gulak’s struggle to replace the party’s NWC did not stop with Mu’azu’s eventual resignation last year. If anything, his quest for a new leadership became more vociferous since Mu’azu’s deputy, Prince Uche Secondus, took over as the chairman of the party in acting capacity. His initial contention was that the party’s constitution allows an Acting Chairman to stay for only three months. But Secondus-led NWC has resisted all efforts to push them out, arguing that a new NWC can only be elected at the expiration of the tenure of the current NWC, which is March 2016.
Not satisfied with that position, Gulak had dragged Secondus to court. Though the court ordered Secondus to vacate office, he appealed against the judgment and stayed put in office. The drama peaked last week when Gulak stormed PDP National Secretariat, declaring that he has assumed office as the party’s National Chairman. Since that development, all the top organs of the party have been forced to take action in order to resolve the matter. Ironically, close observers say instead of resolving the crisis, the efforts have further deepened the divisions and disagreements as no one seems to know who is in charge in PDP today or the way forward.
For example, the PDP Governors Forum, in an effort to resolve the crisis had flayed Gulak’s invasion of the secretariat but asked Secondus to hand over to the National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, pending the time a new chairman will be appointed.
It is instructive that the NWC shunned this ‘directive’ from the governors. The National Legal Adviser, Mr. Victor Kwom, in his response, insisted that Secondus remained the Acting Chairman. He said: “For the avoidance of doubt, the statutory organs of the party, the NWC, National Caucus, the Board of Trustees (BoT) and the National Executive Council (NEC) will be meeting next (this) week to deliberate on the developments, including the appointment of a replacement for Mu’azu, from the Northeast. The replacement would be in strict adherence to the party’s constitution as specified in Section 47(6). Until then, the status quo remains, which means the Deputy National Chairman, Prince Secondus, remains the Acting National Chairman.”
Adding to this dilemma is a new wave of demands for the zoning formula of PDP to be scrapped in the search for the next PDP chairman. Reports this week confirm that virtually all geo-political zones in the country, especially the South-East and South-South, which have more PDP governors, are now interested in the position. Even the South-West zone is not left out. By this weekend, according to insider sources, zonal meetings are still ongoing to determine the way forward for the party in view of the sharp disagreement between governors and the NWC.
Even the search for the interim National Chairman to complete Mu’azu’s tenure has not fared better as it has further divided PDP leaders from the North-East Zone.
The Nation reported earlier in the week that “a few hours into the conduct of a mini-election for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman from the Northeast, party leaders in the zone were split along religious lines.”
We reported that “four candidates came forward as at Monday to compete for the slot to complete the tenure of the past National Chairman, Adamu Muazu.
“They are the party’s National Vice Chairman (Northeast), Girigiri Lawal; ex-Governor of the defunct Gongola State, Wilberforce Juta; ex-Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Bala Mohammed and PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi Jalo.”
Observers said this disagreement has further complicated the already complex task of installing an acceptable leadership that can reposition PDP. This is even as the party has lost many of its popular leaders through defections.
Defections
It is on record that since Buhari’s victory at the 2015 presidential poll, the opposition PDP has lost many of its prized members to the new ruling party in droves. Many observers of developments in the embattled former ruling party are of the opinion that unless something is urgently done by its leadership to arrest the incessant defection by its members to the APC, the future appears gloomy for PDP.
Adding to the woes of the party at the weekend, former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, dumped the party, saying he was stepping aside from partisan politics in the meantime. Nnamani told the leadership of the party that his exit from the PDP became imperative because his advise and appeal to the party leadership that there was the urgent need to rebuild the party after it lost the 2015 elections and to address the problem of impunity, fell on deaf ears.
In a letter to the leadership of the party and obtained by our Correspondent, the former President of the Senate said, “We need to become a party of technocrats and professionals and not a party of mercenaries and rent seekers. We need to become the party of young men and women with new ideas and not a party of political dinosaurs. It is clear now that these pleas have fallen on deaf ear.”
Few days earlier, a former minister of information, and governor of the old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo, dumped the PDP and defected to the APC. Nwobodo, a former Senator and presidential aspirant on the platform of the PDP, attended an APC meeting, reportedly convened by Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Jeffrey Onyeama, in Enugu.
He declared his membership of the party at the meeting, to the surprise of most of the APC members present at the event. Nwobodo was not alone as a former PDP senator from Enugu State, Chief Fidelis Okoro, also defected to the APC at the meeting. Okoro was in the Senate between 1999 and 2007.
Some other chieftains who have since left the PDP for the APC include the immediate past Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba; the immediate past Senate Committee Chairman on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang; former Deputy Senate Majority Leader, Jonathan Zwingina; Senator Gbemisola Saraki; former governor of Edo State, Osarhemen Osunbor; the immediate past state chairman of the PDP in Bayelsa State; Col. Sam Inokoba (retd.); former Chief of Staff to immediate past Senate President, David Mark, Chief Agbo Oga; and former chairman of the PDP in Benue State, Lawrence Ugbo.
Recently, thousands of PDP members in Kogi State, led by a former House of Assembly Majority Leader, Yakubu Yunusa, reportedly defected to the APC. At least 500 members of the PDP also reportedly defected to the APC in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State not long ago. Some of the defectors said after the PDP massively lost out in the last general elections, the state had received zero attention from the leadership of the party. Mr. Mark Akor, who led the defection process, said they chose to join hands with the APC to further the ‘change’ campaign of the party.
In Rivers State the party became further depleted with the exit of more heavyweights last week. The latest in the ranks of Rivers PDP heavyweights who have recently defected to the APC include three former gubernatorial candidates, Chief (Captain) Sunday Nwankwo, Chief Bekinbo Soberekon and Engr. Bekinbo Dagogo-Jack. Others include: Dr. Diamond Tobin-West, Dr. Basoba Anga, Chief Tubonimi Wokoma, Hon. Daye Ojuka and Hon. Ibroma Kirchner.
In Ondo State, Chief Olusola Oke, the candidate of the PDP in the state governorship election in 2012, said many chieftains of the PDP in the state have concluded arrangement to join the All Progressives Congress. A former senator who represented Ondo Central Senatorial District and close associate of Mimiko, Mr. Ayo Akinyelure, and the Director, Technical Aids Corps and former Mimiko’s commissioner, Dr. Pius Osunyikanmi, defected to the opposition party in December, 2015.
Oke stated this while speaking with journalists after a meeting with members of the APC in his house at Ijapo Estate, Akure, the state capital. The former PDP National Legal Adviser, who defected to the APC few days after the March, 28, 2015 presidential election, said the intending defectors were tired of the PDP and therefore opted to “join the wind of change that is blowing across the country.
Probe
Another major challenge that has further complicated the matter for PDP is the ongoing probes. As far back as August 2015, hardly had Buhari’s anti-corruption war started when the 49-member Senate Caucus of ?the PDP said the drive was a selective anti-graft war that “lacks transparency and fairness”. Many people were quick to say their opposition to the move was premised on the realisation that the party would be further weakened by the exposures that were to follow.
Addressing newsmen at a press conference, the PDP senators, led by the Minority Leader of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, said EFCC was mainly targeting opposition politicians. The former governor of Akwa Ibom State, who is also being investigated by the EFCC, noted that there is no transparency in Mr. Buhari’s efforts to rid Nigeria of corruption as the administration targets its political opponents.
Today, their fear seemed confirmed as the PDP is wriggling under the heavy burden of accusations and allegations of sleaze, bribery and outright stealing. Expectedly, the centre is no longer holding within the troubled party. Recently, some national officers of the party called on the party’s Acting Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Alhaji Haliru Bello, Metuh and others who are standing trial for corruption to, without delay, step down from their positions.
“All those mentioned in the ongoing corruption trial are therefore on their own and the party was not involved financially or in any way with the office of the National Security Adviser or any other organ of the Federal Government in the last regime.”
They made the call in a statement in Abuja on Monday. The statement, requesting the officers to step down, was signed by the Deputy National Youth Leader, Dennis Alonge-Niyi; Deputy National Legal Adviser, Bashir Maidugu; Deputy National Organising Secretary, Okey Nnaedozie; and Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo.
The statement argued that the sacking of the men, who are on trial for alleged fraud, was the only way to move the party forward, saying the actions and “omissions of a very few individuals, who parade themselves as leaders” were negatively impacting on the PDP.
Many PDP chieftains are facing trials currently. Dasuki, arrested last November after he was initially released in September, has been held in the DSS custody as he faces trial over alleged misappropriation of $2.1 billion meant for arms purchase during the first military campaign against Boko Haram in the northeast in 2014.
The former NSA has been arrested three times so far, (the last time by the EFCC) while his co-accused, including ex-Gov. Attahiru Bafarawa, former Finance Minister, Bashiru Yuguda, PDP’s stalwart, Raymond Dokpesi, and others have been granted bail. Also named in the armsgate scandal are Olisa Metuh, Haliru Bello and Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State.
Chief Bode George, Tony Anenih, Jim Nwobodo, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Bafarawa’s son, Sagir; and the founding chairman, DAAR Communications Plc, Chief Raymond Dokpesi amongst other PDP chieftains were also named in connection with the billions allegedly distributed by Dasuki to PDP stalwarts to aide ex President Jonathan’s re-election.
‘To say this ongoing probe is negatively affecting the PDP is to say the obvious. All those who should be in the forefront of repositioning the party are either in detention or facing trial for corruption, while the real elders of the party have resolved to keep sealed lips. It will be difficult for the party to wriggle out of its current embattled state without its leading lights. PDP as a party is in trouble, unless these men are proven innocent,” a female chieftain of the party in Lagos State told The Nation.
Likely new leaders
Determined to rise from the dust of its defeat by the APC last year, the PDP appears set to throw forward new leaders for itself in a bid to reposition the party and energize it ahead of the 2019 General Election. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the party will soon elect a chieftain from the northeast to serve as its national chairman.
There are four leading candidates to pick from: National Vice Chairman (North-East) of the party, Girigiri Lawal; Second Republic governor of the old Gongola State, Wilberforce Juta and ex-Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed. Former Special Adviser on Political Affairs to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak completes the pack of four contenders amongst some other aspirants.
Ambassador Wilberforce Juta and Barr Ahmed Gulak came from the same Northern senatorial zone of Adamawa State and the duo has been jostling for the apex office of the opposition party in the country. But the PDP leadership in the state recently came out to anoint Juta for the position ahead of Gulak.
Whoever gets the nod of the party to lead it at the national level will also have some new hands to work with across the country. According to party sources, efforts are being made to encourage some young party Turks to come forward and lead the PDP out of its present sorry state.
“We are not folding our hands. We are working round the clock and one major decision we have taken is to concede leadership to a new set of people who are less discredited and more committed,’ a party chieftain said.
The Nation learnt that amongst those being lobbied to come forward and take the mantle of leadership are the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, Governors Ayo Fayose, Olusegun Mimiko, Nyesom Wike, Ibrahim Dankwambo, Ishaku Darius, Prof. Benedict Ayade, Udom Emmanuel and Godswill Akpabio.
Others included ex-governors Abdulkadir Kure, Donald Duke, Jonah Jang, Obong Attah and Achike Udenwa; the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio; the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Leo Ogor; serving Senators and members of the House of Representatives; ex-Ministers Suleiman Abubakar, Tanimu Turaki, Governor Ikpeazu and Osita Chidoka. The big question today is, amongst these new leaders, who will salvage this big umbrella?
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