In this report, LEON USIGBE of the Abuja Bureau writes on the gathering of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) bigwigs in Abuja to receive the Professor Jerry Gana Committee’s report which the party hopes would lead it back to power in 2019. He asks the question; is the siege over for the umbrella party?
Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wore hopeful mood as they gathered in Abuja last week to receive the report of the Professor Jerry Gana Committee, which reviewed the party’s activities in recent years. The committee was inaugurated on November 10, 2016 and given 90 days to submit its report. Its job was well cut out for it; get to the roots of the shenanigans that have rocked the party in recent times and design the way forward.
The committee was dead on target when it turned in the report at an elaborate ceremony in Abuja last Wednesday. Its work followed a set certain pattern: members were organised into 11 syndicate groups for in-depth analysis of specific problems and challenges facing the party and they identified the problem areas during intensive debates among themselves.
Leaders of the party across the country were elated as Professor Gana reeled out some key elements of the report. National Caretaker Committee Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who was cautious in immediately adopting the report because of the need for due process said that he was confident the PDP would be out of the woods sooner than expected.
On Friday, February 17, 2017, the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state is expected to lay to rest the lingering leadership crisis in the main opposition. The court has set aside that day to give judgement on the validity of the last national convention of the party which held in Port Harcourt on May 21, 2016 where the National Caretaker Committee led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi was raised. Recall that the acting National Chairman of the party up until that convention was Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. He opposed the conduct of the convention and has since refused to recognise the outcome; hence the leadership crisis has beset the former ruling party since then.
Sheriff’s group has already indicated that it will abide by whatever decision the Court of Appeal comes up with. But the National Caretaker Committee is hopeful that the decision will go its way. This optimism appears to have fueled its action in the recent times as it had soldiered on with efforts to rebuild the party in time, hoping to reclaim the presidency in 2019. Added to the expected end of the legal tussles, the Caretaker Committee had decided to celebrate the Strategy Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee charged with the responsibility of producing workable strategies to rebuild and reposition the party for the 2019 objective.
Key Recommendations
Headed by a founding member of the party, Professor Jerry Gana, it was inaugurated on November 10, 2016 and given 90 days to complete its assignment. The report was submitted dead on point, thus the convergence of bigwigs at the Abuja parley last week.
Its Chairman, Prof. Gana had explained that members of the syndicate groups worked tirelessly to examine the specific challenge assigned to them, and to propose effective solutions. The proposals so generated were then subjected to a thorough debate and further examination by all the members of the committee meeting in plenary sessions. “Our Report thus contains our well-considered recommendations,” the former minister told party leaders while presenting the report.
He gave an insight into some of the key recommendations. It proposes strategies and activity patterns for re-mobilising and re-energising PDP members nationwide. To achieve this, the committee proposes that there must be mass campaigns and sustained regular programmes on radio, television and the social media. Such programmes, it says, should be designed to promote and market the ideals, policies and programmes of the PDP.
It recommends that periodic meetings of party organs should be made mandatory at all levels while there should be regular party conferences, workshops and seminars open to the public to discuss topical issues on the economy, vital areas of development and crucial matters of security safety, and community relations. It says special attention should be given to reconciliation and re-connection with aggrieved members and leaders of the party.
The report highlights the important position of youth and women and therefore recommends that particular attention be paid to the full implementation of a clear policy for integration of the youth and women in the party structures.
Attitudinal change and selection candidates
Desirous of creating a positive image for the PDP, the committee’s report emphasises attitudinal change by leaders at all levels in the conduct of party affairs. Leaders, it counsels, must be seen to enthrone justice, fairness, equity, integrity and a robust respect for internal democracy during party elections. The report noted: “We must also resolutely improve the reward system in the party so as to encourage loyalty, sacrifice and hard-work.”
On how to avoid contentious conventions, congresses, the zoning of party offices and to ensure the emergence of good and popular candidates as well as discourage the culture of impunity, imposition of unpopular candidates, the committee provides strategic options.
Some of the key recommendations include:
- The party should adhere strictly to the principles of zoning and rotation of political offices, guided by the principles of justice, equity, fairness, inclusiveness and balanced representation
- The party should return to the direct primary system instead of the existing indirect delegates system for nominating candidates. It argues that the direct primary system will promote free, fair and credible election of candidates for elective offices. The report provides guidelines for direct primaries. But it also provides guidelines for an improved indirect system in case the party is forced by circumstances to adopt that system.
- To facilitate the use of direct primaries as recommended, the party must take immediate steps to compile and maintain an authentic register of party membership throughout the country.
- The party must commit itself to a credible system of internal democracy by ensuing very strict compliance with agreed principles of due process.
- The party must return to its founding principles of justice, equity, fairness, inclusiveness, the common good, accountability, transparency consultations consensus building, respect for the popular will, and sanctity of the rule of law.
Review of PDP Constitution and Manifesto
The report also recommends a comprehensive review of the PDP Constitution and Manifesto as well as provide strategic options for sustainable funding of the party with emphasis on contributions from all members of the party rather than a few moneybags. It provides strategic options for winning elections under the current Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which Gana observed, is tied to the apron string of the APC. However, the committee preferred to keep these options confidential because of the sensitive nature of the theme.
It also addresses some practices of good governance for adoption by the party as it believes that “governments elected on the platform of the PDP must govern so excellently as to produce genuine development to uplift the lives of millions of our people.”
Professor Gana said the committee considered how best to put in place a robust mechanism of inter-party relations so as to encourage the coming together of all genuine and people-oriented democrats on the basis of shared principles and core programmes of national transformation and on the basis of that, he reported that its initial contacts have yielded positive responses from seven people-focused and social democratic parties.
and then