Fresh twists in PDP’s search for peace

Deputy Editor, LEON USIGBE, brings to the fore new twists in the leadership crisis of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), indicating that amicable solution is still a long way off.

THERE are many dimensions to the seemingly interminable leadership crisis in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but the aspects that is proving the toughest to deal with is arguably the personality clash between the acting national chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and the chairman of the party’s Governors Forum, Ayo Fayose. The Ekiti state governor has never denied the fact that he provided the pedestal that launched Sheriff onto the post at a time he trusted the former Borno State governor to lead the opposition onslaught on President Muhammadu Buhari and his ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). That seems a long time ago now. There is no longer love lust between the two. If anything, they have become mortal enemies.

Fayose has outlined his grouse against Sheriff, accusing him, principally, of wanting to use the chairmanship post for realize his 2019 presidential ambition. This cost Sheriff his ratification at the May 21, 2016 PDP national convention in Port Harcourt and set off the current leadership imbroglio. Despite the Court of Appeal judgment that recognises Sheriff as the acting national chairman of the party,  Fayose is determined to see the ouster of the man he considers an usurper and is doing his utmost to mobilise all the organs of the party behind this objective.

Sheriff is fighting back. On the one hand, the two-term former governor has maintained that he would not condescend to the level of the Ekiti governor  to begin an exchange of brickbats with him, but on the other hand, he seems poised to invoke the provisions of the party’s constitution to deal Fayose a disciplinary blow. He made this clear on Thursday at a press briefing in Abuja.

Hear him: “Let me make it clear to some of the party members, particularly, Governor Ayo Fayose. I will not condescend to his level. It must be very clear to him. The party has rules, and we will look at the constitution, at the appropriate time to do the right thing. He has made it a point of duty, everyday, to insult Ali Sheriff. I want to tell him that enough is enough: Belonging to political party is by choice. Yes, you may have a right, but your right should not trample on another person’s right. A political party is a voluntary association.

“If you are the leader of a political party, we have to allow people to have their choice of leadership.  In all these things we are doing, we believe that the PDP belongs to all Nigerians, we believe that the PDP must be handed over to the owners. The right of the owners of the party must be to be allowed to do the right thing. That does not mean a sign of weakness. The PDP produced 28 governors, and today it has 12. If we allow impunity to continue, Nigerians have the right to reject our party. You can take a horse to the river, but you can’t force it to drink. We can make this party attractive to everybody. We want to reposition the party so that it can win election. Nobody has the monopoly to do what he is doing like we don’t have the rule of law.”

Fading hopes

Beyond the issue of Fayose, the hope of a quick solution to the crisis has all but evaporated. On Thursday, the feuding party factions exhibited conflicting reactions to the recommendations of the PDP Standing Reconciliation Committee, led by Governor Dickson of Bayelsa State.  The committee presented its report containing a template for the formation of a national convention committee to conduct what it is calling a unity national convention. The report was presented to both the chairman of the National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, and Sheriff. Dickson had submitted the report to Makarfi in private and the former Kaduna State governor advised that it should be vetted by all organs of the party before it was put in the public domain. But while he submitted same report to Sheriff at the national secretariat of the party, Dickson did it in the full glare of the media and announced the recommendations.

According to the template, Sheriff is expected to select, in consultation with party stakeholders, 12 members of the National Convention Planning Committee, which will have seven state governors; seven senators, including the deputy Senate President; 12 members of the House of Representatives, and six members of the Board of Trustees. Also to be considered for membership of the committee according to Dickson, are national vice chairmen (one per zone); three state chairmen per zone; six serving Speakers of the state Houses of Assembly and six former governors. Others suggested for inclusion are six former  presiding officers of the National Assembly (who are still members of the party); six prominent Women Leaders; six Youth Leaders of the party, and six former ministers of the party.

The reconciliation committee also proposed that “for the purpose of the convention, all officers elected at the ward, local, state and zonal levels before the first Port Harcourt convention of May 21, 2016 are deemed validly elected except for the election held in some states that were declared by NEC as inconclusive. It recommended that the proposed national convention should hold not later than June 30, 2017. Similarly, as part of the sacrifice to be made in order to reposition the party, the committee was of the view that all national officers who may claim that their tenure still subsists beyond the proposed convention “are hereby requested to relinquish their claim in the interest of the party. “

Sheriff’s acceptance and Makarfi’s rejection

Sheriff said he has accepted all the recommendations made by the Dickson committee, whereas they have been rejected by Makarfi. “The NWC has met and looked at all the recommendations of Governor Dickson’s reconciliation committee. We believe that it has met the requirements of the NWC, and therefore, we are accepting the recommendations in totality, and we are commencing implementation of these recommendations,” Sheriff said. HE added that his leadership has now started the process of conducting congresses in states where there were problems before the May 21, 2016 national convention, starting with Anambra State.

The party boss also disclosed his intention to contact all party organs to ask them to send in their nominations for the proposed national convention planning committee, followed by a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) to ratify a date for the convention.  “From today, I am going to meet with all the organs of the party and collect their lists of membership with a view to picking their members to be part of the convention committee. We are going to get the list of National Assembly, Board of Trustees and we are writing them formally on that, so that we can collect the specific numbers that are required,” he said.

The cases against Sheriff

Makarfi would have none of that. In fact, he now questions the legitimacy of the Dickson committee, whose mandate he said had since expired. This was the position advanced by the national publicity secretary of his group, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who vowed that Sheriff can never preside over a national convention of the party, because his position is illegal. Adeyeye  based his argument on two different high court judgements that voided the processes leading to the emergence of Sheriff as the acting national chairman of the party.

While insisting that Sheriff must vacate the national secretariat of the party which the National Caretaker Committee accuses him of forcibly entering, Adeyeye, highlighted the judgements against him. He recalled the judgment of an Abuja High Court delivered by Justice Valentine Ashi on June 29, 2016 in which the Court nullified the 2014 Amendment to the PDP Constitution that produced Senator Sheriff as acting National Chairman of the PDP. He said: “This Judgment was never appealed by Senator Sheriff and the time frame stipulated by law for the Appeal has elapsed; and as such, the judgment subsists. It is interesting to note that Senator Sheriff is very much aware of the binding implication of the subsisting judgment on his ‘status’ as National Chairman because we have been reliably informed that he is now seeking leave of Court to appeal the judgment but unfortunately, time is against this later move. So, he is an illegal National Chairman.

“Secondly, another judgment delivered on August 17, 2016 by Justice Nwamaka Ogbonnaya of the FCT High Court in Abuja re-affirmed the ‘sack’ of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party on the ground that the Judgment of Justice Valentine Ashi which nullified his appointment has not been set aside or vacated and therefore it’s subsisting. Justice Ogbonnaya further held that all actions taken by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff are null, void and of no effect; and the Order further restrained him from parading himself as the Acting National Chairman of the party.

“Once again, he is currently an illegal Acting National Chairman given the decisions of the Courts, the Constitution of the PDP, decision of the National Convention coupled with his act of break and entry into the National Secretariat of our great Party, Wadata Plaza.”

Sheriff’s relationship with APC

The Makarfi group does not trust Sheriff who it believes is working for and on behalf of the APC, hence he has never criticized the ruling party. Adeyeye threw a challenge at him on Thursday: “Let Sheriff issue a one line statement against APC. You want us to accept someone working for and on behalf of the APC?”

Makarfi also warned that the true Sheriff would emerged if he is allowed to conduct a national convention. But Sheriff has countered the allegation of being an APC agent, saying that he could never be a stooge to anybody.

He said while receiving the Northern Zone stakeholders of the party led by the former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Mantu who paid him a courtesy call to him: “I am not a stooge of anybody; I will never be a stooge to anybody. You can’t sit down when your house is being destroyed by the people whose mission is not known. In democracy, it must not be me or it must not be Makarfi or a governor and no one again.  if that is the case,  it is longer democracy. Democracy is for the people by the people and for the people. That has been my position. We must conduct a transparent convention and hand over back the party to the people. This is what I stand for. Some people are out to hijack the party.”

In spite of the public altercation, both factions have expressed their commitments to a political solution to the leadership crisis as being championed by former President Goodluck Jonathan. Judging by the actors’ current dispositions though, this solution is still a long way off. Where it comes, it will be without prejudice to the appeal lodged at the Supreme Court by the Makarfi’s faction on the recent reversion to “status quo ante” ordered by the Court of Appeal which effectively returned Sheriff to the PDP saddle.