MANY in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had hoped that a successful conduct of last December’s national convention would bring to an end its protracted crisis. Substantially, this may have been achieved but it is far from engendering the much needed harmony which the faithful hoped would lead it back to power in next year’s general election.
There are still unresolved issues. Apart from those arising from the conduct of the national convention itself, many state chapters have been unable to move beyond leadership crises and petty squabbles, raising new concerns about the stability of the leading opposition party.
Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee of the party and Governor of Bayelsa state, Seriake Dickson, has had very little time for leisure since the end of the convention, doing as he promised, trying to reconcile all aggrieved elements within the party. Recognising the enormity of the task, he had said soon after the convention: “We have already established contact with those who are dissatisfied or for one reason or the other have some issues and grievances, which is normal in an exercise such as this. It is not our business in this committee to apportion blame; our focus is to promote reconciliation because all party leaders and members are important. Their concerns are also very important. Where there are grievances, it is the view of this committee that those grievances be looked into and addressed where possible.”
He added: “We want to confirm to you the effort we have made in establishing contact with the chairmanship aspirants, and indeed, we intend to interact with all other aspirants who purchased form, and those who actually contested. It is our intention to engage and interact with them to find out what the challenges and issues are with a view to promoting amicable solutions and better understanding within the PDP family. We are pleased to announce that our contact with all the chairmanship candidates was very positive. We were well received.”
Some of the aggrieved persons the Dickson committee met included Chief Bode George, Professor Tunde Adeniran, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Mr Jimi Agbaje, Chief Gbenga Daniel, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, who all expressed their disappointment with the conduct of the national convention. The committee visited them in their houses in different parts of the country and Dickson later said that much progress was recorded during the visits and the committee was pleased.
The reconciliation committee was gearing up to perform its assignment when, December last year, a splinter group calling itself the “Fresh PDP” emerged. The drivers of the group had addressed a press conference in what they said was their new national secretariat in Asokoro, Abuja, expressing outrage at the outcome of the national convention of the party in which Prince Uche Secondus emerged as the national chairman. The leaders included Godwin Chinedu Duru, a National Organizing Secretary candidate in the December 9 convention; Franklyn Edede, candidate for the Office of the National Youth Leader; Chief Olukayode Akindele, Deputy Director General of the Professor Tunde Adeniran Campaign Organisation and Alhaji Hassan Adamu. They lamented the conduct of the national convention, saying that the process that produced the leadership of Secondus was fraught with illegalities.
The group accused the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee of deliberate refusal “to release the delegates list as was agreed upon by all aspirants until barely 24 hours to the convention, which is contrary to our party’s constitution. This is a complete aberration as it made it impossible for aspirants to cross-check the authenticity of the list and also have some time to interact with the delegates before the date of the convention.”
Fresh PDP further alleged that the “the entire process of selecting the purported NWC was concluded days before the convention and a list of those selected was published, which eventually was circulated at the Eagle square long before voting commenced,” adding that it had evidence that to show that “some names in the fraudulent Unity List collected nomination forms after the official closing date and some others were not even screened as required by the electoral guidelines.” It therefore called on members of the party to cease forthwith, any correspondence with the “Illegal NWC selected through the most undemocratic way ever witnessed in the history of our party.”
However, the Dickson reconciliation committee appeared to have reached a milestone when suddenly in January this year, the Fresh PDP announced that it had collapsed into the mainstream under the leadership of Prince Secondus. The committee and other PDP stakeholders worked quietly behind the scene over the Christmas and New Year holidays to assuage all frayed nerves and return normalcy to the party. This effort apparently yielded fruit as the former Fresh PDP leaders withdrew the threat to inaugurate a rival NWC. Former National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, broke the news to expectant party faithful and other Nigerians after a reconciliation meeting with the factional leaders at his residence in Abuja. According to Nwodo, the reconciliatory process enjoyed the backing of the national leadership of the party as well as that of the Board of Trustees (BoT). He said the reconciliation did not come with any conditions, describing the group as a collection of enthusiastic youths needed by the party ahead of 2019 and also noting that the disbandment of Fresh PDP was the best gift the PDP could give to Nigerians at this stage.
Nwodo added: “A lot of people thought our house was divided and was about to cascade down. But we want to assure you that by God’s mercy an internal reconciliation capacity of the PDP, the cracks that you noticed have been completely sealed off. Today, the fresh PDP has collapsed and all its members have reintegrated into the mainstream of the PDP and we have a United PDP, poised, ready and promising Nigerians that we are going to take away this government that is insensitive to human lives; the primary responsibility of government, which is protection of lives and property and if the government fails to protect live and property it has no business being in government.
Fresh PDP’s Akindele had also noted that while they had always maintained that there has only been one PDP, they were forced to take the actions they did because of acts of impunity in the party.
But not long after that announcement, the director-general of the “Fresh PDP,” Prince Obi-Nwosu Emmanuel came out to deny that the group had collapsed into the mainstream PDP. He said in a statement that the action of those who claimed to have collapsed the Fresh PDP was shameful and “a most pathetic show of unbridled poverty and greed exhibited by these individuals masquerading as spokespersons for the Fresh PDP.”
Nwosu had argued that Chief Akindele and other members of the group had no authority to announce the collapse of the group into the mainstream PDP, saying the Fresh PDP was set to inaugurate a Central Working Committee (CWC) and not a parallel National Working Committee (NWC) as earlier planned, after a wide consultation.
However, ever since Nwosu made the statement, he is yet to follow up on his threat to set up the central working committee.
Beyond the perennial issues involving Senator Buruji Kashamu and other leaders of the party in the South-West zone, crisis has raged on as the Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe-led South-West Zonal Executive and Eddy Olafeso-led faction continued their battle for recognition as the authentic zonal leadership in the law courts. But this did not stop Dickson from positing that his committee had achieved its mission to restore peace in the South-West PDP, as he assured that the top leaders of the party in the region, who the committee interfaced with had expressed their commitment to the unity of the PDP in the region.
After meeting with Agbaje, George, former Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe; a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Senator Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor; a former Minister of State for Defence, Chief Olusola Obada; a former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope; a former National Vice Chairman of the party (South-West), Ishola Filani; Chief Wole Oyelese; Othman Shodipe and others, in the South-West, the reconciliation committee chairman said that the PDP leaders in the zone had displayed understanding on the need to have a strong united political platform to wrest the country from what he described as hopelessness.
He said that the committee was pleased with the individual and collective responses and the willingness of the South-West PDP leaders to build a strong and cohesive party ahead of the 2019 general elections.
“We think that our reconciliation efforts in the South-West have gone on very well. Our party leaders have left nobody in doubt as to their genuine commitment and loyalty to the party in the service of our great party,” Dickson declared, while noting that the PDP would be counting on the leadership of the party in the South-West. All the leaders visited had appreciated the committee’s gesture and expressed their readiness to join in the rebuilding of a PDP where equity, fairness and justice will hopefully prevail.
In the states, Anambra remains the biggest headache for the PDP hierarchy. Just as it was in the past, the state chapter is today factionalised and barely recognisable. In the run up to the December national convention, the national disciplinary committee of the party suspended the former state chairman of the party, Ken Emeakayi, for four years over alleged “indiscipline” and stripped of all legitimate privileges of a party member for the duration of the punishment.
Before Emeakayi, the party had similarly suspended its Anambra State gubernatorial aspirant, Ifeanyi Ubah, for one month due to his criticism of party leaders over their handling of the party’s primaries in the state. Ubah had alleged that the party’s primaries, which produced Oseloka Obaze as its candidate for the Anambra gubernatorial poll was characterised by irregularities and that the party leadership had refused to address his complaints. This discontent is yet to be resolved.
Apart from Ogun and Ekiti state chapters with persisting significant problems, it would appear that most of the PDP state branches with schisms have managed to suppress them. Secondus is, therefore, confident that the party is on track to resolve all its lingering crises and be well placed to recapture power in 2019.
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