PDP: Inching towards peace at last?

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took a small step last Thursday towards the resolution of its leadership crisis. LEON USIGBE reports.

THE feuding parties in the leadership crisis of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gave a small sign last Thursday that they may be edging towards peace in the war of attrition that has incapacitated the main opposition for close to one year. Both the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the party led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi have initialed a peace agreement. Even though it is just to cease the mutual verbal assault, it is being celebrated as one step forward and an indication that they may be prepared to listen to each other after failing consistently to meet eyeballs to eyeballs over the rivalry that has ripped the party down the middle.

The agreement was brokered by the PDP National Reconciliation Committee led by Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, which itself appeared headed for a headwind with its perceived support for the Sheriff NWC in the past week but for its quick decision to pull back from its open support for the former Borno State governor. Since Makarfi complained about the handling of the committee’s report, Dickson has had sleepless nights meeting separately with the factions and other party stakeholders, trying to convince them of the committee’s genuine intentions and he got results when he eventually corrected the mistake his committee had made by openly submitting its report to Sheriff, whereas he did it away from prying eyes when he gave the same report to Makarfi. He was alleged to have openly canvassed for the resignation of the NCC, an allegation he vehemently denied. Makarfi had seen that as shocking, embarrassing and a declaration of war on the agents of the party organs.

The agreement signed by Ahmed Gulak and Benard Mikko from the NWC side as well as Dayo Adeyeye and Dave Iorhemba from the NCC side, stated that all actors of the party should desist from making derogatory, inflammatory and divisive statements against party officials, stakeholders and members; that the party should not dissipate her energy amongst itself but to focus on how to unite and be a formidable opposition capable of taking over power from the failed APC led government; that all key actors in the ongoing peace process should henceforth desist from making public press statements attacking each other and statements insinuating negative acts capable of dragging the party through the mud, and all key actors in the PDP have agreed to work together with National Reconciliation Committee led by Governor Seriake Dickson to engender peace and genuine reconciliation. Dickson disclosed this agreement when he presented his committee’s report to the chairman and members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party.

Before Dickson got to that stage, Makarfi had reminded the governor that the NCC did not appoint itself as it was a creation of the party organs, arguing that it was therefore wrong for Dickson to unilaterally call for the resignation of the leadership. According to the Makarfi-led NCC, “The statement coming from one of our most respected governors is to say the least shocking and embarrassing. The National Caretaker Committee did not appoint itself. It is a creation of the National Convention of the party at which Governor Dickson, as a prominent leader of the party, was present. As the governor admitted in his statement, the NCC was put in place and enjoys the support of over 80 per cent of members of the party. That being the case , the proper thing to do if Governor Dickson wants the NCC to be disbanded is to persuade and convince the 80 per cent of the members on the merits of his point of view. The NCC is merely the agent of the party. The principals are the organs of the party and the 80 per cent of members that he alluded to. The NCC has no choice but to obey the command of its principals. It is therefore most unfair to cast aspersions on members of the NCC. Governor Dickson should know where to direct his efforts. He should convince our principals who are the organs of the party on the need for the NCC to resign. We cannot and will not do his job for him.”

Recognising his earlier error, the Bayelsa governor went back to Makarfi, this time with full complement of the media in attendance, to properly handover his committee’s report to the former Kaduna State governor in his office at the NCC’s temporary secretariat. Here, he insisted that he had acted in good faith and in the interest of the party. Dickson said the recommendations of the committee were not cast in stone and therefore subject to amendment by the organs of the party. He went ahead to speak on the spirit behind the template the committee provided which it hopes will lead to a unity national convention by June. “The party has challenges, but the institutions are intact. The organs of the party are intact: they are not affected by the crisis and, as such, they can play their role and their leaders are known.  As a committee, we have said the convention committee can handle even the zoning and we should be able to confide in the judgement and wisdom of the leaders of the party. We also suggested that all national officers and all other officers at all levels who claim either by court action or whatever to have tenures that will go beyond this convention, that all efforts be made to get written resignation,” he said.

Dickson sought to reassure the NCC and organs of the party that his committee’s recommendations weighed in their favour as against the NWC because the delegates for the national convention will be drawn from existing leadership list which is the outcome of the ward, local government and state congresses concluded before the leadership crisis broke out May 21, 2016. Giving a breakdown of the composition of the proposed national convention planning committee, he warned against any attempt to alter the delegates’ list of the party. “We want to make it clear that for us, unless anybody has a hidden agenda, any officer of our party must be the officers elected before the May 21 Port Harcourt national convention. So, we condemn attempts made by anybody for whatever purpose to tinker with the list of elected officials of the party. That is an attempt to cripple and destroy the unity we have managed to establish at the lowest levels of the party, because our understanding is that the challenge we have is only at the national level and not at any state or zonal level. Those ones are been dealt with.”

Dickson was therefore overly confident that peace will return to the party soon but “that is the job we the committee will not be able to do alone. It takes you and other stakeholders to assign specific responsibility to leaders that can carry this out. Luckily, God in his infinite wisdom and kindness has given our party this crop of leaders in government and out of government that can help carry this assignment out.”

Dickson’s submission of his report to Makarfi put a lid on a fresh flank that was threatening to blow open in the lingering leadership crisis and consequently, calmed the NCC’s anxiety. Makarfi has returned to working with the Standing National Reconciliation Committee which he had already dismissed, in the wake of its perceived support for Sheriff, as an af-hoc committee whose relevance has since expired.

As Makarfi told Dickson, the NCC as a creation of the organs of the party, cannot take any decision on the reconciliation report but must revert to those organs for a final decision. However, he has continued to reiterate the readiness of the NCC to disband if that is what the party organs desire. As things stand now, there seems to be a silver lining in the dark clouds over the PDP.