SHOPPING for new national officers may have begun in earnest in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of September 7 meeting of its leaders to adopt a zoning formula. The meeting coming up next week is a follow-up to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party held on Saturday in Abuja. Three consecutive rulings of high courts expedited the process for the election of new officers, following intrigues and muscle-flexing among a few main actors in the former ruling party. Having resolved to hold its convention between October 29 and 30, the coast appears clear for the coming on stream of a new NEC to replace the one led by embattled Prince Uche Secondus since 2017. Though he appeared humbled by the development, the embattled national chairman may get a soft landing through the trouble shooting mission chaired by a former president of the Senate, David Mark. His primary assignment is to calm frayed nerves and persuade those members that have cases in court over the internal crisis to discontinue them. The birth of the Mark-led committee seems to overshadow that of another former helmsman at the Senate, Bukola Saraki, whose National Reconciliation Committee had been involved in desperate bid to cement cracks within the party. It has been crisscrossing the state chapter of the party logistically independent of the Secondus executive.
As soon as he returned to the country recently, Atiku launched a similar initiative to broker peace among leaders in the PDP, with visits to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and a couple of other leaders of the PDP. The former vice president has also featured steadily and prominently since the face-off between Wike and Secondus came to the force and festered. Similarly, the governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal has been involved in peace initiatives towards maintaining a delicate balance of power in the PDP across board.
Generally, the ceaseless power game has fueled wide-ranging speculations, permutations and calculations on the zoning formula, power-sharing index and distribution chart that might emerge as the party prepares its convention and ultimately, the 2023 general election. In the South-West, there are signals that some forces are putting pressure on Eyitatyo Jegede to join the chairmanship race. He was the standard-bearer of the party in the October 20, 2020 governorship poll in Ondo State. He challenged the outcome of the election up to the Supreme Court, where three out of the four Justices in the Supreme Court delivered a minority judgment in his favour.
In 2017, a total of 92 aspirants contended for 23 offices in the convention of the party that produced the Secondus and other EXCO members. The offices included national chairman, deputy national chairman (South), deputy national chairman (North), secretary, deputy national secretary, national legal adviser, deputy national legal adviser, national organising secretary, national youth leader, and national publicity secretary. Prominent among those that indicated interest in the position of chairman were Gbenga Daniel, Jimi Agbaje, Rashidi Ladoja, Taoheed Adedoja, Tunde Adeniran, Olabode George, Raymond Dokpesi and Aderemi Olusegun. Seven chairmanship candidates were from the South West and two: Secondus and Raymond Dokpesi from the South-South. A total of six of the candidates from the South-West pulled out of the race, with Professor Adeniran becoming the only candidate from the South-West.
Before now, the name of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola has been doing the round as the likely candidate of the party for the chairmanship from the South-West. A powerful caucus, comprising former governors, elders and BoT members of the party, is said to be rallying support for the one-time military administrator of Lagos State and trained lawyer. South-West is the only zone out of the six geopolitical zones in the country that has never produced PDP chairman since the party was founded in 1998. Oyinlola is a close ally of Obasanjo. The former governor of Osun State vacated the position of national secretary in the past, due to political arm twisting engendered by a few hawks, incapacitating PDP machinery for a while before the party managed to wriggle out of asphyxiation. Notwithstanding the pressure on Oyinlola to break the jinx over the chairmanship seat, another group of party buffs from the zone is said to be considering Jegede for the slot, based on an argument that he appears independent-minded to steer the ship of the PDP.
However, another arithmetic on the zoning issue, especially as regards the contest for chairmanship, is what some see as the possibility of a third force emerging to be weaved around elements of PDP extraction outside the South-West, coalescing to influence the process. In other words, the possibility of PDP governors liaising with some of their former colleagues propping up one of their former colleagues from the South-West as a neutral candidate for chairmanship.
According to feelers in the political circle, pedigree, clout, consistency and doggedness are some of the traits they may look out for in such ‘anointed’ candidate. One of the names that has so far come up for discussion is a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose. But some camps in the party claim he has a propensity for stirring controversies. Governors, PDP elders, BoT members and members of a few other caucuses in the party are regarded as potent groupings that will determine the ultimate swing of the pendulum of power.
Though, the issue of political ambition for higher elective office or second term bid is playing a role in the unfolding scenario, the preponderance of the governors belonging to one influential and powerful bloc: PDP Governors Forum with Governor Aminu Tambuwal as chairman is another factor.
Presidential aspirants are equally weighing in, in the ongoing bid to determine the structure of power distribution. The presidential hopefuls fall into two categories. One comprises those that contested for the ticket of the party in the past and who believe they stand a better chance to either get the ticket again or win at the poll this time having been unsuccessful in the past.
The second category of presidential hopeful comprises fresh ones, among them sitting governors, who appear convinced that the eventual zoning formula could favour them to contest for the ticket of the PDP ahead of 2023 poll. Different groups led by their acolytes and loyalists of governors are championing that such governors hold greater promise to lead PDP to victory at the presidential poll if given the chance to become PDP standard-bearer. Within the party is another school of thought that, in resolving the zoning debacle, the party must take into account the 16 years the PDP led the country. Obasanjo spent eight years as president; his successor, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, had about two years out of four due to ill health, while, former President Goodluck Jonathan was in the saddle for six years.
Thus, the permutation is that the presidential ticket of the PDP should go to the North, and vice president, South based on the principle of power rotating between the two divides. The South is perceived to have enjoyed the privileged more than the North, given the years power resided in the South under PDP administrations. However, the resolution of the governors from the 17 states in the South, a couple of months ago, is seen to have fired the gusto of PDP elements from the zone considering the possibility of running, notwithstanding the past power configuration that favoured the South.
Thus, core loyalists of Wike are believed to belong to that school of thought. Coupled with this perception is the humongous resources that is generally required to prosecute presidential bid, despite the extant laws designed to curb undue spending by contestants for elective public offices.
Meanwhile, some party buffs also reason that three former Nigerian leaders could play a role in the ongoing move to work out an acceptable zoning formula for the PDP. The leaders are former President Olusegun; General Abdusalami Abdulsalami and a former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, who once sought PDP presidential ticket. Secondus had literally run to Obasanjo and Babangida for consultations and advice, when the internal crisis in the party assumed a major combustion. Already, some current EXCO members are keen to seek fresh mandate at the planned convention of the party. They are only waiting in the wings for the official release of the guidelines that will guide the process that will culminate into the convention before proclaiming their individual bid.
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