The rise and fall of ‘Fresh PDP’

Following the decision of the ‘Fresh PDP’ to end its struggle against the parent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Deputy Editor, LEON USIGBE, writes on its rise and fall.

Last weekend, it emerged that a group of party members who, in December 2017, announced themselves a new faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had retraced their steps and pledged loyalty to the mother party. 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 Organising 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.

Addressing a press conference under the aegis of the Concerned Candidates and Stakeholders (CCS) of PDP, the group lamented the conduct of the national convention, saying that the process that produced the leadership of Secondus was fraught with illegalities. Nwosu, who spoke as its Director General, had said: “You are all aware that we held our national convention on the 9th and 10th of December 2017 at the Eagle Square in Abuja. It was supposed to be an elective convention where a new NWC of the party will be elected. Most tragically, there was no election on that day but a selection of predetermined persons who were eventually announced as the new NWC members. As concerned candidates and stakeholders of our great party, we deem this perfidy that took place at Eagles Square, a charade orchestrated by the former National Caretaker Committee of our great party led by the former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi and perfected by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa-led National Convention Planning Committee.”

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 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.”

It 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 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.”

But the PDP said it was completely unperturbed by ‘the comical act’ of some individuals who it said made outlandish claims regarding the party. It’s newly elected National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbodiyan, in his reaction to the emergence of the Fresh PDP faction, affirmed that the party was happy with the efforts of the Governor Seriake Dickson-led Reconciliation Committee as well as the responses from all the respectable and responsible leaders of the party over issues arising from the convention.

The party spokesman had said, “We will however not be responsible or respond to any person or groups of individuals who decide to allow themselves to be used by forces from another political party in a laughable and childish attempt to distract us. The PDP under the Prince Uche Secondus-led national leadership will continue to focus on repositioning our great party to be the formidable opposition that will guarantee checks and balances in our polity and ultimately regain power in 2019.”

The rise of the Fresh PDP was the spanner in a wheel of the efforts to restore lasting peace in the crisis-ridden leading opposition party. Many of its prominent members thought it was an attempt to set back the hand of the clock after an apparently successful national convention. Among these were the Ekiti State governor and chairman of the PDP Governors Forum Ayo Fayose, who thought that those who had identified themselves as Fresh PDP ought to have been arrested and jailed for disrupting the peace of the nation. “We are not distracted by elements of distractions, we are focused we know the enemies are at work, we know several things have been going on with some wanting to prevent our convention. But since we have had a peaceful convention they are not happy. We know these people, even those from outside and we will name them when the time comes,” Fayose said in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi.

The governor argued further, “In a civilised society those parading themselves as Fresh PDP should have been clamped into jail. They are simply charlatans. I won’t be surprised and we are doing investigations to know those who are behind them. In a society like Nigeria, where we need a virile opposition, we need to continually put the government of the day on its toes for them to know that Nigeria is greater than all of us, some miscreants would just make press statement and say they are splinter group or whatever they call themselves. In a proper democracy, they are supposed to have been arrested and detained for breaching the peace of the society as their action is unwarranted and uncalled for.

‘‘But we are not going to celebrate such by making an issue out of it. Nigeria needs peace at all times. We are not going to go back to the days of Sheriff and co, by giving attention to those idiots making noise all over the place. This party will remain focused and move on. I urge Nigerians to ignore them. When I saw them on the Internet, they were faceless people I cannot recognise so they remain a set of jobless and miscreants.”

Despite the hot air, 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 has ostensibly yielded fruit with the announcement of the collapse of the Fresh PDP, the declaration of loyalty to Secondus and the withdrawal of their threat to inaugurate a rival NWC. Former National Chairman of the PDP, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo broke the news to the expectant party faithful and other Nigerians after a reconciliation meeting with the factional leaders at his residence in Abuja.

According to Nwodo who spoke after the meeting, 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 condition, 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 has been completely sealed off. Today, the Fresh PDP has collapsed and all its members have reiterated 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 life which is the primary responsibility of government, which is protection of lives and property and if the government fails to protect life and property it has no business being in government.

Today by what has happened here, we are sending a powerful signal across the country that the PDP wants to assure all Nigerians to expect of us, we will not disappoint you. We will give you a strong and united party that will wipe away your tears, restore confidence in your country make you proud as a Nigerian where ever you are because we will bring back a government that cares and is interested in the welfare of its citizens, in protection of our general good and prosperity of our nation.

“So, let there be an hallelujah song across the country, let our people rejoice and celebrate as we address you today on the unity that we have forged in the party. The members of the fresh PDP that is now disbanded are young vibrant politicians.

‘‘If a leader is leading, and nobody is following, he is taking a walk. PDP is leading and mentoring the young ones to take over the wish of a father is that his offspring will be bigger than him. If a father does not bring an offspring that will surpass him he is not a good father. It means it doesn’t want his future to be better than his past.”

The former party boss was optimistic that the defection of PDP members has come to an end as a result of the reconciliation. In his remarks, the chairman f of the Fresh PDP, Akindele, noted that while they had always maintained that there is only one PDP, they were forced to take the actions they did because of acts of impunity in the party.

He said: “But the issue of impunity and imposition has forced us into this situation because in PDP we don’t have any mechanism to address it. We have a mechanism for reconciliation. Reconciliation is when you have a dispute. But when it is a criminal political act then what you need is restitution. But we had received assurances from our leaders here that this will be addressed and today while it marks the end of Fresh PDP, it brings a PDP that is caring and wants to address issues that may affect it in the primaries. We have been having these meetings for a long time. An executive meeting was held at 5 a.m today in the interest of the nation and the party so that we won’t have a parallel NWC come Monday. This has been cancelled we have surrendered the list to our leader here and we want to assure gentlemen of the press that this is the best thing that can happen to PDP.”

The chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, confirmed that the board was involved in the reconciliation process with the Fresh PDP.  According to him, “the BoT and the national leadership of the party were very well involved and played a great role in the dissolution of the fresh PDP recently formed by some aggrieved members of the party. I was the first to interact with the group when it was formed pleading with them to follow the reconciliation methodology set by the party. Now that the group has been totally dismantled, PDP is now fully set to take over the mantle of leadership at federal, state, and local government levels.”

Joining Akindele at the meeting with Nwodo were Godwin Duru and Franklyne Edede of the defunct Fresh PDP.  Nwosu, who was not at the meeting, has now disputed its claim of disbandment and accused his colleagues of giving in to pecuniary desire. In a statement issued barely 24 hours after the truce was announced, the crack in the Fresh PDP’s rank was revealed. Nwosu, who authored the statement as the Director General of the group, described the action of rejoining the PDP as “shameful and most pathetic show of unbridled poverty and greed exhibited by these individuals masquerading as spokespersons for the Fresh PDP.” He said they did not have his authority to collapse the platform.

In an angry tirade, Nwosu claimed, “These shameless persons who had at various times deployed very untoward means to use the noble Fresh PDP platform as a blackmail tool for the extortion of money from party leaders; have come to their ultimate end. No one in his right senses will listen to the characters that purported to have collapsed such a vibrant movement like the Fresh PDP whose ideology has spread across Nigeria like wildfire. For the records, my humble self and Rodney Odili-Obi were the initiators of the Fresh PDP.

Every other person that joined the movement was allowed to be a part of Fresh PDP after expressing the deep seated desire to join such a noble cause that seeks to address impunity and imposition in our great party. Very many party leaders and members had warned us about the ugly antecedents of some of these individuals who we allowed to join the Fresh PDP. They have now openly disgraced themselves as they exhibited their inordinate desire for cheap compensation against the high ideals of correcting injustice and ensuring transparency in the coming party primaries; which Fresh PDP was established to achieve.”

Even though Nwosu has broken ranks with the rest leadership of the Fresh PDP and forging on with his battle, observers believe that the faction has essentially come to a dead end as they do not think it possesses enough political goodwill and financial clout to rock the boat. Therefore, the PDP appears to have once again demonstrated its uncanny ability to survive self-inflicted wounds.