FORCES in the major political parties seem back in the trenches, with the power brokers in the ruling All Progressives congresses (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at each other’s throat in the gradual buildup to the 2023 election. KUNLE ODEREMI reports on the clash of interests and the permutations.
UNFOLDING developments in the two leading parties: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) reenact the 1992 era of the two-party system foisted on the country by the Babangida regime. Then, two dramatis personae: Chief Tom Ikimi and Ambassador Babagana Kingibe were the helmsmen in the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) respectively. Their tenure as chairmen witnessed intense power play and battle against a galaxy of seasoned politicians and statesmen in the parties. The acrimony and frustration among the gladiators and their national chairmen was aggravated by the fallout of primaries to pick residential candidates for the 1993 general election. The exercise spewed a wave of fury and umbrages across the landscape; the aggrieved raised concern about the leadership of their individual parties at the national level. Both Ikimi and Kingibe came under a barrage of verbal assaults for alleged manipulation of the primaries. The frontline contestants, including Chief Olu Falae, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Abel Ubeku, Datti Ahmed, Jerry Gana, Olabiyi Durojaiye, Ibrahim Waziri and Layi Balogun vehemently voiced their anger against the alleged manipulation of the process by the SDP leadership to favour the late Major General Musa Yar’Adua. Similarly, Ikimi came under the boot of virulent verbal attacks from presidential hopeful in the NRC, among them, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Umaru Shinkafi, Melford Okilo, Saleh Jambo, Lema Jubrilu and Bamanga Tukur. The simmering crisis of confidence among the civilian political elite cum class quickly assisted the military in its hidden agenda, laced in a convoluted political transition programme, that led to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential poll.
…On the spot
The national chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus and Mai Mala Buni, the Acting chairman of the Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee are on the spot. For the PDP, the fate of its leadership has always hanged in the balance. Aside from the tenure of its first national chairman, the late Chief Solomon Lar, the tenure of all other national chairmen of the party have always been on the cliffhanger, either by default or through self-infliction. This time, the forces that installed Secondus have coalesced to give him a good fight. Apart from the allegations of poor management of party that has led to a gale of defections of highbrow PDP members, including governors and members of the National Assembly, to the rival APC, as well as the issue of his leadership style, Secondus is accused of sidelining major stakeholders in the party in the scheme of things and pursuing a second term in office at the expiration of his current mandate in December 2021. But his loyalists have fought back gamely, accusing his traducers of either fighting a proxy war based on inordinate ambition, ego and money politics in the bid to hijack the PDP lever. According to them, those against their principal are being beclouded by the humongous war chest at their disposal at the detriment of the collective will of the main opposition party. Beneath the accusations and counter-accusations by the belligerent forces in the party is the absence of a distinct ideological underpinning, making the party an appendage of influential personalities of godfathers, rather than existing as institutions with clear-cut focus and programmes.
According to sources, the contest for the presidential ticket of the PDP in 2023 is regarded as the major cause of the schism; zoning arrangement between the North and the South. Initial speculations were that the cordial tie between Secondus and Wike would translate to a smooth transfer of baton from him to his political godson in Rivers State in 2023. But the cordiality went awry over time, with the men breaking ranks and forging new alliances with presidential hopeful from the North in the PDP. One account claims that Wike might pair with Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State for the presidential race. Another account claimed the candidate of the party in the 2019 presidential poll, Atiku Abubakar might run with Wike in 2023. A source said there is no doubt that Atiku, a former vice-president, will contest again. He reportedly sent a message to an influential politician from the South-West recently that he was convinced of winning the presidency this time round. Either of the two alliances has immediate and long term implications for the speculated wish of Secondus to renew his current mandate at the convention of the PDP because of the zoning principle. After the series of meetings by the national organs of the party to douse the initial flame and passion triggered by the Secondus-must-go campaign, spearheaded by some elements, he was given a temporary reprieve. The chairman also embarked on consultations with some Nigerians leaders perceived to have sympathy with the PDP. His visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo was most pronounced because of the affinity of the former leader to the party even though he had declared he no longer has anything to do with partisan politics. Those visits were described as mere smokescreen by opponents of Secondus because of an alleged memo he present to the elders of the party at their meeting, in which he reneged on the agreement that the convention of the PDP be brought back by two months to hold in October.
Curious twist
The burden on the shoulder of APC leadership is multifaceted. The status of Mala Buni as the chairman of the 13-member National Caretaker Committee on extraordinary convention sparked row and litigation. For example, a number of aggrieved APC members in Benue State sought dissolution of the committee and nullification of all its activities since its inception. Joined as co-defendant in the originating summon registered as Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/938/2021, are the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and others. Part of the motion for interlocutory injunction instituted by their lawyer, Mr Samuel E. Irabor at the Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday, 18th August, 2021, is that the committee falls short of the constitutionally required 24 members spread across not less than two-third of the 36 states and the FCT for any governing body of a political party, whether substantive or acting, as stipulated under Section 223(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as altered); that the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), who administered oath of office on Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State as purported caretaker chairman lacks the powers to do so under any provision of the APC Constitution, 2014 (as amended) as he is neither a member of the National Working Committee or even a member of the NEC of the APC.
Another issue his critics have latched on is the minority judgment of the Supreme court on the appeal filed by the candidate of the PDP in the October 2020 governorship poll, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) which the majority judgment favoured incumbent Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN). In tandem with the views expressed by Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), who led the APC counsel in the matter, the minority judgment was a mere academic exercise, a position further accentuated by the party leadership in a communique. Part of the communique read:
Nonetheless, the Buni committee is confronting a widening gulf within its fold, despite the reconciliation efforts the Buni committee initiated across board. The conduct of ward congress blew the lip as the various tendencies in the party at state, zonal and national levels have vigorously engaged in accusations and counter-accusations of highhandedness and undercuts. The intra-party election meant to elect ward executives threw up many voices and forces hitherto subdued in such states like Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Enugu and Kwara to openly draw a battle line over alleged marginalization by other party interests and caucuses. Thus, uncertainty surrounds the report of the appeal committee set up by the party to look into the petitions arising from the ward congress. Other power blocs in the APC alleged that the interim national leadership was desperate to foist its own set of executives at all strata with the overall aim of becoming the alter ego of the APC in 2023, when President Muhammadu Buhari would have served out his two terms of eight years.
One other instance that may have created goose pimples among the APC chieftains is the case instituted by the some PDP elements against the continued stay of Buni as APC chairman. The opposition party asked the court to sack Buni for allegedly taking up another executive position as the caretaker chairman of the APC. In the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the PDP contended that combining the governor’s office with another executive position is a constitutional violation. The opposition party asked that its governorship candidate in the 2019 election, Umar Damagum, and his running mate, Baba Aji, should be sworn in as replacements for Buni and his deputy. Buni, his deputy governor, Idi Gubana, the APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were sued as the defendants in the suit.
On its part, the APC expressed confidence in the ability of the nation’s judiciary to punish the PDP for alleged use of court processes on the case it filed against Buni’s appointment as caretaker chairman of the APC. Its national secretary, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe described as frivolous, the PDP’s court action against the CECPC chairman.
For Secondus, an interim order issued by high court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, asking him to stop parading himself as PDP may have come like a thunderbolt, given the spirited moves to streamline the demands of all the tendencies in the party and stabilise it as possible alternative to the APC in the next political dispensation.
Defection fallout
Three governors elected on PDP ticket: David Umahi of Ebonyi State; Ben Ayade of Cross River State and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State; members of the National Assembly, among them, 19 senators, who were elected on its platform have defected to the APC. Its woes worsened by sudden resignation of seven national deputies, necessitating the intervention of PDP Governors Forum under its chairman, Governor Tambuwal and later a meeting called at the instance of the chairman of the PDP BoT, Senator Walid Jubrin.
But Ike Aboinyi, the spokesman for Secondus says the chairman’s campaign is taking the Port Harcourt court order with equanimity. His prompt reaction of the judicial pronouncement is that the party and his principal were not afraid if they were drag before the court. He said: “If Secondus and the party are taken to court, they will defend themselves. PDP and Secondus are not afraid of court. It’s disheartening that the interim order of court used in removing the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen unilaterally in January, 2019 for which PDP vehemently condemned is resurrecting again from Port Harcourt. This party is a child of history, owned by Nigerians, bigger than any individual or group including desperadoes.”
In the meantime, Jibrin, called for ceasefire by those concerned giving premium on the interest of the PDP. He is against the party passing through a familiar path it has been identifies over time. His words: “In order to achieve complete success, we must do away with personal interest and unnecessary in-house fighting, capable of killing the objectives set by the party.” Jibrin said it was important to look at why many past PDP national chairmen, Audu Ogbeh, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Bamanga Tukur, Ahmed Mua’zu and Ali Modu Sheriff, did not complete their tenures successfully. We must sit with the national chairman and the NWC, to come out with decisions that will make our party strongest. While truth is bitter, we must cope with the bitterness by taking serious actions to handle this situation,” he added.
With the conflict resolution mechanisms apparently dysfunctional, reconciliation committees meeting brick-walls in their assignments in both PDP and the APC over time, some observers believe that the path to peace appears forlorn, in the interim.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents
In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state… BBNaija: 30 fans to become millionaires in lock-in competition
Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train
The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report… BBNaija: 30 fans to become millionaires in lock-in competition
and then