The emergence of former deputy national chairman of the erstwhile ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, as its new national chairman will definitely alter certain seemingly settled power sharing arrangement within the party, just as it will throw up a new set of power brokers.
Sunday Tribune checks revealed that with the South-South clinching the exalted post of national chairman, its next door neighbour, the South-East may have unwittingly traded off its ambition to take the vice-president slot of the main opposition party in the forthcoming 2019 general election.
The Deputy Senate President and the most senior elective office holder on the PDP platform, Ike Ekweremadu, who incidentally is from the South-East was the chairman of the PDP Post-Election Review Committee that zoned the 2019 presidential ticket of the party to the North and the position of national chairman to the South.
Incidentally, Prince Secondus was the acting national chairman of the party that saddled the Ekweremadu committee with the assignment of fashioning out an arrangement that would calm frayed nerves in the North and unite the party.
The perception before the Senator Ekweremadu committee came up with its power sharing recommendation, which it submitted on October 2015, was that the North felt aggrieved over the automatic ticket given to former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, as the party’s standard-bearer in the 2019 elections.
It was believed that conceding the presidential ticket to the zone would go a long way in inspiring a sense of belonging in the party chieftains and its ordinary faithful from the zone.
Speaking while receiving the report from Senator Ekweremadu, Secondus said for the party to move forward it must obey its zoning arrangement and constitution, adding that the party was determined to re-position itself to take over the presidential seat from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019.
He said: “The National Working Committee (NWC) has agreed to move this party forward. We will obey the principle of zoning and have agreed that in 2019, PDP presidential candidate will come from the north.
“Members must obey the constitution and follow the principle of zoning. With this, the party’s presidential candidate will come from the North. The party must go back to the principle of its founding fathers.”
Sunday Tribune investigation revealed that before the party convention, which was aborted in August 16, 2016 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, following a court pronouncement, leaders of the party in the southern part of the country had agreed to micro-zone the office of national chairman to the South-West, with the understanding that the South-East will take the slot of vice-president.
But Secondus’ emergence may put the South-East at the receiving end of the new power sharing permutation.
A party source disclosed to Sunday Tribune that the South-West will eventually be placated with the VP slot. Senator Ekweremadu, who has reportedly been positioning himself for the vice-preident slot, will certainly be left in the cold.
The new power brokers
Politics is about who gets what, when and how. With the new national working committee led by Prince Secondus, it will ultimately decide who picks the presidential ticket of the party in the forthcoming general election and its standard-bearers in the governorship and other elective offices.
To lead the new set of power brokers are Nyesom Wike and Ayodele Fayose, governors of Rivers and Ekiti states, respectively. Secondus is from Rivers and Governor Wike is believed to have bankrolled his campaign to become chairman.
Fayose is the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum. The PDPGF was a creation of the President Goodluck Jonathan, ostensibly to checkmate the Nigerian Governors’ Forum led by former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi. With no provision for the platform in the party constitution, it has since turned itself into a Frankenstein monster and rendered impotent a statutory organ of the party, the Board of Trustees (BoT).
Thus with the governors’ anointed candidate in charge as chairman, the Board of Trustees, with the sobriquet, conscience of the party, will have to fight for relevance. Members of the PDP BoT, led by Senator Walid Jubrin were believed to be divided over their choices of candidate for the national chairman of the party.
With the party in opposition and no sitting president to breathe down its neck, the ubiquitous PDP governors will fix their successors in their respective states and anoint the party’s presidential candidate.
Those who are likely to be at the receiving end of its awesome powers are former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar and former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido. While the former vice-president was said to have given moral support to Professor Tunde Adeniran, the latter backed former Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel for the office of national chairman.
IBB’s ego bruised?
The former military president and one of the founding fathers of the party, General Ibrahim Babangida, has expressed his indignation over the brazen use of money to buy delegates ahead of the event.
He has cautioned the party faithful in a statement last week that ‘’rather than de-monetise the electoral process to provide ample room for more citizens’ participation, the idea of monetising the process and trying to “procure” party positions defeats merit, offends good conscience and blurs fair play.” Babangida allegedly rallied support for Adeniran for the office. He might, therefore, be reluctant to embrace Secondus as his chairman.
and then