BY AUGUSTINE AVWODE AND TIMOTHY AGBOR
Last Thursday’s National Executive Committee meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abuja did little or nothing to douse the tense atmosphere that had hitherto pervaded the party. If anything, it would seem to have exacerbated it, The Point has learned.
When on August 28, the party’s National Working Committee met and agreed to hold its national convention in Abuja on October 30 and 31, many party faithful and political observers heaved a sigh of relief in the hope that the main opposition party was about to exorcise, once and for all, the ‘demon’ that had relentlessly troubled it in the last seven years and reposition itself to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The PDP had been embroiled in leadership crisis necessitating legal actions and judicial interventions so much so that its National Chairman, Uche Secondus, was banned from parading himself as such and even as a member of the party.
Besides that, the party had been plagued by the defection of high-profile members, including governors, senators, House of Representatives members and other party loyalists defecting to APC in droves.
For the records, last Thursday’s NEC meeting was reportedly packed full.
It recorded such a huge attendance than it ever did in the last 12 years, a source at the meeting confided in The Point.
The reason, the source explained, was apparently because of the significance attached to the meeting and the anticipation of the crucial decisions that could be taken.
Stakeholders, it was learnt, mobilised many of those qualified to attend the meeting to be present, the source added.
When the meeting ended, however, only one major decision was taken.
“Many people felt disappointed and unhappy as I speak with you. Not just those who attended the meeting, but across the country, many people were all ears, waiting to hear the outcome of the meeting, especially as it concerned the zoning of the presidential candidate,” the source said.
When reminded that the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led committee was to consider only party elective posts for the coming convention, the source countered, “The decision of that committee was already known. So, people were not too particular about it any longer. Attention was on the main thing, which zone would produce the presidential candidate. The NEC has the power to deliberate on it. Nothing stops it. But for whatever reasons, it left it untouched and hanging dangerously thereby heightening tension in the party.
“Leaders from the North are particularly unhappy that the PDP, it would seem, is not ready to address the lingering issue associated with the untimely demise of late President Umar Yar’Adua in office after just two and half years. You know it was the major trigger of the crisis that brought the party down to its knees in 2014. How can you be talking of equity, fairness and justice when out of 16 years, a section had already taken 13 and a half years and you are not mindful of the feeling of the section that has taken only two and half years? That is the question.”
“Did you watch or listen to Atiku’s speech yesterday? I can send a clip of it to you, just so you can fully appreciate the feelings of the PDP leaders and faithful in the North. I hope the party handles this very well. As a media man, do the optics look good to you? No, you just tell me. Does it sound good? I must tell you the truth. It doesn’t look good. But the party can still save itself from the gathering storm,” the source stated.
“A man who seemingly doesn’t talk, very quiet and unassuming, played a very crucial role. He asked them to look at the constitution. He was meticulous and methodical in his approach”
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, insisted that there was no tension in the party and that the Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led committee was for party executives and positions. He told our correspondent that Governor Ugwuanyi made it abundantly clear that the issue of who would fly the party’s flag was not part of his committee’s briefs.
“There is no tension anywhere to the best of my knowledge. When that time comes, that issue would be sorted. Everywhere is calm; we are focused on the national convention, which is at the end of this month,” he maintained.
Notwithstanding the publicity that heralded the meeting as a silver bullet in the hand of the party, the NEC only endorsed the decision of the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi–led zoning committee.
In other words, offices held by party members from the South would go to the North and vice versa. The other was not mentioned.
Sources familiar with the developments in the party confided in The Point that the decision by NEC not to deliberate on the zone that would produce the presidency in 2023 was both strategic and tactical.
A source said, “The refusal to trash that issue may be unpopular or raise some concern, but it was both strategic and tactical. What destroyed PDP in 2014 was the foreknowledge of where the presidential candidate would be coming from before the national convention. There is a need to avoid anything that could break the rank and file of the party again.
“And most importantly, the opposition is waiting, it is lurking in the corner to see where the pendulum in PDP will swing before it acts. So, the party leadership is right but it did not communicate it effectively to the members and there was no way it could have done that anyway. Somewhere along the line, that issue will be sorted and effectively too. Everybody will be happy because the ultimate aim is to get back to power and the best route will be explored by the party leadership.”
How southern governors masterminded chairman’s zoning
The southern governors of the party have been credited with masterminding the zoning of the chairmanship slot to the North.
It is a story full of intrigue and political ambush.
A source, who gave a blow-by-blow account of what transpired to The Point, said, “The truth of the matter is that northern governors were taken by surprise. Nobody envisaged that the position would flip so suddenly the way it happened. The general thinking was that the South would hold on to the chairmanship of the party while the presidential candidate goes up North. But the fact is that this thing is in the constitution, written in black and white. The elective and executive positions are to rotate between the North and the South. And it is the South that is holding the chairmanship now, regardless of what is happening to (Uche) Secondus.
“The governors actually did this thing. It was an ambush involving a lot of intrigues that are often associated with politics. They brought out the constitution of the party when they met last week (upper week). They brought out the constitution and read out the portion, what the constitution says about rotation and zoning. At that point, the Northern governors could not say anything.
“The truth of the matter is that the Southern governors have boxed the PDP into a dilemma because they have agreed that the next President must come from the South”
“(Aminu) Tambuwal was the chairman. And at the end of the day, a vote was called and the governors from the South were more than those from the North in the party. When they voted, even Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, joined the southern governors. Of course, his state is favoured to produce the chairman because David Mark has been a very consistent and loyal party man. Very experienced and knows how to balance things. So, you can understand Governor Ortom’s motive. But his counterparts from the North didn’t see it that way.
“Of course, Tambuwal as chairman had to abstain because in the case of a tie, he would cast a deciding vote. So, only Adamawa, Taraba, and Bauchi and, I am not sure, Zamfara Deputy Governor was in that meeting. So, only three states from the North voted for chairman to remain in the South. And for casting his lot with the governors of the South, Ortom was thoroughly whitewashed by his colleagues who accused him of selling out to the Southern governors.”
It was gathered that the motion came from the most unlikely quarters. The governor who moved and led the charge was described by the source as ‘very quiet and unassuming’, adding that he took them on a tour of what appeared as coming out of the blues. He said he was also very methodical and meticulous in his argument and explanation.
“And the motion came from the most unlikely quarters. A man who seemingly doesn’t talk, very quiet and unassuming, played a very crucial role. He asked them to look at the constitution. He was meticulous and methodical in his approach. He explained that there were two options. First was to throw it open and the second was to follow the party’s constitution,” he said.
The said Governor was quoted as saying, “Your Excellencies, I think it is only proper and correct to give true meaning to what is written in our constitution. If we do otherwise, outsiders will mock us. This thing is in black and white, so why shy away from it. If we can take care of the immediate need of the party now, other needs would be taken care of subsequently.
“Let us take a step at a time. And I strongly plead with us to obey our constitution. With that, nobody can condemn us.”
He reportedly directed his colleagues to the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017), under Aims and Objectives. Subsection 3(c) reads, “Adhering to the policy of the rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness.”
The source who was part of the decisions said when the constitution was read, members asked if it should be jettisoned, but the answer was no.
“This is in black and white. And what the zoning committee did, because they had gotten to the point of stalemate, while they were meeting separately, they were waiting for the governors to finish their meeting. The governors now conveyed their decision to the zoning committee. But what the zoning committee now did was to agree on a wholesale swap of all positions held by southerners now with those being held by northerners. Not just chairman or secretary or publicity secretary separately,” the source explained.
Southern PDP governors in a fix
Much as some of the PDP governors from the South would have loved to pursue their personal tendencies, the new found spirit in the Southern Governors Forum is said to have firmly clipped the individual wings of the PDP governors from the South.
Speaking to The Point, another source that is close to one of the governors put it succinctly, “The truth of the matter is that the Southern governors have boxed the PDP into a dilemma because they have agreed that the next President must come from the South. Note the operative word, ‘must’. In fact, in Asaba, they used the word ‘should’. When we went to Lagos, it changed to ‘must’, and in Enugu, remained as ‘must’.
“So, it is the ‘must’ that has seemingly tied the hands of the PDP governors from the South. And you know, two or three governors from the North criticised the choice of the word ‘must’ by the Southern governors. The case of the South West is understandable probably because of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu or Prof. Yemi Osinbajo or even Dr. Kayode Fayemi. The South East wants the presidency, too. And I hear someone mention Wike (Nyesom) the other day as also interested. So, the Southern governors, through their resolution, have boxed the PDP governors from the South into a corner.
“Now the Southern governors are speaking with the same voice regardless of political party. So, it is difficult for even the Federal Government to do anything to them now. Before, they would just isolate the dissenting person and deal with him. Those days are gone; like the way President Olusegun Obasanjo was able to deal with Lagos over the creation of Local Council Development Authorities. Now you see Southern governors agree on anything and Rotimi Akeredolu would read the communiqué, or Babajide Sanwo-Olu would read it. It has never happened before. It is no longer a party thing.”
Mixed reactions trail chairmanship zoning to North
Meanwhile, mixed reactions have continued to trail the endorsement of the Ugwuanyi committee decision by the NEC of the party.
Director of Research and Publicity of the PDP in Osun State, Olabamiji Oladele, said the party’s decision to rotate offices between the North and South was more of an “internal arrangement” and not constitutional.
In a telephone conversation with The Point, Oladele argued that the arrangement to share offices within the two zones was to give a sense of belonging, justice and fairness to everybody.
He noted that whatever decision the party took could not supercede the provisions of the country.
“The decision to zone offices to North and South is our internal party arrangement. It’s our party issue that the chairmanship and other offices should be rotated among zones in the country. It is understandable and practicable because it is our internal arrangement.
“For instance, what we just did now is that all elective offices presently in the Northern zone should move to the Southern part of the country and vice versa. It is just an arrangement to give a sense of belonging, justice and fairness to everybody. It’s not constitutional.
“This is just like what we have in producing offices in Nigeria. It has been a kind of agreement from the outset, right from the establishment of the party in 1998. It has been a kind of mutual agreement, I say mutual agreement because all the time, you still contest here and there and people from other zones come out to contest. When Obasanjo was contesting, we had some other elements from the North. When Yar’Adua was to contest, the likes of Donald Duke and Peter Odili from Cross River and Rivers came out to contest, only that the party delegates will eventually choose from a particular zone they believe is the best at that time.
“So, it is a form of agreement and not that it is stated in the constitution of the party. I am not privy to that. There is no way you want to amputate people when it comes to constitutional matters. Being able to contest is a matter of the constitution. If I am qualified to contest, the party’s constitution cannot supercede my right as guaranteed by the constitution of the country. Whatever the party does cannot contravene that of the constitution of the country.
“You will see that whichever side the party decides to favour at the end, people will come out from other zones. So, if it is a constitutional thing, then it means nobody will dare contravene it. So, the presidential candidate thing is more of Nigeria’s constitutional matter than party decision.”
Curiously, the South West, which has yet to produce the chairmanship of the party since its inception, welcomed the latest development.
Though initial reports had it that the South West was very particular about the chairmanship, given the fact that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who did eight years, is from the sub-zone, the Oyo State publicity secretary of the party, Hakeem Olatunji, dismissed any suggestion of being aggrieved by the zone. He said the NEC decision was a welcome development.
“The insinuation that the South West has been short-changed and that people are aggrieved is not true. The reason is that now, the South West has been given the opportunity of trying our luck on the presidency as well and so that is of greater stake compared to the chairmanship. It shows that the party has the interest of the South West and the southern part of the country at heart,” he said.
But in apparent anticipation of the possible implication of the chairmanship going to the North as it has indeed been, a pro-Atiku Abubakar group, identified as Atiku Support Organisation, had issued an emotional appeal to the party to consider the interest of the party’s desire to recapture power in 2023 in whatever decision it would take.
As it turned out, however, that appeal failed to sway the NEC.
The group, in a statement by El Victor, its publicity secretary, had called on the party to throw the position of who flies the party’s flag at the presidential level open to all.
“We strongly recommend the PDP’s ticket and flag with His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, which polled almost 12 million votes in the 2019 presidential election despite the electoral fraud by the other side be sustained if the party is, honestly, and interested in winning the 2023 presidential elections. The PDP should sustain the 2019 winning formula and ticket for which everyone knows that the party won the 2019 presidential elections,” it stated.
The group offered an alternative to the party by suggesting that “in the alternative, and the interest of the party’s sanity, unity, and togetherness, we equally wish to advise the PDP NEC leadership and members to throw the PDP’s presidential ticket open to all interested candidates from both the South and North should the idea of zoning be discountenanced. Party delegates should be allowed, through a transparent primary election, to choose the best and merit-based candidate of their choices to present to Nigerians, and should not be boxed into making hard choices.”
Whether the party will eventually dance to the tune of the “throw it open” option when the critical issue of who flies the flag lands on the table or will allow the 2014 sad historical experience to repeat itself, depends on what happens in the next few days, analysts
say.
