PDP’S burden of internal discipline and too- big- to- fail syndrome
Once largest political party in Africa had the ambition of governing Nigeria for a century, irrespective of the quality of governance on offer. The illusion was not only shortlived, the supposed biggest opposition party also has its umbrella in tatters due to a lack of discipline on errant members posturing to be bigger than the party, AZIMAZI MOMOH JIMOH reports.
AS strategies, consultations and wit games gather momentum ahead of the 2027 general elections, the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), has continued to suffer from a series of internal crises arising from its failure to appropriately apply the punishment and reward doctrine on errant members.
The Umar Damagum- led National Working Committee ( NWC) of the party is facing criticisms for continuously shifting the goal post on the probe of allegations of anti- party activities.
Findings showed that the party’s national leadership had in the last 11 months, changed its mind on the probe of anti- party activities three times.
For instance, in May 2023, it rose from its 571 NEC meeting and promised to set up a committee to investigate the thorny allegation of anti- party activities by some of its leaders.
This did not happen until December 2023 when it announced that it had changed its mind in favour of reconciliation of all forces to unite the party.
Just last week, the PDP pushed the assignment to its chapters in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT) when it urged them to compile the list of all those suspected to have engaged in anti- party acts.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT), Nyesomwike, is key on the list of persons criticised for playing double standards on party matters.
However, his loyalists in the party’s leadership have continued to draw attention to other cases of anti- party activities perpetrated in the past by prominent leaders of the party, adding that Wike's case can't be treated in isolation.
The matter is fueling new agitations for a total change in the national leadership of the party to pave the way for an independent NWC.
Defending the decisions of his party on the matter, Damagum expressed preference for reconciliation to ensure that all sides are united before the next election.
According to him, the NWC has already come up and approved a 2023 election review and reconciliation committee. “They will go and investigate. We’ll give them the mandate to form subcommittees. However, there is only one national committee that will review the 2023 election and also review from 2015 to 2019. This is to ensure that at the end of the day when they bring the reports, we will meet and make decisions.”
Damagum, who admitted that many members were involved in anti- party activities at different levels, said, “If I say we should start with suspension, I will end up suspending many people because they were involved in anti- party activities. So, please bear with us. We intend to keep this party together and to manage it. This is my mandate.
Damagum insisted that “When a substantive chairman comes, he can decide to suspend or dismiss anybody. But myself as somebody who loves this party, somebody who started this party, I think we need even those from the other side to come back and join,” he said. This sharply contradicted the decision taken at NWC'S 571 meeting last May, in which PDP'S national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in a statement said, PDP’S National Working Committee ( NWC) had resolved to constitute a committee to review all cases of reported indiscipline and antiparty activities by some members of the party in the 2023 general elections.
Ologunagba said: “The decision of the NWC is in furtherance of the ongoing efforts by the national leadership of our party to instil disci
pline, as well as to achieve a comprehensive reconciliation in the party.
“This resolution of the NWC is pursuant to its powers under Section 29 ( 2) ( a) and ( b) and Section 31 ( 2) ( c), ( d) and ( i) of the Constitution of the PDP ( as amended in 2017).
“Accordingly, the NWC hereby directs that no organ of the party at any level shall henceforth commence any disciplinary action against any member of the party without due consideration and regard to the provisions of the constitution of the PDP ( as amended in 2017).
“The NWC charges all members to remain focused on the ideals of our party as a democratic organisation guided by our rules, regulations and constitution as we collectively make progress towards lasting reconcilia
tion, discipline and unity in our party,” the statement added.
The party’s cold feet in punishing anti- party offenders gave room for speculation that most of the current 16- member NWC had hidden interests in favour of those alleged to have perpetrated acts of disloyalty and antiparty activities.
The drama merely reechoed accumulated and unresolved cases of disloyalty that had characterised the party’s 26 years of existence since 1998.
Even in the parlance of religion, the idea that God rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those who transgress them remains valid.
The agitation heightened last week when the NWC directed its 36 chapters to compile lists of persons suspected to have engaged in anti- party activity. It was viewed by many as a ploy to delay until action became belated on the matter.
Chairman of the forum of PDP states chairmen, who is also the Kaduna State PDP chairman, Felix Hyat, provided a detailed explanation of how the exercise would be done. He disclosed that state chairmen of the PDP had the support of the national leadership to discipline certain individuals at the state level in line with the party’s constitution. Hyat stated: “The issue of discipline and antiparty activities are localised things; it is not an issue of nationally given directives. The national body does not also stop state chapters from looking at issues. But you know that the nation also had a problem with some principal actors. Some were calling for discipline of some individuals, and some were calling for reconciliation.
According to him, “All these are things that depend on the state and the nature of the anti- party. If you are a party man and you don’t come out to vote, of course, it is an act of anti- party because if you have wanted your party to win, you come out to vote. “But also it is different from somebody who will come out and make a public statement either at the voting centre that votes against another party instead of your party. So, the issues of anti- party vary from one place to the other."
Hyat further noted that "there are states that took actions on some people, there are states that went on reconciliation, so politics is a local issue, so the state chapters have a right to look at things from their perspective. So, the state chairmen will take the bold step and those who they cannot discipline, their names will be forwarded to the national. Yes, even the constitution is very clear on that.”
As early as 2011, the erstwhile ruling party showed so many signs of dehydration, confusion, internal crises, display of impunity and arbitrariness in the management of party affairs, indecision, poor coordination, and total indiscipline, to the extent that efforts to restore order and stabilise the party for continued dominance in the political space became grossly weak and insufficient. Ultimately, when the party’s bridge failed, all forms of sabotage politically called anti- party activities were displayed in the open even by party leaders and officials.
Consequently, the PDP, despite its incumbency at the nation’s presidency, which it secured in 1999, reduced in control of 29 governors ( 80 per cent) in 2013 to 11 governors ( 30 per cent) in 2024; 88 senators ( 80.7 per cent) in 2013 to 37 Senators ( 33.9 per cent) in 2024; and 279 Reps ( 77.5 per cent in 2013 to 99 Reps ( 27.5 per cent) in 2024.
The Guardian investigation that central to these failures is the party’s inability to apply the popular maxim of punishment and reward when it needed to.
Issues of anti- party activities that led to the party's loss in 2015 multiplied even before the 2023 election, a development many stakeholders believed ought to have been better managed.
The Bamangatukur- led ( NWC) of the PDP, which attempted to invoke sanctions against the rampant cases of indiscipline could not survive the massive political earthquake that followed the suspension of two sitting governors in the persons of Chibuikeameachi and Wamakoaliu of Rivers and Sokoto states respectively.
Tukur had to quit his position to make way for peace that never lasted as an unprecedented wave of dissidence that hit the party led to the defection of five incumbent governors, a sitting House of Representatives Speaker, and a former vice president to the then- newly formed All Progressives Congress ( APC).
This was how the party met its Waterloo in the 2015 general elections.
Within the first few years after it lost control of power, the 26- year- old party attempted to investigate its failures as a way of reinventing itself. A committee presided by the former deputy president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, which was constituted to do the investigation, made four cardinal recommendations on the restructuring of the party.
The report emphasised the sanctity of the zoning principle of the party, the introduction of biometric membership registration, the introduction of direct primaries and reconciliation.
But reconciliation soon became a problem because of feelings in many quarters that none of those who "sabotaged" the party had been punished.
The party’s cold feet in punishing anti- party offenders gave room for speculation that most of the current 16- member NWC had hidden interests in favour of those alleged to have perpetrated acts of disloyalty and antiparty activities.
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