PDP Leadership Crisis: No End in Sight
Onyebuchi Ezigbo looks at the lingering succession crisis in PDP
The succession problem in the Peoples Democratic Party, which flared up recently, has continued unabated for the third week running. The tussle for the leadership of the party has forced a postponement of a scheduled meeting of the party’s Board of Trustees and the National Executive Council to this week. Although, the tussle is for the replacement of the former national chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, who was forced to quit after the party recorded a dismal outing in the last presidential poll, the issues around the succession have since widened and taken various dimensions. This is due to the ever ambitious political gladiators that are already repositioning themselves for the 2019 general election. They had in line with the judgement of the High Court which ordered that Muazu’s replacement must come from his zone, the North-east to complete his remaining office tenure, asked leaders of the zone to go and pick a candidate.
But the matter has since become contentious and has continued to drag. Some leaders of the party, especially the governors, are seeing the move to fill the vacant seat of the national chairman as an opportunity to put their own crony who will in turn help to protect their political interest in 2019. About 11 aspirants have indicated interest in the chairmanship position, with each of them being allegedly sponsored by various interests groups within and outside the party.
Diverse Interests
The man who stirred up the whole leadership crisis through a court judgement, the former special adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters, Alhaji Ali Gulak, has been accused of plotting to destabilise the party. The PDP national legal adviser, who is loyal to the Prince Uche Secondus-led NWC, Mr. Victor Kwon, had accused Gulak of being privy to an agenda to destabilise the party. Kwon said the leadership of the party had resolved to remain focused and not be distracted by the unpatriotic actions of Gulak and his clique. But this view is not shared by some other party members who believe that what Gulak did was necessary to force the party to do the right thing and to uphold the provisions of its constitution.
Among those who have expressed their backing to Gulak’s action are former presidential aide, Dr. Doyin Okupe, and former Senate Chief Whip, Roland Owie. Speaking with journalists in Abuja on the PDP power struggle, Owie, a leader of the party from Edo State, said Gulak should be allowed to reap where he has sown, making reference to his court action which ordered Secondus to quit.
Owie said, “If Gulak did nothing at all, he has woken up the elders and leaders of PDP in the North-east. They were sleeping until Gulak woke them up. Where were they for the 11 months that Uche Secondus occupied the position of national chairman of the party until Gulak acted? They should know that power, anywhere in the world, is never donated. You work for it. I urge every PDP member to support Gulak to finish the term of the North-east of our national chairmanship position so that we can start a full reorganisation of the PDP.
“What I am saying is that for the past 11 months, when Secondus started acting, all the North-east leaders from where the former chairman, Adamu Muazu, came from, where have they been? If nothing happens, the fact remains that Gulak went to court and they woke up. When men of truth keep quiet, the society will die and get rotten. We should face the truth, both in private and in public. If power cannot be donated, Gulak has moved into it and has gotten judgement at the court.”
Sack
In apparent manifestation of the PDP leadership crisis, on Thursday, the acting secretary of the BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin, issued a statement saying that the acting chairman of the board, Alhaji Haliru Bello, had been replaced by him. Jibrin said: “The BoT has unanimously appointed Senator Walid Jibrin as acting chairman while still remaining as the substantive secretary.”
A member who was privy to the decision said Bello’s removal could be linked to his current travails at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over allegations of corruption. The source explained that the decision to remove Bello was BoT chairman was based on the fact that his tenure had expired, having been appointed on May 25 last year to act for three months.
Jibrin stated that Bello’s tenure was further extended by two weeks so that he will use it to prepared and summon an enlarged meeting of the board but he failed to do so. The BoT secretary defended the removal of the acting chairman of BoT, saying the board would meet again to elect a substantive chairman.
Defection
In what has been described as one of the worst repercussions of the PDP crisis, former Senate President and a key member of the party recently resigned from the party, saying he is retiring from partisan politics. Nnamani’s argument in his resignation letter was instructive and symptomatic of the level of disillusionment in the leadership of the party.
Nnamani regretted that his advice to the PDP leadership to rebuild the party after it lost the 2015 elections and end impunity fell on deaf ears. In his letter titled,
“PDP, the Burden and My Conscience,” which he personally signed, Nnamani said: “Without any iota of bitterness in my heart, I have decided to disengage from the Peoples Democratic Party and consequently step aside from partisan politics in the interim. I wish to express my profound gratitude to the party that gave me the platform with which I attained the height I did in the politics of our country.”
Regret
The letter further read: “How I wish the efforts I mounted with some of my colleagues (many of whom have left the party) to keep the PDP on the path of its noble vision and values had been supported by those who were privileged to be at the helm of affairs of the party, it would have been a different day for the PDP. It would have been a day of victory and pride not of defeat and shame.
“I recall that the virus of corruption of values and mission was what those of my colleagues and I set out to cure through the formation of the PDP Reform Forum in 2010/11.
“We worked hard to draw up a new direction for the party. This was to help steer the party away from illegality and impropriety so that PDP can fulfil its promise of being a vanguard of Nigeria’s political and economic development. A direction defined by strict adherence to basic rules and morality in the management of party affairs. Chief of these values is respect for choice of party members in electing party candidates for elections. With more than half a decade of championing such a fundamental but simple idea, I regret that the PDP leadership continues to rebuff internal democracy.
“The party allowed itself to be blinded by hubris to believe that it will remain in power and influence for 60 years in spite of several gross missteps and grievous misnomer. We foresaw this ditch and prescribed how to avert falling into it. But we were dismissed as idealistic. Today the idealists have become realists. Recently, even after our avoidable abysmal electoral defeat, I continued to believe that we can still chart a new course and retrieve victory from the jaw of defeat. I continued to urge the leadership of the party to believe that the time of defeat could be the time of renewal, and that renewal requires strategic thinking and bold actions.
“I urged that this is a time to re-embrace internal democracy and principled leadership to reposition the party for new politics. We are living in different times and we need new tools, ethos and codes of conduct. We need to become a party of technocrats and professionals and not a party of mercenaries and rent seekers.
“We need to become the party of young men and women with new ideas and not a party of political dinosaurs. It is clear now that these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Every day the crisis of confidence and the contradictions in our party deepen. We continue to lose members and morale.
“The rebuilding some of us had urged on the leadership is not happening. Those who led us to defeat are determined to continue to lead the party as undertakers.”
Undaunted
But the Secondus-led NWC did not take kindly to the negative insinuations made by Nnamani in his resignation letter. In acknowledging the crisis being generated by the leadership tussle, the embattled PDP national publicity secretary, Mr Olisa Metuh, told some visiting parliamentarians from the United Kingdom, led by Rt. Hon. Mark Field, that the recent variance of voices from its members was as a result of the party’s foundation of liberal democracy, which he described as a mark of strength, adding that the party has adequate internal mechanisms to resolve all issues within its fold. According to Metuh, the expression of divergent positions over the selection of a substantive national chairman of the party is a reflection of the strong foundation of liberal democracy which the party has been able to build. He told the visitors that the PDP faced serious challenges soon after it lost in the elections, culminating in the resignation of its national chairman, a development that created some challenges within the party, but assured that every issue would be resolved by the party leadership.
Postponement
The national organs of the PDP were scheduled to meet on Wednesday to try to resolve the crisis of succession bedevilling the opposition party, which has pitted the leaders against each other. But the meeting was postponed at the last minute. In a statement issued by Metuh, the party said that it had approved the shift of the national caucus, NEC and BoT meetings to Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
The statement said, “In view of requests by critical stakeholders and leaders of our great party, the National Working Committee has approved the shifting of the meetings of key statutory organs of the party earlier scheduled for this week to next week.
“In the new schedule, the meeting of the National Caucus of the party has been shifted to Monday, February 15th. In the same vein, the meeting of the Board of Trustees (BoT) will now hold on the morning of Tuesday, February 16th, while the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting will hold on the same Tuesday, February 16th.
“The NWC deeply regrets any inconveniences that may be caused by this shift in dates.”
However, it was learnt that the meeting were postponed because of unresolved disagreements in the negotiations by the party’s North-east stakeholders on whom to present for the chairmanship position.
In addition, it was gathered that Gulak was still spitting fire, insisting that the acting national chairman, Secondus, cannot chair the NEC. Gulak is alleged to be insisting that he is the right person to chair the NEC meeting.
Contenders
It was learnt that rather than narrowing their choice to one candidate to be presented to the NEC, more aspirants from the North-east have emerged. As at Monday, about nine candidates had shown interest in contesting the PDP national chairmanship position. Three of the seven aspirants, who have applied for the position are from Gombe, two are from Adamawa and one each come from Yobe and Bauchi. Those from Gombe, it was gathered, are Abdullahi Jalo, Senator Saidu Kumo, and Prof. Rufai Alkali. Adamawa candidates are Gulak and Senator Paul Wapana. The Yobe candidate is Ambassador Umaru Damagun, while Bauchi’s candidate is Senator Bala Mohammed.
However, there are indications that the party may settle for a former Speaker of the old Gongola State House of Assembly, Mr. Wilberforce Jatau, as the substantive national chairman.
Another likely contender for the vacant PDP chairmanship position is the party’s vice chairman for North-east, Senator Giri Lawan. Lawan is said to enjoy the backing of most members of the NWC for the job. It was gathered that Jatau’s candidacy was strongly backed by the governor of Taraba State, Mr. Darius Ishaku, who along with his counterpart from Gombe has been given the mandate to screen and select a candidate for ratification by the NEC.
A highly placed PDP source who gave reasons why the zonal meeting earlier held in Gombe to pick a chairman that would complete Mu’azu’s tenure was deadlocked said that there was a clash of interest between the governors and other leaders of the party.