PDP Convention: Crisis, intrigues and battles ahead.

•Sheriff

Recently, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after a long period of speculations, finally released an adjusted timetable for its congresses and national convention. The move put to rest worries as to whether the convention will go on as earlier scheduled. With a note of finality, Chief Olisa Metuh, National Publicity Secretary of the party, declared that the new timetable supersedes the former timetable released by the party.

In the new timetable, the national convention of the party, where a new National Chairman is expected to emerge, will now hold on Saturday, May 21, 2016. Earlier slated for March 19, 2016, the planned national convention has generated unending discussions and controversies as individuals and groups within the embattled party engaged in what pundits have described as a fierce struggle for control of the party.

As part of efforts to ensure a hitch-free convention, the party also announced the composition of a zoning committee under the chairmanship of the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Udom. The party charged the committee to put to rest the many controversies that have trailed speculations of certain positions being zoned to certain geo-political zones ahead of the convention.

Consequently, governors, members of the National Assembly and stakeholders of the party from across the country, last week, gathered in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, for the inaugural meeting of the zoning committee. According to sources at the meeting, the PDP chieftains deliberated extensively on the assignment given them by the party.

Briefing Government House Correspondents after the meeting, the Zoning Committee Chairman, Udom Emmanuel, said the assignment has been concluded and that the members were unanimous in their agreement for all the 12 National Working Committee seats to be successfully zoned to different parts of the country. He added that the decision awaits ratification by the National 
Executive Committee of the party.

But the zoning issue is not the only headache worrying the PDP as it plans to reorganise itself for better performance as a political party. Following the decision of the national leadership to allow for the emergence of a new substantive executive, the former ruling party had to combat numerous squabbles within its rank.

Rumpus from the West

In spite of reported consensus by chieftains and members of the party at its last meeting to abide by the decision of the zoning committee, subject to the ratification of the National Executive Committee, feelers from the South-West geo-political zone indicates a looming major crisis should the committee fail to cede the position of National Chairman to the zone.

Prior to the formation of the committee, the zone’s PDP chieftains have been undecided about what position should be reserved for the South-West. While a section of the chieftains, led by Senator Buruji Kashamu and Professor Adewale Oladipo, National Secretary of the party, opposed the zoning of the national chairmanship to the South-West, another group of chieftains has demanded that the zone should produce the next chairman of the party.

But following unconfirmed reports that the committee may have zoned the position away from the South-West, agitations have heightened in the zone as party chieftains and members warn the National Executive Committee (NEC) against endorsing any arrangement that deprives the zone of the position of National Chairman.

Already, some leading lights of the party in the South-West are threatening to dump the party en-masse should the zone be denied the opportunity of producing the next National Chairman of the 

party. “We took a firm position, which was that we will dump the party en masse if we get robbed again at this year’s convention,” Doyin Okupe, ex-presidential spokesperson, said.

The decision, reports claim, was taken at a stakeholders’ meeting convened last week to discuss the planned national convention. Some of the PDP leaders present at the meeting included a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Olabode George; the governorship candidate of the party in Lagos in the 2015 election, Jimi Agbaje and Gbenga Daniel, a former governor of Ogun State.

Okupe, former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Olajumoke Akinjide; former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe and party chieftain, Bode Olajumoke, were also in attendance at the meeting where it was reportedly concluded that the South-West chapter of the party will not agree with any decision that excludes it from the national chairmanship.

“Governor Udom is a young gentleman who I believe still has a long future in Nigerian politics ahead of him,” Mr. Okupe said. “It will be unfortunate if he allowed himself to be used to relegate Yoruba people within the affairs of the party once again. The PDP has done a lot of wrongs to the Yoruba people and our position now is that they should start making amends by allowing us to present the next chairman.

“Nigerian history is replete with several instances in which the Yoruba people led the struggle for the actualisation of the minority agenda in the country; we fought for the people of South-South and the minorities in the north to have a say about the process of governance in this country, so it will be an utmost betrayal if Udom failed to let the chairmanship position come to the South-West as should be,” Okupe said.

But the South-West may have to do more than merely issuing threats if it indeed hopes to clinch 


the coveted seat. This is because it appears the current occupier of the seat is equally determined to remain in office beyond May 21. According to reliable sources, in spite of obvious widespread opposition to his leadership of the party, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff has intensified effort to ensure he returns as PDP National Chairman.

Recently, the former Bornu State governor met with some former and serving governors to discuss his candidature. Amongst them is former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, who he met with at his Mandara Close, Aso Drive Abuja home. Sources say top on the list of their discussion was the PDP national convention.

Sherif also met with party chieftains from the South-West recently. The delegation, led by Senator Kashamu, reportedly pledged the support of the zone for his chairmanship ambition. So, to observers of the politics of the South-West, the PDP in the zone may be set for another round of crisis.

Governors, ex-ministers still a war

Aside the agitations from the South-West, the party will also have to battle a growing rift amongst some of its leading chieftains as it marches towards its planned convention. Today, two major power blocs within the party, namely the PDP Governors’ Forum and the PDP former Ministers Forum, are yet to agree over who should lead the party.

While the governors, backed by the current leadership of the party, are said to be working towards the return of Sheriff as National Chairman, the ex-ministers, mainly those who served with ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, have vowed not to have anything to do with a PDP under Sheriff 
beyond May 2016.

The governors, it would be recalled, had supported the emergence of Sheriff in acting capacity even when the ex-ministers and other notable groups within the party kicked. To douse the uproar, it was settled that the Acting Chairman would stay till May and vacate the office after the party’s convention.

“But what we have today is an attempt by a few people to force him on us. But I can assure you that we will oppose his continued stay in office beyond May 2016. As ex-ministers and stakeholders in the party, we are saying we don’t want the arrangement that will impose Sheriff on the party,” a source told The Nation.

Few days back, former ministers who served during the administration of the Peoples Democratic Party have rejected the alleged plans by Sheriff, to elongate his tenure beyond May 21, saying they are ready to work with anybody but Sheriff. The ministers, who served between 1999 and 2015 said they have resolved to oppose any attempt to keep the acting chairman in office after the convention.

In their position paper presented to the zoning committee, the ex-ministers, led by former Special Duties Minister, Saminu Turaki, proposed that Senator Sheriff and other members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) be disqualified from seeking re-election at the national convention. They noted that it would give the party a new beginning.

“In order to give the party a new lease of life, it is imperative that a clause in the Guidelines for the 2016 National Convention should include a provision barring all those who have served the party, especially during the immediate past tenure of the outgoing National Working Committee members, from contesting for any office of the party under the new dispensation.”

Pundits say the disagreement between the governors and the ex-ministers over Sherif may boomerang into a serious crisis if not resolved before the convention.

The contenders

Although he is yet to formally announce his intention to seek re-election, it is public knowledge already that Acting Chairman, Senator Sheriff, is interested in remaining in office beyond May, 2016. Aside from reports that he is meeting chieftains and groups across the country to actualise his ambition, many of his supporters like Sen. Kashamu, are reportedly all over the place working towards the plan to return him as chairman.

Also in the race is a former Minister of Sports and Special Duties, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, who recently declared his intention to contest for the national chairmanship. Adedoja said if the PDP was based on the principle of equity and justice, opportunities should be given to all geopolitical zones of the country.

He said a “political common sense” is for the chairman to be zoned to the South, especially to the South- West in the interest of the party and Nigerians since everybody has agreed that the presidential candidate for the 2019 election should come from the North. He believed he had the capacity, the confidence, the experience, the emotional stability and the required national outlook to contest for the position of National Chairman of the PDP because of the desire to reposition the party.”

“If truly our party is desirous to win the 2019 presidential election, the South-West has eminent 
and qualified persons to lead our party as chairman of the party. I am one of them; I am the bridgebuilder, the unifying factor that will reverberate the confidence of the founding fathers of our party. The party needs a chairman who has never been a factional leader either at the local or national level; a chairman who will be acceptable to all parts of the country, a chairman who has the capacity to reach out to all members of the party across the country,” Adedoja said.

From the South-West, other names have been linked with the race for the national chairmanship of the PDP. Chiefs Olabode George and Ebenezer Babatope are two of the many names from the zone that have been dropped as possible candidates for the position should it be zoned exclusively to the South-West.

However, while Babatope is yet to comment on the matter, George has on many occasions explained that he is not interested in seeking the position but desires that the next chairman should come from the South-West.

Outside the South-West, the top contenders for the position include Senator Saidu Kumo; former governor of old Gongola State, Ambassador Wilberforce Juta; former Political Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak; Senator Paul Wampana; Ambassador Umar Damagum; former FCT Bala Mohammed, former Minister of State (Power), Mohammed Wakil and Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi Jalo.