Amid squabbles in some state chapters, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fixed ward, local government and state congresses for April. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines the crisis rocking the chapters and its likely effects on the planned congresses
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are engaged in a battle of supremacy for the control of the various state chapters. The party has embarked on the process of electing new executives from the ward, local government, state and zonal levels. This has exacerbated the struggle among party chieftains with the belief that whosoever controls the party machinery will have the upper hand in the nomination of candidates for the 2023 polls.
The PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) had at its 88th the meeting approved the time table and schedule of activities for the year 2020 party congresses for the purpose of electing party executives committees in 25 out of 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). They are: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Gombe. Others are Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe.
According to the schedule of activities, the entire exercise will come to an end on Wednesday, April 22, 2020, with the Zonal Congress Appeals. The sale of nomination forms for the congresses have commenced at the PDP national secretariat.
Analysts say the PDP should have put its house in order by resolving the internal crisis that has torn the party apart in some state chapters. They argue that it is imperative for the PDP to settle internal wrangling because any failure at the ward congresses would reflect in the type of party leadership that will emerge and eventually the candidate of the party in general elections.
Apparently aware of likely development from the exercise, the PDP Organising Secretary, Col. Austin Akobundu (retd) has enjoined members of the party to act within the compass of party rules. He cautioned against anything that would drag the entire exercise to disrepute, saying all members involved must ensure compliance with all constitutional provisions.
Against the backdrop of the ward congress held in Edo State chapter on February 1, 2020, Akobundu’s appeal is germane. The exercise was marred by violence and irregularities. The congresses were intended to allow PDP members pick their preferred leaders through a democratic process. Edo PDP leaders turned the exercise into a battle for control ahead of the nomination of candidate for the September 19 governorship poll. They were torn between the loyalists of the outgoing chairman, Dan Orbih, on the one hand, and a coalition of party leaders consisting of former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Zakwanu Garba, and a governorship aspirant, Ken Imasuagbon among others.
A party chieftain, Chief Chris Osagie described the congresses as a charade. He said in many of the wards, electoral officers were not present. Ballot papers were not provided. What emerged at the end of the day was a prepared list that was read out to the people as elected ward officers. He said democratic elections were not conducted across the wards in the state. Those who demanded that the exercise should be conducted in compliance with the PDP rules and the Independent National Electoral Commission guidelines were brutalised by thugs while others were arrested and locked up in police cells. The congress was marred by the imposition of candidates by the outgoing chairman, Dan Orbih who had led the party for 12 years without winning election in the state.
Two PDP governorship aspirants, Mr Gideon Ikhine and Ken Imasuagbon have vowed to resist alleged attempts by the outgoing state chairman, Orbih, to hijack the system to sustain his ulterior motive. Ikhine said the committee set up by the PDP national secretariat, headed by Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State did nothing because there was no congress anywhere in Edo State. He alleged that the committee did not follow the guidelines. Imasuagbon said: “What we had was manipulations, writing of results by Dan Orbih and his team.”
Already some aggrieved party members have secured an injunction stopping the PDP from announcing results of the ward congresses. The court also put on hold further conduct of the local government congresses. The party has postponed the conduct of local government congresses indefinitely.
In Enugu State, reliable sources said that a cold war is brewing between Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and former deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu who is angling for the PDP governorship ticket in 2023. There is a serious battle over who will control the party structure beginning with the ward, local government and state congresses.
There are fears of a possible implosion in the PDP state chapter as a result of the return of Senator Chimaroke Nnamani. Sources said the implosion may likely start with a battle between Nnamani and Senator Ekweremadu who is eyeing the governor’s seat ahead of 2023.
Analysts believe the return of Nnamani to Enugu politics have changed the political equation in the state. He was elected as the governor of Enugu State on the platform of PDP in 1999 and he held power until 2007. Nnamani’s political structure called the “Ebeano Family” held sway in the state. In 2007, he installed Sullivan Chime as his successor through his political structures which dominated affairs of the state chapter. However, Chime turned his back against his ‘godfather, Nnamani on assumption of office.
Although Nnamani was elected senator in 2007, Chime made him irrelevant and chased him out of PDP. In 2011, Nnamani left the PDP and formed his own party called the Peoples for Democratic Change (PDC) to contest for the senatorial seat. Chime made sure he did not win the election as he supported Gilbert Nnaji, a former member of House of Representatives to unseat his political godfather.
It was Governor Ugwuanyi that brought Nnamani into political relevance in Enugu again. Nnamani secured the PDP senatorial ticket and won the election to represent Enugu East in the Senate. Before his return, there were two factions in Enugu PDP: Ugwuanyi group that dominated Nsukka where he comes from and Ekweremadu camp that controls Enugu West, his senatorial zone.
Going by the zoning arrangement, it would be the turn of Enugu East to produce the next governor in 2023. Ekweremadu from Enugu East has indicated his interest in his birthday speech. Sources said he decided to join the race following the displacement of his preferred choice, Senator Gilbert Nnaji by Nnamani during the senatorial election. The new slogan in Enugu now, especially among Ekweremadu’s supporters, is that the zoning formula should be discarded in 2023.
The Borno chapter of the PDP has polarised into factions; two chieftains of the party, Usman Badeiri and Zanna Gadama are claiming to be chairman of the party. The crisis also led to the conduct of two parallel primaries though the national leadership of PDP and INEC attended that of Gadama’s group that produced Mohammed Imam as the party governorship candidate in last year general elections.
Gadama alleged the Badeiri group is being sponsored by ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) to destabilise the PDP in the state. But the factional chairman Badeiri has dismissed the claim. He said: “The claim that we were being sponsored by the APC is untrue, it is false and blackmail.” Gadama said the court has dismissed the Badeiri faction suit instituted against him. He said he remains the chairman until the appeal is decided.
In Plateau State, the PDP has been polarised into two factions since the resignation of the former Minister of Sports, Mr Damishi Sango, as the state chairman. One faction is led by the deputy chairman, Mr Amos Gombi while another group is headed by a zonal chairman, Mr Chris Hassan.
Both Gombi and Hassan are laying claims to the state chairmanship position. The factions have placed suspension orders on members from either side at various times. They hold their separate meetings at the party secretariat despite the leadership crisis.
As the leadership crisis deepens, the PDP National Secretariat has taken over the affairs of the party in Plateau State. The national headquarters has also constituted a committee to look into the leadership crisis and directed the party’s chairman in the North Central Zone, Theophilus Dakashan to oversee the activities of the party in the state pending the resolution of the crisis.
A chieftain of the party, Mr Jonathan Barnabas said for peace to be restored in Plateau PDP, the investigation panel, headed by the former Senate President, Senator David Mark, should investigate how the alleged mismanagement of the campaign funds by the former chairman, Mr Sango led to the failure of PDP in the state in the last general elections. He noted that the state chapter of the PDP had been torn apart by crisis after the state working committee suspended Sango and his deputy, Mr Amos Gombi. According to him, “the State Working Committee who accused the duo of financial impropriety also appointed Mr Chris Hassan, a zonal chairman of the party to act as the state chairman. Although Sango had rejected his suspension and denied the allegations, he and Hassan have continued to lay claim to the party’s leadership in the state.”
Ahead of April congress, fresh crisis is threatening fragile peace in Ekiti State chapter of PDP. The crisis that followed what some aggrieved members described as imposition of the former Deputy Governor, Kolapo Olusola as the sole governorship candidate in 2018 by the erstwhile Governor Ayodele Fayose polarised the party. While Fayose is leading a faction, the former Senate Minority Leader, Mrs Biodun Olujimi is the arrowhead of another group. The two opposing camps are locked in a battle to take over the party structure. What is at stake is the election of the new executive committee that would be elected at the congress slated for April 2, 2020.
Three aspirants stand out among those jostling for the chairmanship position. They are former Commissioner for Environment, Bisi Kolawole, a prominent leader of PDP, Tope Aluko and a former member of the House of Representatives, Kehinde Odebunmi. There had been clandestine support for the two of the aspirants by the two camps. Fayose let the cat out of the bag when he rallied the party in the Ekiti Central Senatorial District, to endorse Bisi Kolawole as their preferred candidate for the state chairmanship.
Other stakeholders, especially the Olujimi camp, believe there was nothing sacrosanct about Fayose’s endorsement of an aspirant of his choice, saying others are also free to openly endorse their preferred aspirants.
Apparently, responding to Fayose’s public endorsement of Kolawole, the PDP spokesman in Ekiti, Mr Jackson Adebayo said the PDP has not endorsed anybody for any position. According to him, “The Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State has affirmed
its determination to conduct a free, fair and acceptable congress that will reflect the wishes of the majority members of the party. The purported endorsement of any member of the party for positions in the coming congress by individuals or groups should not be taken as the opinion of the party hence such should be disregarded.”
The state PDP insists “that any officer of the party who may express his opinion at any meeting aside from the one from the secretariat of the party does so on his or her own. In the same vein, an officer of the party who attended any of such meetings has not been so directed by the party either. The party called on all members to be at peace with one another as the congress approaches saying in togetherness we can rescue the state.”
But the media aide to Fayose, Mr Lere Olayinka responded swiftly to defend the action of his principal. He said others also have the right to endorse their own preferred aspirants. Olayinka, in a letter to the state chairman, Chief Gboyega Oguntuase stated: “It is no longer news that you (Oguntuase) are interested in returning as the state chairman and we have it on good authority that you are Senator Olujimi’s preferred candidate.
“Rather than ranting and having boasted that he will defeat Fayose’s candidate in the congress, it is better for Oguntuase to go and prepare for a free and fair contest.” He reiterated that “Bisi Kolawole stands endorsed by Fayose and other leaders of the party in Ekiti Central Senatorial District as the preferred aspirant to the office of the chairman of the PDP in Ekiti State without apology and others are also free to openly endorse their preferred aspirants,” Olayinka added.
The Olujimi group that controls majority of the SWC has sacked a loyalist of Fayose camp, Mr Dare Olomofe who was also the acting PDP chairman in Ado-Ekiti Local Government. He was fingered to be one of the arrowheads of Kolawole’s endorsement, an act considered as anti-party activity by the SWC.
For more than three years, Ondo PDP has been enmeshed in crisis over the party leadership in the state. The party is fragmented into factions right from the wards, local governments and to the state levels.
The genesis of the leadership crisis can be traced to October 2014, when former Governor Olusegun Mimiko defected to the PDP from Labour Party (LP) and used the instrumentality of the state to take over the whole structure of PDP in the state. The mass exodus of LP members into PDP fold marked the beginning of intense power struggle within the party. The PDP foundation members decried the impunity and forceful hijacking of the party by Mimiko.
The former governor’s leadership style created divisions in the party. The part split into two opposing camps. One faction was headed by Chief Clement Faboyede while the other was led by Chief Biyi Poroye. The leadership struggle led to two parallel congresses that culminated in the emergence of two PDP governorship candidates in 2016. Former State Attorney General, Eyitayo Jegede was the governorship candidate of Faboyede group while the business mogul Jimoh Ibrahim emerged from Poroye camp. However, the Supreme Court later authenticated Mr Jegede as the PDP candidate after a prolonged court battle with just a few days to the poll.
To date, party members are still angry over the hijacking of the party by Mimiko and other former LP members. The internal squabbles have made peace and reconciliation moves of the party futile. Analysts faulted the reconciliation approach of the Faboyede group which is to avenge the wounds of losing the November 2016 governorship election to the APC. To them, the expulsion of Poroye faction was a great disservice to the party. The Faboyede group should have applied a genuine internal mechanism that would bring aggrieved members and leaders together in order to strengthen and the reposition the party.
The crisis rocking Kaduna State chapter culminated in the defection of prominent chieftains of the party including and some governorship aspirant few days to the last general elections. The forum of governorship aspirants had passed a vote of no confidence on the former state chairman of the party, Hassan Hyat, for allegedly favouring a particular aspirant (Alhaji Isa Muhammed Ashiru) ahead of the party’s primaries. The aggrieved aspirants were Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, Alhaji Mohammed Sani-Sidi, former Governor Ramalan Yero, Muhammed Sani-Bello and Dr Shuaibu Idris. Ashiru eventually emerged as PDP standard-bearer and lost the governorship election to Governor Nasir El-Rufai of APC.
The forum accused the state party chairman and members of the State Working Committee of openly working against the aspirations of the other gubernatorial aspirants in favour of his anointed candidate. They alleged that the state chairman tampered with the delegate list of several local government areas sent to the state party secretariat to the advantage of his preferred candidate. In view of all this, the former governorship aspirants requested the national the leadership of the party to take full charge of the party’s activities in Kaduna State in order to rescue the situation and restore the confidence of the majority of party members and loyalists.
Few days to March 9 governorship poll, Sani-Sidi alongside his teeming supporters resigned their membership of PDP and joined the APC. The PDP executive members of Kaduna Local Government area too defected to APC with thousands of supporters. The defection continued as the Chairman, PDP Zaria Local Government, Alhaji Samaila Musa, and other chieftains along with their teeming supporters dumped the party for the APC.
The Lagos State chapter of PDP is embroiled in a fresh leadership crisis. A special election committee set up by the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) had on November 13, 2019 conducted an election to fill key executive positions in the Lagos State chapter of the party. The election took place despite an alleged subsisting court order stopping the NWC from going ahead with the election. The controversial election saw the emergence of Mr Deji Doherty as the new chairman of the party.
Before the election, former chairman of the party, Dominic Adegbola hinted that there were grand plans to sideline the leader of the party in the state. He alleged that the leadership crisis was part of the struggle by some governors and top chieftains to control the Southwest zone of the party ahead of 2023 presidential election.
Since 1999, PDP under the leadership of Bode George had never produced a governor in Lagos State. He has always been the issue in the state chapter. Most of the governorship candidates have criticised the leadership style which they said had contributed to the failure of the party in the state. For instance, Jimi Agbaje, the PDP governorship candidate in 2015 and 2019 alleged Bode George of mismanagement of campaign fund in 2015 and refused to release the 2019 campaign fund to George. A chieftain of the PDP in Lagos State had described George as PDP headache in Lagos State. He said to restore peace in the party, George’s influence over the party must be removed. He said the era of one man sitting down in his house giving orders on party management is over in Lagos PDP.