At formation in 1998, its registered slogan was “Power to the people” but with years of ease in government in majority of the states and at the centre, it gradually abridged the slogan to “Power!” Was the removal of “the people” part of the phrase dictated by mere convenience or was it a result of a deeper shift in its leaning towards the people? Whatever it is, the last five days have been epochal for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) . As rightly captured by a television reporter on Tuesday, the PDP had been used to receiving governors of other parties into its fold, now it is its turn to lose governors to an opposition party. And in one fell swoop, the party lost five governors to a desperate All Progressives Congress (APC) which has not hidden its resolve to upstage the PDP in the 2015 presidential elections. “Our goal is the presidency and nothing less, “ an APC top shot told Saturday Tribune during the week in reaction to the moral and ideological burden it now carries for gleefully taking as valuable assets governors and leaders of the PDP who it had always condemned as national liabilities .
A day to last Tuesday’s defection of the governors, some key persons in the Federal Government were said to have held an all night meeting on the fate of their party. Two broad groups were said to have emerged with one calling for the sack of the party’s National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, so that peace could reign. That group included some governors who are concerned that the fortune of their party was dwindling by the day. A source at the meeting described it as “stormy” while adding that “the other side canvassed for a more hawkish approach that would see the party expelling the rebels.” As it turned out, the rebels did not wait to be expelled. They moved out the following day in a manner even Tukur described as “shocking.”
And since that Tuesday, all sides to the conflict have not rested a minute. There have been meetings upon meetings, dramas and counter dramas. While governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Babangida Aliyu of Niger State and suspended National Secretary of the PDP, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, have announced their staying off the merger with APC, the mainstream PDP has not gone to sleep at all on their decision to stay put. As learnt during the week, in fact their decision not to go with the others has been of greater headache to the presidency and the leadership of the party than the exit of the five governors. It was gathered that certain forces in the PDP see the decision of those governors not to leave the PDP as a tactical measure by the forces behind the New PDP to be present in both the APC and PDP at the same time. Both governors may continue the battle against the presidency, with the APC and other anti- Jonathan forces in the polity providing the moral muscle needed to keep the heat at optimal degree.
Both Babangida Aliyu and Sule Lamido are presidential materials. In fact, their opposition to President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 ambition have been variously attributed to their own ambitions to succeed him. However, while Aliyu has robustly been selling himself using the north and its interests as pawns, Lamido has managed to build a facade of pan-Nigerianism in his politics. In fact, Lamido has had open endorsements of both former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida. Very significantly too, both are said to be Obasanjo “boys”. The former president is believed to have been the sole factor that made their governorship possible in 2007. They are both serving out their two terms in 2015.
What is the position of both Obasanjo and IBB in the tight-rope politics currently going on? While Obasanjo has maintained a studied silence so far, IBB showed in words and in body language that he endorsed the merger. Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday at the launch of Atiku Abubakar’s book, Babangida, with a wry smile, head bent sideways, described the defection of the PDP governors to the APC as “democracy in action”. At the same event, Atiku averred that the defecting governors had the right to associate with whoever they liked.
Both IBB and Atiku are leaders of the PDP. Both are also involved in outspoken opposition to another four years of Jonathan presidency after 2015. It is equally significant that one of the two governors that are sitting back in the PDP is from IBB’s home state. Specifically, Governor Aliyu of Niger state is IBB’s cousin and was the one who fired the very first shot at the 2015 ambition of Jonathan with his announcement, some months ago, that Jonathan signed a one-term pact with the north, a charge the president has denied.
As for the decision of Oyinlola to also stay put in the PDP, strategists in the presidency are said to have reasoned that he may have decided on that position so as to make the party unmanageable using his status as the de facto National Secretary. A worried leader of the PDP who claimed to be neutral in the crisis but would not want to be named, told Saturday Tribune on Thursday that he felt the PDP presently had a legal mess in its hands over the way it has handled the National Secretary issue. “ We have outside the secretariat a determined Oyinlola who was elected at the National Convention with Bamanga Tukur and whose election has been revalidated by a decision of the Appeal Court. We also have in the secretariat someone who was not elected by any national convention but is functioning as national secretary. What does that tell you about the legality of decisions being taken by the party with that person participating? My opinion is that if you don’t want Oyinlola, why not follow the constitution and make his deputy, Onwe, acting secretary? “ the source said.
Presently, Professor Wale Oladipo, a former political appointee of Oyinlola when he was governor of Osun State, functions as National Secretary. He was brought in by certain forces in the south west who are both anti Obasanjo and anti Oyinlola. Oyinlola’s camp is also said to have decided to maximally use the legal advantage it has to void all decisions the party has taken and may take with Oladipo as secretary.
Perhaps, the final means of solving the problem was the announcement by Chief Ebenezer Babatope, acting as deputy chairman of the party’s disciplinary panel, that Oyinlola and two others had been recommended for expulsion from the party. “So, the position of the committee is that the three (Oyinlola, Abubakar Baraje and Sam Jaja) stand expelled and one (Ibrahim Kazaure) has his suspension extended by one month for him to report to the committee in two weeks time,” Babatope said, adding that the committee`s recommendations were not premeditated as was being insinuated, adding that the committee invited the affected party members and gave them seven days notice to appear before it. The three did not appear before the committee, instead, their lawyer wrote explaining that the invitation by the disciplinary panel had become a subject of litigation, hence appearing before it would be subjudice.
However, an analyst told Saturday Tribune on Thursday that it would appear that the PDP would need more than the decision to expel Oyinlola to be able to get out of the legal implications of keeping him out of office as National Secretary especially after his election has had judicial endorsement. Oyinlola himself said as much in his Wednesday statement where he stressed his decision not to relinquish his seat in Wadata Plaza because of a merger with an opposition party and that the decision to expel him from the party won’t work.
Indeed, Oyinlola stated that the recommendations of the Umaru Dikko-led committee would not stand, as ‘’nobody can build something on nothing; and falsehood on truth.” In a statement on Thursday, Oyinlola said, “the Disciplinary Committee does not exist by virtue of the fact that its composition was not ratified by the National Executive Committee of the PDP which is constitutionally empowered to approve the composition of the body. They really worked to the answer,’’ Oyinlola said in the statement while adding that his detractors acted “with great speed in their feverish ambition of getting rid of Oyinlola before the hearing of his suit at an Abuja Federal High Court, challenging the validity of illegalities’’ of the party.
“Regrettably, the National Working Committee has again demonstrated its disdain for the judiciary by spurning court processes and the notification of our counsel, Mr. Awa Kalu (SAN), intimating the party with the pendency of a suit, challenging the existence of the Disciplinary Committee and actions of the National Working Committee in court, on the grounds that the Dikko Committee is illegal and that Oyinlola, Baraje, Jaja and Kazaure were not given a fair hearing by the NWC in a manner that also demonstrates disrespect for the principle of natural justice. It is very unfortunate that major stakeholders have pretended for too long, as if all is well with the PDP as party members who stand for the truth are being vilified. Those who are familiar with the antics of preachers of dialogue and reconciliation at the national headquarters of the PDP, from where discordant tunes are sounding, would smell insincerity in their media statements’. There have been too many instances of preaching of sermons of peace and reconciliation, while at the same time, offensives are simultaneously launched by same preachers against perceived political opponents by the National Working Committee who mean well for the PDP.
“On my part, in recognition of the need to follow due process and pursue the path of peace, civility and moral rectitude, I will continue to seek remedy at the law courts to protect my God-ordained and fundamental human rights, as a law-abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Therefore, I ask that my teeming associates and well-wishers be not perturbed as a result of the latest development, but pray ceaselessly for PDP and our dear nation,” Oyinlola said.
Whatever Oyinlola says on his fate in the PDP, it would appear that the Supreme Court’s decision on the legality of his sack would be the final legal hurdle to cross by all concerned in the saga. But after crossing the hurdle, there will surely be more political walls opponents will erect against one another.
As for Governors Aliyu and Lamido who have also chosen to stay back in the party, the days ahead will certainly be challenging. Aliyu does not appear to be someone who would lie low in the affairs of the party. If anything, analysts note, he will tighten his hold on the party’s structures in his state while using his position as the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum to continue his Jihad for power shift to the north. When he starts that battle, he will most probably find a fulcrum in the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) which has also described the loss of five governors by the PDP to the APC as “democratic.” Lamido in his own case will most certainly fight many wars, some personal (two of his sons were recently arrested), others political.
He sounded this note on Tuesday while announcing his decision to stay on in the PDP “despite challenges.” He was quoted by Channels TV as saying rather ominously: “...as for my political persecutors, I will engage them appropriately at the right time.” How soon is that right time? We wait.
Tribune
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