Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), returns to its role of effective opposition, with the eventual end to its long-drawn leadership tussle, General Editor, EMEKA ALEX DURU, writes.
Until the Supreme Court verdict of Wednesday, July 12, 2017, the assumption in some quarters was that the 2019 politics would be a mere All Progressives Congress (APC) affair. This was not on account of the good governance agenda of the ruling party, but essentially because of the leadership crisis in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
On one hand of the tussle was a faction headed by former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff. The other group comprising the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the party, was headed by former Kaduna State governor, Ahmed Makarfi.
Each had laid claims to the leadership of the party. At the commencement of the impasse, last year, not many had given Sheriff any chance of putting up a strong fight. But by the time he secured a surprising victory at the Appeal Court, in Port Harcourt, on February 27, there were pronounced fears within the mainstream members of the party, that unless something drastic was done, his agenda at appropriating the party, would be realised.
Two major considerations informed the panic in the party over Sheriff’s leading the party. In the first place, there were insinuations that he was a mole planted in the party by APC, to further weaken it before the 2019 general elections.
Those who held this view, had argued that he joined PDP in breezy manners, having spent the greater part of his political career in the All Peoples Party (later All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP), one of the political parties that fused into APC. The fear was that with most of his soul mates in the ruling party, he could easily be used to neutralize PDP.
It was also alleged that he had intended to use his position as National chairman to smoothen his paths for eventual emergence as PDP presidential candidate for 2019 elections.
Each of these permutations, did not go down very well with most of the members. The apprehension surrounding Sheriff’s leadership of the PDP, explains the exit of some key members of the party to the APC, while some engineered the emergence of the newly registered political parties as fall back options, in the event of his victory at the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court to the rescue
But with the verdict of the Apex Court, new life may have been injected into PDP.
A five-man panel of the Court, on Wednesday upturned the judgement of the Appeal Court that had earlier validated Sheriff as the substantial national chairman of PDP.
In the unanimous judgement read by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, the Apex Court reinstated Makarfi as the leader of the party.
The Court held that the May 21, 2016, convention of the PDP which removed Sheriff was legally constituted and acted within the bounds of the party’s constitution.
It added that the appointment of Makarfi-led caretaker committee is in line with the constitution of the party.
“The caretaker committee of the PDP led by Sen. Ahmed Makarfi is hereby affirmed as the authentic national leadership of the party.
“The judgment of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division delivered on February 27 is hereby set aside,’’ he held. The panel also awarded N250,000 cost against Sheriff.
The Appeal Court verdict came after Makarfi and Sheriff had appeared in different courts in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, with each getting favourable orders and directives with the attendant effect on stability of the party.
A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt had last year accorded legitimacy to Makarfi as the chairman of the party, while another court of coordinate jurisdiction in Abuja, headed by Justice Okon Abang, had ruled that Sheriff should be recognised as the chairman.
While confusion arising from the conflicting judgements raged, many members left the party. Critics consequently began to refer to the erstwhile ruling party as a dead entity.
Jonathan steps in
It was at this moment when PDP began experiencing mass movement of its members to APC that the former President, Goodluck Jonathan, stepped in and offered to help resolve the problem within its fold.
In going about the exercise, he offered to midwife a political solution to the lingering crisis.
Jonathan, who reiterated his readiness to remain active politically on the platform of the opposition PDP, said it was time for the party to put behind it the many problems confronting it and prepare to return to its position as the ruling party in 2019.
But the expected truce did not materialize. Jonathan was even accused of bungling the process by the way he went about the reconciliation. Our reporter, in fact, gathered that rather than ironing out the crisis with Makarfi and Sheriff behind closed doors, he made it an open affair where many chieftains of the party were invited.
Faced with the crowd, none of the combatants could give in to the other. To worsen matters, Sheriff and members of his camp, staged a walk-out on the former president. A former PDP south-south governor, faulted the strategy employed by Jonathan in the peace move.
He said, “When I learnt that Jonathan was wading into the crisis, I had thought that he was going to be tactical in addressing the issues.
“I am aware that Sheriff is his friend but he is more favourably disposed to Makarfi leading the party. There is no problem with that. But I had expected him to summon the two in a private setting, look into the issues at stake and extract a commitment from them on the way out. Thereafter, he would call a meeting of the whole house where three of them would announce that the trouble was over.
“In that instance, nobody would feel used and dumped; nobody would have a feeling of loss. To my surprise however, even without talking to the gentlemen privately, he summoned a meeting of the whole house that looked more like a rally and was even trying to impose himself on Sheriff”, he said.
Concerned PDP members interpreted the failure of that last ditch effort by Jonathan as indicating that the solution to the party’s crisis, would be difficult. Some governors on the ticket of the party, had also reasoned along that line, especially as they had on different occasions stated that they would leave the party in the event of the Supreme Court judgement favouring Sheriff. Governors Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti) and Nyesom Wike (Rivers), were on the forefront in the campaign. Other chieftains of PDP also made similar vow.
TheNiche learnt that it was in a bid to guard against the unpleasant experiences in the event of Sheriff winning, that some members of the party, facilitated or actually moved into new political groups. One of such organisations, was Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA), said to have been facilitated by Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, with the backing of key members of the Makarfi group.
Others, including former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, former Abia State governor, Orji Kalu, former Media Adviser to erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo, Doyin Okupe, left the party, variously describing it in derogatory terms. But with the current development, PDP seems to have returned to the tracks.
What next after Court victory?
Aside the cautious excitement in PDP following the Makarfi victory, the leadership of the party, is said to have commenced immediate moves at wooing back members of the party, who had left its fold over one reason or another.
Elected members of the party, even chose to downplay the loss by Sheriff, describing the Makarfi victory as triumph for all. Deputy Senate President, Ikweremadu, for instance, described the outcome of the Court as a no victor and no vanquished situation for individual members, but rather a collective victory for the entire party faithful and the nation’s democracy.
He said, “I am happy that the Supreme Court has brought this protracted leadership tussle to an end. There is no victor and there is no vanquished, but a collective victory for our party and the nation’s democracy”.
For former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, Makarfi victory calls on PDP to initiate peace, reconciliation, and rebuilding process, within the party.
Apparently looking beyond the euphoria of the moment, he said; “I call on our party leaders and elders to immediately initiate an all-inclusive peace, reconciliation, and rebuilding process to reunite everybody under the big umbrella and reinvigorate the biggest party in Africa to bounce back to the rescue of the suffering masses of Nigeria come 2019.”
Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, while expressing joy that the nightmare in the party was over, hoped that with the turn of events, “PDP can return to being a formidable alternative to the ruling government”.
Makarfi, in the same vein, extended hands of fellowship to Sheriff and party members in his group, expressing the readiness of the party for reconciliation. Fayose, Wike and former Information Minister, Prof Jerry Gana, also echoed the same tone.
But will PDP do so?