•PDP crisis deepens
•Secondus, Metuh move against Gana group
Angst and recrimination still buffet the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its decimation in the general election in which it lost power in Abuja and many states to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the APC itself, rebels and moneybags are at loggerheads, evident in the federal legislature where Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is not sleeping easy.
Back in the PDP – which once boasted to be “the largest party in Africa”, with intent to rule Nigeria for 60 years – the battle is for the control of its soul or a merger with other parties.
The election defeat has left the PDP hemorrhaging – lacking funds and popularity, to the point of being threatened by the APC in its bastion, Bayelsa State, in the governorship election on December 5.
Bayelsa is the home state of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Merger to the rescue
Presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Martins Onovo, disclosed that a merger is on the cards as an alternative to the APC.
“Prior to the (2015) election proper, we had made some attempts for parties to come together. And unfortunately, it did not yield immediate fruit. But that effort is not lost.
“We expect that with time, in the next two, three years, you are definitely going to see some arrangements, whatever they are, whether mergers or alliances. But there will be some arrangements because those efforts are in place,” he said.
Onovo recalled the challenges that crippled the earlier merger talks.
“In any merger there must be a senior or junior partner. Even if it is not admitted in the terms, the sharing of things will show who is senior and who is junior.
“So, those arrangements … because people who founded their party, founded it with a clear agenda, they are attached to their agenda. They don’t want it diluted.
“Also, they feel that since you are initiating the merger, maybe you want to be the senior partner.
“We are ripe now for either merger or alliances, because things have fallen into place. And because we started before the election, the experience of the 2015 election, will also guide us.
“Those discussions, we did not stop after the election. We continued. And we are continuing.”
“The challenge is working out the details. And that is why we are going to need time to work out the details.
“They are all agreeable in principle, and the real challenge is, okay if I agree I will no longer be party chairman and I am not sure how they will run the party. That is the real challenge.”
Onovo argued that the so-called two major political parties are not major in any way except in corruption and in rigging.
“That is the only two major things that make them major, maybe you want to add assassination and violence.
“If by rigging, a party comes to power and labels itself major, I will quarrel with that. In terms of organisation, the only difference they have is that they are better financed.
“Why are we not better financed? They are using looted public funds and that has been established by the courts, and by public opinion, and by commonsense.”
PDP crisis deepens
After the election in April, several party members began an open rebellion to oust the national leadership which they blamed for the electoral loss.
This led to the formation of a bloc led by former Information Minister, Jerry Gana.
Investigation by TheNiche showed that the group has the support of PDP governors. Its main agenda, a source said, is to reposition the party by getting rid of National Working Committee (NWC) members.
The Gana group plans to hold a national reform conference to discuss the party’s problems. However, the PDP leadership wants the conference put on hold, claiming there is no rift in the party.
Spanner in the works
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said there was a communication gap between the planners of the conference and the NWC.
He insisted that “the leadership of the party and all its organs are in one accord. The NWC, BoT (Board of Trustees) and even the Governors’ Forum are on the same page on this.
“We want the national conference and it must hold, because we need to know what to do to rebuild the party. If the party had done well, we wouldn’t have lost election and we need this conference to fashion out ways to rebuild it.
“A lot of corrections need to be made due to many mistakes of the past. And it’s only party members that will contribute to ensure that happens, so we need the conference.
“We are confirming that that conference must hold. But we are in need of all the organs, critical stakeholders of the party, to participate and make inputs.”
Metuh said if the conference should hold, all interests will be accommodated.
“We will consider the interest of the Governors’ Forum, we will take nominees from state Houses of Assembly.
“We will take nominees of youth leaders and all the youth forums because we want the party to go back to the youths so that they will be involved in whatever we are doing.”
The delay is necessary, he explained, “especially when the highest elected member of the party, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has been given an assignment which report he has just submitted.
“Without waiting for that report, and without considering the input of that report, it means we have discarded and foreclosed the issue of the Ekweremadu Committee.
“And that would be a huge insult on the office of the Deputy Senate President on the part of the NWC, more so, when members of the Governors’ Forum are there, BoT members and other high calibre individuals are also there.”
Metuh said copies of the report of the Ekweremadu Committee will be sent to the Governors’ Forum, BoT, national caucus, and to the zones to make inputs.
“Before they add inputs, they would have studied it thoroughly. Then we will immediately convoke a national conference that will involve all interests.
“Interests across the board as the PDP usually does, then we will constitute a committee that will reflect our diverse interests.
“For those committed leaders of our party who have been called, there’s no problem with it. They will participate in the conference. But we need more people. We need more hands because this is the state of our party.
“We need the youths, we need the Houses of Assembly to make inputs. We also need members of the National Assembly to be involved because that’s all we have at the national level.
“We have neither president, nor ministers, but we have senators and leadership of the National Assembly.”
Secondus, Metuh under fire
But some party members who spoke to TheNiche in Abuja accused Metuh and acting PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, of wanting to destroy what is left of the party.
They alleged that the current PDP leaders, who are responsible for its woes, are plotting for self perpetuation in office and vowed that both Secondus and Metuh will be resisted.
Iwuanyanwu discredits Gana group
PDP chieftain, Chyna Iwuanyanwu, argued that the best thing is for the current leaders to vacate office to enable the party build from ground up.
His words: “We said the part of honour is that they should be disbanded. They should go so that we could get a new caretaker committee that could rebuild the PDP.”
But Iwuanyanwu equally picked holes in the Gana group advocating the sack of NWC members, recalling that Gana headed the last national convention of the party where things fell apart.
“Jerry Gana and Ken Nnamani are part of the current problems of the PDP, so they lack the moral fibre to bring solution.
“Gana headed the last convention that witnessed large scale impunity from which the party has never recovered.”