By Ishaya Ibrahim (Lagos) and Onwukwe Ezeru (Umuahia)
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) eggheads and moneybags are putting heads together to claw back integrity and public support to regain federal power, despite the split between the camps of Ali Modu Sheriff and Ahmed Makarfi.
The rift threatens the survival of the PDP, but it is working on three planks to bounce back to slug it out with the All Progressives Congress (APC) which dislodged it from Abuja in 2015.
Plan A. To pacify all the vested interests in the PDP to dig into the strongholds of the APC.
Plan B. Those who defected to the APC may return to the PDP to jostle for the presidential slot zoned to the North in 2019.
Plan C. To concede the PDP national chairmanship to the South West, thereby cornering up the zone for the party in 2019. Only the South West has not occupied the post since the formation of the party in 1998.
Zoning Aso Rock to the North has ignited highwire schemings among grandees and wildcards in the South South and South West for the chairman’s job at the PDP convention in Port Harcourt on August 17.
Threat by Sheriff faction
The Sheriff faction says unless the National Caretaker Committee led by Makarfi is dissolved, and the convention moved to Abuja, it would continue to throw a spanner in the works.
“Nothing has changed. And we are not changing our position,” Sheriff’s media aide, Inuwa Bwala told TheNiche.
When asked why his principal has refused to give up opposing the Makarfi committee, giving its popularity among PDP topnotch, he retorted: “Thank you for your opinion.”
The Sheriff faction secured another court ruling on Thursday, July 28, recognsing its leadership as the authentic one, as against the more popular Makarfi caretaker committee.
Justice Okon Abang held that every action the Makarfi committee had taken since it emerged through a convention in Port Harcourt on May 21 amounted to a nullity.
But the caretaker committee says it would ignore the new ruling because the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt affirmed the legitimacy of the Port Harcourt convention that enthroned the caretaker committee, hence another court of coordinate jurisdiction cannot overrule that decision.
Make or break national convention
Former Sokoto State Governor, Attahiru Bafarawa, told TheNiche in a telephone interview that the Port Harcourt convention would be a make or break for the PDP, and if it fails, the impact would be catastrophic for even the APC.
“The convention will decide whether there will be PDP or not. And if there is no PDP, there will certainly not be APC,” he warned.
Bafarawa declined to expatiate.
But sources said his comment may be tacitly referring to likely defections of APC chieftains to the PDP, especially those in the new PDP bloc who have not really got accommodation in the APC, some of whom want to contest the 2019 presidential election.
Names like those of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso; and Senate President, Bukola Saraki; have been bandied.
The source said for instance, Saraki has the muscle of moving Kwara with him if he chooses to rejoin the PDP, and Atiku could sway Adamawa and Kogi governors to join him.
The PDP has made an attractive offer to these presidential hopefuls by zoning its presidential slot to the North.
With the APC establishment saying there is no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2019, the presidential hopefuls may become the ace for the PDP.
“And when coming to the PDP, they will bring with them serving governors, reminiscent of the G5 defections of 2013 when five serving PDP governors joined the APC,” the source enthused.
With the PDP presidential slot ring-fenced for the North, PDP heavies from the South South and South West have set their sights on the chairmanship at the convention on August 17.
Among them are Austin Opara, Raymond Dokpesi, Bode George, and Uche Secondus.
They have varying degrees of popularity and acceptance in Africa’s former largest party that once boasted to rule Nigeria for 60 years but only did for 16, from 1999 to 2015, and left the country and its treasury in tatters.
Austin Opara
Austin Opara has remained true to the PDP from inception, and has made many friends across the party’s divide.
He won election in 1999 as a member of the House of Representatives, representing Port Harcourt II Federal Constituency. In 2003, he was re-elected and then became deputy speaker.
But Opara’s albatross could be Uche Secondus. Both are from Rivers and vying for the chairmanship.
A split vote from home may be a hurdle too high to surmount.
Uche Secondus
On the politicking terrain, Uche Secondus is an old horse. He was Rivers State youth leader of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic.
During the Ibrahim Babangida transition programme, he served as National Republican Convention (NRC) Rivers State publicity secretary.
Secondus served two terms as Rivers PDP chairman, and moved on to hold several national positions in the party, including acting national chairman, until the National Executive Committee (NEC) asked him to hand over to Sheriff.
His chances are slim largely because of the role he played in the crises that dogged the party, and the urge by its minders to have new faces on the block.
Raymond Dokpesi
DAAR Communications founder, Raymond Dokpesi, enjoys early endorsements from Edo, his home state, and neighbouring Delta.
He uses his media outlets – Ray Power and Africa Independent Television (AIT) – to promote the interests of his friends, and they may consider this as reward time for him.
The South West is the ace in 2019, and the PDP hopes to clinch it by conceding the national chairmanship to the zone.
Dokpesi, from the South South, faces the difficult task of convincing party chieftains against the plan.
Bode George
Bode George also enjoys early endorsements, with the Lagos PDP declaring support for him.
He is an influential member of the PDP with enormous clout, and a vast network of friends who could tilt the vote for him.
But the lack of cohesion among South West PDP members may undermine his chances as his arch rival, Buruji Kashamu, controls a sizeable column of the party in the zone.
Tunde Adeniran
Tunde Adeniran, a professor and former education minister, says he is the right man for the job because he was among those who founded the PDP.
The former Nigerian ambassador to Germany urged delegates and leaders to give him the chairmanship to ensure a rebirth of the PDP and enthrone good governance in the country.
Adeniran was chairman of the electoral panel of the party’s 2011 national convention and deputy director general of the 2015 presidential campaign organisation.
Abia PDP split encourages Sheriff
Abia PDP has already shown the weak link in reconciling the PDP ahead of the national convention in Port Harcourt.
The state PDP chapter, which used to be very peaceful, has split into two with a faction pledging loyalty to the Sheriff camp.
The faction is led by some former members of Abia State House of
Assembly, including Chidi Nwosu, who represented
Umuahia South; Emeka Ejiogu who represented Umuahia North; and Emeka Osoagbaka, who represented Ikwuano.
On Thursday, July 21, Nwosu described the State PDP congress held on May 10, 2016 as a “sham” that should not be allowed to stand.
He said the powers and cabals in the last administration hijacked the congress and imposed their candidates, stressing that one family would no longer be allowed to hold the state to ransom.
“Yes we now have a parallel faction, the last congress was a sham, no election took place, what we saw is that some people in power hijacked the party leadership and imposed their candidates on us.
“We cannot continue like that where a family controls the affairs of the state,” Nwosu argued.
To drive home their stand, last week members of the faction visited Sheriff in Abuja and pledged their allegiance to his camp.
We’ll sanction Sheriff supporters, Abia PDP warns
But in a communique signed by 20 members including the state’s executive, Abia PDP condemned as illegal and unacceptable the action of Nwosu and his group.
“That their description of the democratically conducted state
congress of our party held on May 10, 2016 as a ‘sham’ is an utterance that depicts irresponsibility, disloyalty.
“And their illegal visit to the erstwhile National Chairman of the PDP, Ali Modu Sheriff, is a further display of indiscipline, gross misconduct and disloyalty of extreme order.
“That the party is united, intact, and has no division and that the
democratically elected officers as produced via state congress of May 10, held by Johnson Onuigbo, remains the only authentic executive.”
The communique maintained that the executive is in compliance with the
national convention held on May 21, 2016 and has confidence in and
loyalty to the caretaker committee headed by Makarfi.
Edo, Ondo governorship polls not threatened
Bafarawa told TheNiche that the leadership tussle in the PDP is not a threat to the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo.
Describing one as local and the other as national, he said the good thing is that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has recognised the leadership of Makarfi, which scuttles the thinking of the nay sayers.
“At the national level, every PDP chieftain knows who the INEC says is in charge and will not fail to support the candidate approved by the INEC,” Bafarawa said.