By Emeka Alex Duru
With the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, granting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the right to hold its national convention scheduled for October 30 and 31, 2021, the efforts by the embattled national chairman of the Party to regain his position, may have suffered a fatal blow.
In a move reminiscent of the high-wire politics in the PDP, Secondus had been eased out of his office, two months before the expiration of his term, on allegations of gross incompetence. He was replaced by Yemi Akinwonmi, in acting capacity. Even his programmed removal was more of a face-saving exercise by the governors of the party and the Board of Trustees, to save him the embarrassment of being swept aside in the manner of his predecessors.
But in a bid to serve out his term that was supposed to end in December, Secondus had attempted to stop the PDP from holding a national convention where a substantive chairman would be elected. Incidentally, the Court of Appeal, on Friday, October 29, turned down his request.
Delivering the ruling on behalf of two other justices, Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that the attempt by Secondus, to suspend the planned convention is an act of “self-induced urgency” to disrupt an ongoing lawful process of the party.
He wondered why Secondus waited for too long to seek the stoppage of the process which had been communicated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the acting national chairman of the party, Akinwonmi, who Secondus duly handed over to.
The judge also held that Secondus did not oppose the notice of the convention written by the acting chairman to INEC and did not also oppose INEC replying to the PDP through the acting chairman.
Secondus loses, leaves?
With the court’s pronouncement, the curtains may have been drawn on Secondus’ term as the PDP chairman, unless the main suit on his status as the chairman and a member of the party before the same court, works in his favour.
Even before the Appeal court ruling, Secondus had been rendered a lame duck in the party he had previously benefitted from its intrigue-infested politics. The concern was not particularly on whether the allegation that he lacked the capacity to reposition the party held any water.
But in the PDP tradition, he had more or less, been declared guilty as charged. And in the typical Nigerian political culture, his seat, had been subtly declared vacant, even when he was still in office. Nocturnal meetings were already taking place even among his friends on what to pick from his anticipated fall.
Secondus understands the game as much as his traducers. His hushed exit is in line with the template served his predecessors. From the controversial emergence of Olusegun Obasanjo as the PDP presidential candidate in its1998 Jos convention against the established principles of the party, the organisation has not had any transparent primary at all levels.
The party has also not had any democratically elected National Chairman since the former Vice President, late Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Second Republic Plateau State governor, late Solomon Lar, occupied the office in interim capacity.
Again, none of the party’s chairmen had served out his term on a good note. What has rather been the norm is a culture of imposition and hushed removal of chairmen, all indicating absence of internal democracy – a far cry from the original agenda of the party.
Like Secondus, like predecessors
What happened to Secondus, therefore, is not unusual in the party. Aside Dr. Ekwueme and Solomon Lar, who ran the party on interim capacity, other national chairmen of PDP had been enthroned on controversial basis and removed in ignominy. The first substantive national chairman, Barnabas Gemade, who was practically imposed on the party by Obasanjo as against the preferred late Sunday Awoniyi, was eventually kicked out of office by the very same force that threw him up. Gemade is now in the All Progressives Congress.
In place of Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, was foisted on the party by Obasanjo. Again, when he fell out with Ogbeh, Obasanjo forced him to tender a resignation letter before the end of his term. Obviously sulking from his ignominious exit, Ogbeh pitched camps with the APC.
Ogbeh’s exit pave way for Ahmadu Alli, who was also eased out of office for Vincent Ogbulafor. It did not take long for Ogbulafor to fall out with the Goodluck Jonathan presidency and he was shown the way out and replaced by Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo. Nwodo did not last in the office before Bamaga Tukur was inflicted on the party by the Jonathan presidency in the charade that passed for a special national convention in 2012 in Abuja.
The immediate outcome of that flawed convention was the exit of key members of the party and a piteous successive runs of light weights that masqueraded as national officers, up to the Secondus era. PDP has not recovered from that misguided outing.
October 30, 31 National Convention and the way out
So, while the PDP enthuses on the breather from the Court of Appeal, the October 30, 31 convention, perhaps is a critical moment for it to convince its members and other Nigerians that it is serious to do battle with fellow ideology-barren APC in the 2023 elections.
For a party that has regularly advertised its readiness to return to power, the outcome of the convention will go a long way in determining how far it can go.
A transparent and peaceful conduct of the exercise, may earn it return of estranged members or those that had left its fold in anger. If the convention is however bungled, the PDP may as well, be on its way out as a leading political party in the country.
