Assistant Politics Editor, DANIEL KANU notes that the renewed efforts at rescuing the embattled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), may have hit the rocks following the intransigence of the warring factions over some issues.
Since the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost the grip of power as the ruling party when former President Goodluck Jonathan suffered defeat in the hands of incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2015 Presidential election, PDP has remained ensnared in unending leadership palaver.
It has been a story of nonstop litigations between Senator Ahmed Makarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led factions.
Investigation by TheNiche shows that the ongoing efforts to save the now, opposition party from its self-inflicted crisis may have hit the rock due to inability of the two contending groups to see reasons on the urgent need to resolve the issues involved.
Signs of the renewed hostilities emerged just few days after they reached an understanding to bury their differences.
What set the stage for the new wave of impasse began with Sheriff’s threat to sue anyone, including media houses, who referred to Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee, as a faction of the party. Allied to this was Sheriff’s declaration of job vacancies in the party secretariat.
In a statement by his deputy, Dr Cairo Ojoughoh, Sheriff said the job vacancies declared were preparatory to filling positions in the party’s National Secretariat as the old staff decided to abandon their work even when he appealed to them.
But the Makarfi group faulted the move and asked the old staff to ignore Sheriff’s threat and his seven-day ultimatum to return party properties. The combatants, are thus, set to return to the trenches.
Unarguably, the PDP has not been able to play the role of leading opposition to the ruling APC because of the crisis ravaging it from within.
The burden of Court verdict
While the PDP failed to put its house in order in reaching a consensus on the party’s authentic leadership, the court verdict became necessary.
It is no longer news that the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt on Friday Feb, 17 affirmed Sheriff, former Borno state governor f, as the authentic national chairman of the party.
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.
Chieftains of the party from the two sides had at various fora expressed readiness to abide by the outcome of the Appeal Court verdict with a view to bringing lasting peace in the party.
Both Makarfi and Sheriff have been operating from satellite offices until the February Appeal court verdict that saw Sheriff moving into the national headquarters of the party, at Wadata Plaza in Abuja.
Loyalists of Makarfi have continued to kick against Sheriff Occupation of Wadata plaza.
Aside the tussle at the national secretariat of the party, the crisis in the PDP is also raging in many states where Makarfi and Sheriff command varying degrees of loyalty among the members despite the court judgement.
The failure of repeated efforts to find solution to the lingering crisis in the party has given vent to the suspicion of a solid underground plot to destroy the PDP.
Jonathan steps-in
In the continued search for the elusive peace in the party, the former President, Goodluck Jonathan, recently broke his silence and offered to help resolve the problem within its fold, if the warring factions were ready to give peace a chance.
In going about the exercise, not only did he host the various factional leaders of the party, 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.
In keeping to his words, the former President quickly met separately with the two factions, as well as members of the Board of Trustees (BoT), led by Senator Walid Jibrin. At all the meetings, the former President canvassed political solution to the crisis.
Reports had it that he also met with State governors elected on the platform of the PDP at his office in Maitama, Abuja, as part of efforts to resolve the issues holding the PDP back.
Governors of Ekiti, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Taraba, Cross Rivers, Abia, Ebonyi, Gombe and Bayelsa states were said to be in attendance while Nyesom Wike of Rivers State was represented by his deputy.
At the end of the meeting which was said to have lasted for about five hours, the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, announced that as a result of Jonathan’s intervention in the crisis, they had resolved to pursue a political solution to end the crisis.
Fayose said; “It is my pleasure to tell you that we are here at the instance of the former President, Goodluck Jonathan. He is genuinely concerned by what is going on in the party. And he thought that an interactive session with the governors will go a long way to dousing tension.
“We want to assure all our supporters that we believe in this party, we believe in the success of this party.”
A PDP member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, representing Ojo Constituency, Victor Akande, submitted that Jonathan’s timely intervention was exactly what the party needed as it prepares to give the ruling APC a run for its money at the 2019 general elections across the country.
“We thank ex-President Jonathan for this political solution. I am happy he heeded our call. Any PDP leader that claims to love the party will toe the line of peace. We should go for truce and no longer court. If our leaders have the interest of the party at heart, they should look forward to resolving crisis. Everyone should sit down and discuss. Jonathan should find the lasting solution to the party’s problems, he can do it,” he said.
TheNiche gathered that Jonathan, while discussing with the various stakeholders, had stressed that the easiest way out of the rumpus is for the party to organize a National Convention where a new leadership will be elected for the party as soon as possible. And in line with this, he has been urging the two factions to be ready to willingly leave office soon.
Danger not averted
But few days after the President’s swift moves appeared to be yielding encouraging results, questions about how far he could go to restore PDP to peaceful ways started popping up as the same actors easily returned to their ego trip, raising fears that the two factions may still find it difficult to work together to achieve the unity convention proposed by Jonathan.
Signs that the end to the PDP crisis might be long in coming began to emerge with the Governor Seriake Dickson-led Reconciliation Committee report.
The Dickson gamble
The Dickson report which was submitted to the leadership of the two warring factions, had proposed that a National Unity Convention be held on June 30, 2017.
Part of the function of the convention committee according to the Bayelsa governor, is that “The Convention Committee shall be responsible for the conduct of the elections to all national offices for the party, including the zoning of such offices. That as part of the sacrifice to be made in order to reposition the party, the Committee is of the view that all national officers who may claim that their tenure still subsists beyond the proposed convention are hereby requested to relinquish their claim in the interest of the party”.
It also proposed that “For the purpose of the convention, all officers, elected at the ward, local, state and zonal levels before the first Port-Harcourt convention of 21st May of 2016, are deemed validly elected except for the election held in some states that were declared by NEC as inconclusive,”.
Return to the trenches
Sheriff and Makarfi however disagreed over the report. While Sheriff accepted the recommendations of the committee, with a proviso that his faction will study it and make amendments where necessary, Makarfi rejected it, describing the report as a breach of the February 17 Appeal Court judgement, which reinstated Sheriff as the party’s National Chairman.
While the Sheriff faction mandated its National Organising Secretary, Okey Nnadozie, to begin preparation towards the proposed convention, indications emerged that the Makarfi faction is toying with the idea of boycotting the convention.
Makarfi in a statement, issued last week, stated that his National Caretaker Committee disagreed with the recommendations of the Dickson report.
“I am shocked and disappointed that the Governor of Bayelsa made public presentation of a purported report approved or endorsed by us and other stakeholders as reported.
“The committee did not see any draft report, although Dickson promised to come with it. In any case, as personal advice, I referred him to the organs of the party and the Goodluck Committee. Neither Senator Makarfi nor the Caretaker Committee has given or accepted any terms to or from anybody,” the statement added.
Public comments by the chieftains of the two factions have also widened the gap in the past days.
With these developments, not many in and outside the troubled party are still optimistic that the solution to the crisis is within reach.