Ahead of the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) slated for Saturday, May 21, 2016, the party is being wracked by bitter wranglings over zoning arrangements. This may well spell the final doom of the opposition party as some chieftains are threatening to leave the already embattled party en masse.
As part of efforts to ensure a hitch-free convention, the party has raised a zoning committee headed by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Emmanuel Udom to put to rest the controversy that had trailed speculations of certain positions being zoned to certain geo-political zones.
Last week, top shots of the party nationwide gathered in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, for the inaugural meeting of the zoning committee during which they deliberated extensively on the assignment given them by the party.
Briefing Government House Correspondents after the meeting, the Zoning Committee Chairman, Udom Emmanuel, said the assignment had been concluded and that the members were unanimous in their agreement for all the 12 National Working Committee seats to be zoned to different parts of the country. He added however, that the decision awaited ratification by the National Executive Committee of the party.
But a large section of the South West PDP members, spearheaded by the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Olabode George and former presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe is protesting the alleged zoning of the National Chairman position out of the region.
Ranged against this position is the camp headed by controversial Ekiti State Governor and Senator Buruji kashamu representing Ogun East in the National Assembly. The Mimiko camp is against zoning the chairmanship position to the North East, insisting it is the turn of the South West to chair the party. The Fayose camp is however drumming support for the former Bornu State governor and acting national chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sherif to whose zone the position has been zoned.
The Mimiko camp is insisting that apart from the fact that the South West has never held the chairmanship position, it is unfair and unequitable for the North to grab the national chairmanship position after the presidency has been zoned to the same region.
At a stakeholders’ meeting convened last week to discuss the planned national convention which included PDP leaders like Olabode George; the governorship candidate of the party in Lagos in the 2015 election, Jimi Agbaje, a former Governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel and Doyin Okupe, a threat was handed out that loyalist of the party could migrate elsewhere en masse, should the zone be denied the national chairmanship position
Okupe declared: “Governor Udom is a young gentleman whom, I believe, still has a long future in Nigerian politics ahead of him. It will be unfortunate if he allows himself to be used to relegate Yoruba people within the affairs of the party once again. The PDP has done a lot of wrongs to the Yoruba people and our position now is that they should start making amends by allowing us to present the next chairman.
“Nigerian history is replete with several instances in which the Yoruba people led the struggle for the actualisation of the minority agenda in the country; we fought for the people of South-South and the minorities in the North to have a say about the process of governance in this country.So, it will be an utmost betrayal if Udom failed to let the chairmanship position come to the South-West as should be,” Okupe said.
“We took a firm position, which was that we will dump the party en masse if we get robbed again at this year’s convention,” Okupe said added.
On its part, the major argument of the Fayoses camp is that younger fellows should be allowed to steer the ship of the party. This is an allusion to rumours that Bode George is interested in the chairmanship of the party. But observers say Fayose’s support for sheriff, is fuelled by the Ekiti governor’s self -interest. He is said to be positioning himself for 2019 when he hopes to get sheriff’s backing for his yet undisclosed ambition.
On Wednesday, separate meetings were held by the opposing camps, one in Akure, the Ondo State capital by the Mikiko group; the other in the Ijebu-Igbo home of Buruji Kashamu by the Fayose camp.
But in a dramatic turn of events, Fayose, to the surprise of the Mimiko camp, stormed the Akure meeting with a message of reconciliation from the Ijebu-igbo meeting.
At the end of delibrations, the two factions yesterday resolved to end its differences over the party’s zoning arrangement and forge a common front at the proposed national convention billed for Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on May 21.
The zonal body also resolved to share the four party positions zoned to the region between the two factions, led by Chief Olabode George and Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose.
Following the reconciliation between the two camps, George’s group agreed to step down its agitation for the national chairmanship and support the zoning of the topmost position to the North.
Kashamu said: “We will mobilise delegates from the Southwest to support Sheriff to continue in office, if he shows interest in contesting for the position at the May 21 national convention in Port-Harcourt.”
The Akure communiqué, signed by 28 leaders, including Mimiko, Fayose, George, Okupe and others, avoided the vexed issue of zoning, merely emphasising the challenges facing the Yoruba in the PDP.
In the spirit of reconciliation, the leaders resolved to set up a committee that will recommend the equitable distribution of party positions zoned to the region. The slots are the National Secretary, National Publicity Secretary, National Auditor and Zonal Executive Committee.
Read by former Minister of Sports Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, the communiqué reads in part: “That the time is ripe for all PDP members in the Southwest to forge a common front and pursue a common agenda towards occupying their destined leadership position in Nigeria.
“That despite the challenges confronting the PDP, the Southwest caucus has agreed to unite and confront the challenges that are facing the Yoruba in Nigeria.
“PDP members have agreed to rise beyond personal interests to confront crucial national issues affecting us, especially the thriving menace of the Fulani herdsmen.
“That the meeting notes with dismay the poor state of the national economy and feels terribly sad that the ruling party has not demonstrated the capacity to contain the economic challenges with attendant dwindling fortunes that has reversed almost all the economic gains recorded under the PDP.
“The Southwest PDP wishes to put on record our dissatisfaction with the performance of the electoral body under the ruling party as all the elections the APC has so far superintended have ended as inconclusive!
“That the PDP will not shy away from effectively playing the role of opposition. This role is crucial to democratic survival and the party shall continually make Nigerians look up to it as a credible alternative to the ruling party.
“That this meeting notes the party posts zoned to the Southwest viz: National Secretary, National Publicity Secretary, National Auditor and Zonal Executive Committee. To this end, a structured Committee was set up to equitably distribute the positions amongst the six member states.
Welcoming the chieftains, Mimiko warned PDP leaders not to use their ambitions to destroy the party in the Southwest.
The governor, who also called for unity among Yoruba leaders, urged his party leaders to be more concerned about the challenges facing the people in the region than fighting over party posts.
His words: “There are issues that are bigger than politics. The rates of attacks of herdsmen in this region call for concern and our people are watching the position that we will take whether our interest is in who becomes zonal publicity secretary or secretary in our party or we will unite to confront the monster in the Yoruba nation.
“Our people are enlightened whether you like it or not they are watching. They are taking note and at the appropriate time they will pronounce judgment on us
Mimiko said the minor disagreement between him and Fayose had been resolved, but his Ekiti State counterpart quickly said: “Mimiko and I have no scores to settle because the journalists here might turn the story upside down with screaming headline to sell their papers.
“Even if we have issues, there is nothing to reconcile. We have no issues. I and Iroko are one and the same.
“This party will not be hijacked by money bags, thugs. I won’t join anybody in the party to subvert the truth. Forget about messenger, but focus on the message. Nigeria is too big for an octogenarian. Even as a governor, I am finding it difficult.
“I won’t do anything that will compromise the success of the party. There is nothing wrong with the PDP but some individuals who are running the party. Mimiko and I want a united PDP.”
However, apart from the now apparently resolved agitations from the South-West, two major power blocs within the party, the PDP Governors’ Forum and the PDP Former Ministers Forum, are at loggerheads over who should lead the party.
While the governors, backed by the current leadership of the party, are said to be working for the return of Sheriff as national chairman, the ex-ministers, most of who served under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, have vowed not to have anything to do with a PDP under Sheriff beyond May 2016.
The governors, it would be recalled, had supported the emergence of Sheriff in acting capacity while the ex-ministers and other notable groups within the party opposed it. However, a compromise was reached that the Acting Chairman would stay till May and vacate the office after the party’s convention.
Insiders say the ministers are opposed to Sheriff’s candidature mainly because of his alleged link to the Boko Haram menace, especially under the previous administration. Many have alleged his complicity in the activities of the Islamic sect. One of the kingpins of the terrorist group, Kabir Sokoto, was reportedly arrested in the Borno State Governor’s Lodge while Sherif was governor. Again, some allege that Sheriff was not totally unconnected with the initial escape of Kabir Sokoto from security operatives. It was also under Sheriff’s watch that the Chibok Girls, about 200, were abducted by the Boko Haram sect. There are suspicions that the abduction was with the connivance of the Borno state government or some of its officials.
Observers say the ministers consider it distasteful, if not scandalous that a fellow with such antecedents would even contemplate being national chairman of a party that is battling with credibility problems after being voted out massively by Nigerians in the last presidential election. Again they remind the party top shots that the agreement was that Sheriff would only be Acting Chairman until May when a substantive chairman is elected.
“What we have today is an attempt by a few people to force him on us. But I can assure you that we will oppose his continued stay in office beyond May 2016. As ex-ministers and stakeholders in the party, we are saying we don’t want the arrangement that will impose Sheriff on the party,” one of the ministers told a national daily.
In their communique presented to the zoning committee, the ex-ministers, proposed that Sheriff and other members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) be barred from seeking re-election at the national convention to give the party a new beginning.
“In order to give the party a new lease of life, it is imperative that a clause in the guidelines for the 2016 National Convention should include a provision barring all those who have served the party, especially during the immediate past tenure of the outgoing National Working Committee members, from contesting for any office of the party under the new dispensation,” the statement said.
Apart from Bode George, others eyeing or believed to be eyeing the national chairmanship position are former communications minister, Ebenezer Babatope and former Minister of Sports and Special Duties, Professor Taoheed Adedoja.
Other top contenders for the national chairmanship position include Senator Paul Wampana; former Political Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak; Senator Saidu Kumo; former Governor of (old) Gongola State, Ambassador Wilberforce Juta; Ambassador Umar Damagum; former FCT Bala Mohammed, former Minister of State (Power), Mohammed Wakil and Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi Jalo.
