
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) battles to put the party united in the facing of defections that hit the party in recent time, writes ONYEKACHI EZE
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) battles to put the party united in the facing of defections that hit the party in recent time, writes ONYEKACHI EZE
In the next four to five months, members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be fighting the battle of their lives.
This includes the battle to serve out their four-year tenure, and if possible, seek re-election in the party’s elective national convention in December. Early this year, there were moves to deny them the right to serve out their tenure. But last April, the National Executive Council (NEC), the second highest decision making organ of the party, passed a vote of confidence on the party’s national leadership.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan who briefed journalists at the end of the meeting said “NEC further cautioned party members at all levels to be wary of agents of distractions and division while praising the effort of the NWC for being focused and purpose driven in piloting the affairs of the party.”
But this respite seemed to have short lived. Those who want an abrupt end of their tenure appeared to have contrived another means, at least to stop any of them from seeking re-election in the December convention, even if they are allowed to complete their tenure. The spate of defections that hit the PDP is one of them.
Since last year, PDP has lost three governors elected on its platform, and a number of National Assembly members, to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike is among the party leaders who blamed this misfortune on the NWC.
In particular, the governor said the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus did not show leadership to prevent these defections. At the 60th birthday of former Cross River State governor, Liyel Imoke, the Rivers State governor argued that if Secondus had acted like a good leader, the party would not have been hit by internal crisis.
“If he (Secondus) had shown leadership in Cross River, our party would not have had the problem we have today. We talk about character. What is leadership? Leadership is about character, boldness, selflessness and audacity. “As a leader, you must have character.
Not to speak white in the morning and you speak black in the evening. Is that leadership? What are we telling our youths? We are talking about the future of this country. “Leadership is that you must decide whether to stand for the truth or not. You must decide whether to do the right thing or not. Leadership is the ability to say the decision I took was wrong and I have accepted that I was wrong and now I am in the position to correct it,” Wike said.
Observers said it is unfortunate that the tide has turned against PDP this time. In 2018, or shortly after the December 2017 national convention where the NWC members were elected, it was the other way round.
Some high profile APC members, including the presiding officers of the two chambers of the National Assembly and three state governors, joined the PDP. Among those who defected, only Yakubu Dogara, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, had returned to the APC. The 2019 general election was a defining moment for the PDP.
Though it failed to win the presidential election, the party won 15 out the 29 contested governorship seats, leaving 14 for the APC. PDP National Chairman, Prince Secondus, shared the secret of the party’s success, which he attributed to the reforms and internal democracy engineered by the NWC. Explained Secondus: “Powers were effectively decentralised to flow from the people.
Party tickets were gotten at the congress venue not at party headquarters, at state and national levels. Popular and more acceptable candidates emerged at state congresses and national convention. “Our national convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in October 2018 became the first of its kind in Nigeria. It was so transparent that there was no complaint from anybody. Instead, all the contestants resolved to support the winner.
All these helped to engender confidence and trust in our leadership.” Even though the national convention was adjudged as the most transparent and rancour-free in the party’s history, the genesis of the attack on the NWC emanated from it.
The outcome did not go down well with certain interests. The Bala Mohammed Committee that reviewed the PDP performance in the 2019 general election said this much in its report which was submitted to the party leadership this year.
The committee acknowledged that the Port Harcourt convention “though widely adjudged to have been free and fair, had been unnecessarily plagued by a plethora of unhealthy factors even before it took place. Public disagreements and threats between leading party stalwarts showed clearly that there were divisions within the party.
“To the detriment of party unity, the inability to resolve whatever the lingering issues were, snowballed into some stone-walling that ignited damage control measures. We cannot forget in a hurry, the desperate visit to the host governor, who could not witness the formal declaration of the nominee, at the venue of the convention.”
It was obvious that Governor Wike of Rivers State who had earlier threatened the party against denying his state the hosting right of the convention, did not take kindly the loss of his preferred candidate, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, to the eventual winner of the PDP ticket, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Some party leaders were not happy that the NWC insisted on allowing the delegates decided the flag bearer. This unhealthy atmosphere was taken into the main election.
The postelection review committee again noted that the electoral fortunes of some PDP governors that ensured their reelection “contrasted sharply with the votes cast for the party’s presidential candidate” whom it believed “towered head and shoulder above the candidate of the APC.” That the NWC was able to steer the ship of the party since then was the
Lord’s doing. When he addressed media executives in December 2020 to mark third year of his PDP-led leadership, Secondus had boasted that his “NWC is the first in transparency and accountability, the first to function effectively for three years without any scandal or dent of corruption; the first also to successfully render account of its monetary expenditures to both NEC of our party and the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) as statutorily required.”
It appeared this was what his traducers were waiting for to launch the attacks on the party’s leadership. Few months later, PDP, which had enjoyed relative peace, began to slide into an internal crisis. The leadership was accused of sundry offenses, ranging from poor management of the party’s affairs to creating conflicts in state chapters.
Those behind the plot were afraid that allowing the NWC to set up a planning committee for December’s elective national convention might work against their interest.
But the conscience of the party, the Board of Trustees (BoT) and the PDP Governors’ Forum rallied round to rescue the situation, which prepared the ground for the vote of confidence on the NWC by the NEC. BoT assured of its commitment “not to allow any mischievous trends or strain to clog the working relationship between all members, particularly at the top management level of the party.”
The board in communiqué, which was read by former President of the Senate, Adolphus Wabara, further assured that it would “ensure that a fluent and uninterrupted operation of all the organs of the party particularly the National Working Committee (NWC) remains in place leading up to a successful convention in December 2021.”
The spate of defections is seen as spiteful of the NWC with just a few months to the end of its tenure. Secondus had earlier blamed the crisis in the PDP on external forces. He pointedly accused APC of sowing seeds of discord in PDP, adding, “Our antagonists who had wanted the party to scatter since we lost the two presidential elections in 2015 and 2019, are worried about how we managed to pull resources together and kept the party afloat.”
Particularly in the South- West, the ruling party was accused of giving money to PDP members to cause a crisis in their party. At the Port Harcourt convention in 2018, PDP former Deputy National Chairman (North- East), Alhaji Babayo Gamawa was allegedly used to attempt to cause confusion.
But that failed. Gamawa later defected to the APC. PDP governors also said some of them were being intimidated to join the APC. Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom said he was approached but he declined “because I don’t have a skeleton in my cupboard.”
“If you don’t do well, I will take you to court and we will dig it out there. You have also heard about a minister in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the current minister serving today who has embezzled a lot of money and bought an estate for $37 million and $20 million was recovered from her house. And up till today, we have been calling on the presidency to expose that minister and let there be justice.
But have you heard anything from the presidency?” Ortom said only those “who have mismanaged themselves and mismanaged public property are afraid. And that’s the instrument that the Federal Government is using on our people.”
His Taraba State counterpart, Darius Ishiaku, said all the PDP governors who joined the APC in recent times did so out of intimidation, adding, “Most of our members are also being intimidated persistently. We want the intimidation stopped because we’re not comfortable with it.”
Though, those who left the PDP to APC might have been intimidated, their action was borne out of greed. These governors had since left PDP (in spirit) before their actual defections. Former Niger State governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu said the governors are ingrates.
Aliyu said in an interview: “If I remember the state that we lost; if I remember the way and manner the governors that defected came. I will still say, we will regain them very nicely. “I recall Ebonyi State, the former governor Sam Egwu, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim. I recall what happened because I followed vividly how a deputy governor (Umahi) was being frustrated; how he ended up being our gubernatorial candidate and how he won that election.
“And Ebonyi is one of those states that will always hold stability strongly and I believe these people and their supporters, friends and colleagues will do so much for us.” Governor Dave Umahi was not Martin Elechi’s choice as his successor when he was leaving office in 2015.
Though his deputy, the former governor’s candidate was former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, but Ebonyi PDP stakeholders frustrated Elechi and his candidate, and Umahi became the candidate and went ahead to win the governorship.
None of the governors – Umahi, Ben Ayade of Cross River and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, – was a regular face at PDP events, or even at PDP Governors’ Forum meetings. Umahi and Matawalle were always represented by their deputies – Kelechi Igwe and Modi Aliyu Gusau, respectively. Umahi, as PDP governor, had threatened his aides with sack should any of them criticise President Muhammadu Buhari.
And the first state Buhari visited when he became President in 2015 was Cross River. That is to show that their souls left PDP a long time ago, and except Matawalle, the other two were waiting to win re-election on the PDP platform before bidding the state farewell.
This notwithstanding, PDP should see the defections as a temporary setback and put its acts together for the battle ahead. The electronic registration of members, which has been scheduled for August 1 should serve as a springboard for the party to relaunch itself.
Just as the Chairman of the National Electronic registration Committee, Governor Godwin Obaseki has advised, PDP members should not ask what the party has done for them but what they can do for the party, “because without a strong party, we will not be able to achieve our goals.
“Let me state that in this exercise, we are going to be asking our members to support their party.” This is timely advice. What PDP needs now is unity of its members to be able to wrestle power from the APC in 2023. As an opposition party, PDP cannot afford to go to the election disunited.