Onwuka Nzeshi The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) recently set up two committees – a Disciplinary Committee and a Reconciliation Committee – to address the various cases of misconduct among its members and reconcile feuding parties. In this interview, a former National Legal Adviser of the party, Emmanuel Enoidem (SAN) delved into the issues and told ONWUKA NZESHI that the move to discipline erring members was long overdue.
What do you think about the recent setting up of the Committee on Discipline and Committee on Reconciliation by the leadership of your party?
Well, ordinarily the move is fine. As a matter of fact,, the Disciplinary Committee is supposed to be a permanent or standing committee of the party. It is supposed to be there on a permanent basis to take care of disciplinary issues. You know that from time to time, issues of misconduct and anti- party activities do come up in the party, so it is supposed to be there to settle those issues without wasting time.
On the other hand, the Reconciliation Committee is one that comes up once in a while; maybe after an election and there are disputes or rancour among members.
So, both committees are long over due in the party given the internal complications, internal quarrels and internal wrangling in the party. You may recall that there were some anti- party activities that took place during the 2023 election and thereafter, some known members of the party are still openly involved in anti- party activities. So it was disturbing to many of us and other well meaning members of the party. Of course it is worrisome that the party had allowed some of these anti party activities to go on without check, thereby making the party a laughingstock.
So it was a bit of a relief that the leadership of the party came up with these two committees. to begin to work to address these issues.
As a former Legal Adviser to the party, do you think that the PDP really needs
to debate about who and who need to be sanctioned for anti- party activities at this time?
Except we are not serious as a party, we don’t need an oracle to tell us who to discipline. People who are committing anti party activities are very visible. Except if we have lost the meaning of anti- party activities. If we are to follow the meaning of anti party activities as enshrined in the PDP’s constitution, those who are committing it are well known, they are not hiding, they are not masquerading; they are doing it in the open and they are doing it boldly. So, we don’t need an oracle to identify them. If the Disciplinary Committee is serious, it doesn’t even need a memo to be able to get these people and sanction them.
Even before the 2023 election, we did not campaign in Rivers State, for instance. For the first time since 1999, PDP did not campaign in Rivers State and we were supposed to have a PDP Governor controlling that state. But then what happened? We didn’t campaign. Why did we not campaign? The Governor of the State at that time did not want to see the presidential candidate of the party visiting Rivers State. The Governor did not want the National Campaign Committee of the party to visit Rivers State. Those were anti- party activities.
During the election, this particular governor openly supported the APC presidential candidate in the election. That is anti party activity. After the election, this same Governor went and collected a ministerial appointment from an APC administration as if the APC is running a Government of National Unity. Even though they were running a Government of National Unity, without the authority of the party, ratified by the National Executive Committee ( NEC), he went ahead to collect a ministerial appointment . This same man has openly said that even in the 2027 Election, he is going to support APC. This position has also been echoed by the former Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, a member of the G5 who also worked against the PDP in 2023. These are all anti- party activities. The entirety of the G5 committed anti- party activities. So, if we must be seen to be serious with the issue of discipline within the party, then all these people must be made to face the disciplinary committee and answer for all their misconduct. They must be sanctioned.
What is really so difficult about the party disciplining members of the G5 all these while given all that they did against the party?
It’s simply because the leadership of the party is not serious. If the leadership of the party were serious, they would not find it difficult to discipline erring members. You see, nobody is above the law. In a decent society, in a civilised society, in a democratic society, no man, no woman, no boy, no girl, no matter how highly placed, no matter how poor, no matter how tall and no matter how short, should be above the law. Any society where a man operates above the law, is a primitive society; it’s an archaic society and a society of the stone age.
If we want to be seen as being serious as a country or as a political party, nobody whether man or woman; no boy, no girl, that should not be subjected to the disciplinary measures of the party as spelt out in the constitution of the party. So, for me, the problem is the leadership. We don’t have leadership that is courageous enough…. We don’t have a leadership that has conscience. We don’t have a leadership that is truthful. We don’t have a leadership that is sincere. We don’t have a leader that means well for the party. That is where it begins. The moment that is in place, all this kind of nonsense will not happen and people will not get away with all sorts of wrongdoings.
There are allegations that leadership of the party and other members of the party have been highly compromised because those committing anti party offences have deployed so much money to silence everyone. Is this true?
Whenever you’re living in a country where people sell their conscience because of filthy lucre, that country is called Nigeria. It is a country where people sell their conscience ; where people don’t live for anything; where people don’t believe in anything; where people don’t have integrity ; where people mortgage their integrity where there was one; that country is called Nigeria. So what is happening in PDP is an extension of that society. We still have people, father’s, mothers, who are worshiping money therefore they don’t have the capacity to speak the truth and they lack the capacity to confront those doing wrong. You know, the moment you receive money in an unjustifiable manner, my brother, you have compromised your conscience.; you have compromised your voice, you have compromised your authority and you have compromised your integrity. Therefore you cannot face the person you have collected that money from when he or she does wrong. You cannot! So people must learn to live with their conscience intact in this country. Anybody who lives with his conscience intact will not take money unjustly or take money that is not meant for him or her and will not take money to compromise his integrity. The moment you take money to compromise your integrity you have lost the capacity to act in a just and fair way. That is exactly what is happening in the PDP. If you are a party officer and if this person has done something wrong against the party, then the person offers you money and you collect it, you have lost your capacity to confront the person! You have lost the capacity to challenge him. What is happening in the PDP is that the leadership is not living above board. That is the problem. They take money from everybody, they take money from anybody without questioning the rationale for the money given to them.
The other day, Chief Edwin Clark called out the Acting National Chairman ( Damagum) and National Secretary ( Anyanwu) and accused them of complicity in the political crisis in Rivers State. What can you say about the position taken by the elder statesman?
When I saw the letter written by the elder statesman, I knelt down and prayed that God should continue to keep him alive. I also prayed that God should continue to raise more people like him among us who will continue to act as the conscience of the nation.
Some people will say that he is not a member of the PDP, but somebody must not be a member of the PDP to see what is wrong in the PDP. The PDP is a major political institution in Nigeria. It is the most nationalistic political party in the history of Nigeria. Therefore, if anything goes wrong with the PDP, it will also snowball into national politics. If PDP is not doing well as a political party, then the polity is also sick and Nigeria cannot be doing well under such circumstances. So when a man in the mould of Pa Edwin Clark will come out openly to say things are not right, his opinion has to be respected by men of goodwill and good conscience. So I stand with Pa Clark and I support all the things he said in that open letter. I support it! If the Acting National Chairman and the National Secretary could sign a letter trying to question the authority of the National Legal Adviser of the party for representing the party or to withdraw the case that was filed by the party against the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, then something is wrong somewhere.
It also shows that they are supporting the defected former members of the party who had lost their seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly by virtue of the provision of Section 109 of the Nigerian Constitution as amended. Those 27 members have lost their seats in the House of Assembly. It doesn’t matter how many people are remaining in the Rivers State House of Assembly after their defection. Even if it is only two or three people remaining in the House of Assembly, by the reason of their defection, those people who defected lost their seats. That is the position of the law. Once you defect from your political party to another political party, you have lost your membership of the State House of Assembly. That is the position of the Constitution. So those 27 persons who defected to APC are no longer members of the Rivers State House of Assembly while the remaining persons are the legitimate members of that Assembly. By law those remaining members are qualified to take decisions and perform their functions as bona fide members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Why are the courts giving conflicting orders on this matter when everyone knows the position of the law on the issue of defection?
Well, the court is also an extension of Nigeria, my brother. If there is something morally wrong with Nigeria, then the courts will also not be spared. Many things are responsible for that situation. Like I said, the court is an extension of Nigeria and is manned by Nigerians. Number Two is that sometimes the person manning the court might not be fully aware of the implications of the law on the subject matter. It is bad enough that we are having conflicting orders on one issue. Ordinarily, the law is supposed to be predictable and we should be able to say this was the law yesterday; this us the law today and this is going to be the law tomorrow. There are many decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court on the issue of defection by a member of the State House of Assembly. So the law is clear and sufficiently settled in that direction. Hence when you see the courts giving conflicting orders on the same matter, something is really wrong somewhere and I think it should be investigated.
Do you think the current leadership of your party is doing enough in the responsibility of keeping the government and party in power on their toes?
I don’t think that they have even done anything talkless of doing enough. Apart from what the National Publicity Secretary is doing, I have not seen any corporate action by the NWC of the party. What I mean by corporate action is where the NWC sits down as an organ of the party to take a position against what is happening in the government of the country. A major political party in opposition like the PDP is today supposed to form a shadow government that will analyse every policy, decision or action of the government in power and provide alternative views and options whether it is politics, economy, security or constitutional. But I have not seen any organised action by the NWC of the PDP under the current leadership. They ought to be picking up the policies of the APC government, analyse them, point out the loopholes and provide alternatives to what has been done by the government of the day. Until we provide that level of opposition, we will continue to lose our relevance in the polity.
Let me also tell you why we are having the problem we are having with the leadership. Danagum is supposed to be an Acting National Chairman but when you’re acting, you’re not supposed to act forever. The Constitution of the party has provided measures on what to do when a particular officer of the party resigns. In the case of Iyorchia Ayu who has resigned from his position as the National Chairman, Danagum who took over from him was supposed to act for a few months, but he has acted for more than one year now. He came after we lost the election in 2023 and he is still acting in that office. That is not what it is supposed to be. An acting position is not supposed to be turned into a permanent position.
The Constitution of the party has spelt out what should be done – the Executive Officers from the zone where the officer who resigned cones from are supposed to meet and bring out someone from among them who will fill the vacant position and serve out the remainder of the tenure of the person who had resigned. In the case of the Woman Leader from Cross River State who died, what the South South did was to come together and nominate a successor to go and complete her tenure. That is what the constitution says and that is what should have been done in the case of Ayu, but people are agitating that Damagum is from the North and so must remain there. The Constitution of the party has defined what are zones in Nigeria and they are the North East, North West, North Central, South East, South South and South West. So if you’re from the North East and you die in office or resign, somebody from your zone must be nominated to step into your shoes to serve out the remainder of your tenure. It is very clear, but because people are very dishonest, people have lost their integrity, people have lost their honour, they want to perpetuate themselves in office for some selfish reasons and that is not proper; that is not democratic and therefore not reasonable.
So in a way, you mean that Damagum is sitting on that chair illegally?
Completely. It’s a complete illegality and that is why he cannot be strong on the seat. He cannot be strong on the seat for two reasons. Number One: It is not his seat. It is not his office. The second reason is that people who are perpetuating him in that office, are dictating to him what to do. When you see a man who is not supposed to be in an office, that person must devise some unlawful means, some illegal means to make sure that he remains in that office. When that happens, the person’s conscience, the person’s ability to do what is right will be affected.
