Olaolu Oladipo 
The venue of the meeting was the National Secretariat of the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja, the nation’s capital and the main item in the agenda was reconciliation amongst gladiators who have engaged themselves in war of attrition that is yet to abate with prospect that it would not go away anytime soon.
Waxing optimistic, the National Organising Secretary of the PDP, Mallam Umar Bature told newsmen that the meeting was solely for the purpose of dousing raging tension within the ranks and again to help kick start what he termed reconciliation of members within the party in the aftermath of the last round of general election that the party once again lost to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) .
To pundits, the PDP needs a lot of work to do to unify all members together to reposition it to its old winning ways of pre-2015 era when it styled itself as the biggest party in Africa destined to rule the country for 60 years until the bubble burst and the APC dislodged it from power in a manner that became rather unprecedented in the history of democratic practice in the country.
Commenting on the essence of the parley that was put together to bring all stakeholders together to highlight the issues and find lasting solutions to the intractable schism within, Ba- ture stated that though the current situation within the party was not irredeemable, lamented that members contributed to the poor outcome of the 2023 general elections via their actions and inactions that led the party down the dungeon.
He however urged members across the country to be wary of pointing accusing fingers at one another; the opposition whom he accused of stoking the crisis too shouldn’t be seen to be liable if its antics had been shunned by members within the party. On the way forward, he said the party would not apportion blame, suspend, expel, or accuse anybody of participating in pro- or anti-party activities during the last general elections but that members should dedicate themselves to the aspiration of the party to regain its lost glory which he said is attainable “We are here today and everyone knows what happened in 2023.
We contributed both individually and collectively. If you rise to speak, I beg you to spell out your own role in the 2023 elections, either positive or negative before you jump to accuse someone else, either negative or positive,” he said.
Echoing the same sentiment, the acting National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagun, said the meeting was in continuation of the National Working Committee’s consultation with critical stakeholders, in a bid to chart the way forward for the party after the last election.
On the aim of the parley, “This meeting will give us the opportunity to review the outcome of the last general elections and to share ideas about how to strengthen the party to face the challenges ahead. “We have had a series of meetings with the members of the National Ex Officio, state Chairmen, select BoT, and members of the National Assembly.
This is a continuation of that meet- ing and it was borne out of what has happened during those meetings and we said there was a need for us to call this one.”
Unfortunately for the planned event it eventually became a major flop as various important dramatis personae slated to attend it all shunned it leaving many to draw the conclusion that a lot of efforts will need to be put up to bring everyone on board as the issues tearing members apart seem to be deep-seated than previously assumed.
Conspicuously absent was the duo of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, who were the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the party in the last poll.
The meeting was also boycotted by aggrieved members of the Integrity Group led by former governor Nyesom Wike were all missing at the meeting of a select committee of the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party at the party’s secretariat on Tuesday.
Past reconciliatory efforts
This is not the first time the PDP will be calling for the reconciliation of its members after the 2023 general elections, which it went into with a divided house. The leadership of the party had earlier in June, at a retreat in Bauchi, the Bauchi State capital, failed to respond to the crisis.
One of the dramatis personae who is Oyo State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde, on that occasion that had many of the party’s chieftains in the Integrity Group and the G-5 Governors present called on stakeholders to put aside their differences and work towards unity, saying “the healing process must start now”.
The discord within
The problem started when five governors elected on the platform of the party led by the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike and some other party stalwarts in November announced the forma- tion of the Integrity Group within the party.
At the group’s maiden meeting in Ibadan, members called for the resignation of the immediate past National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, after the party presidential ticket was won by a Northerner, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
To them, the action would ensure balance and that it would be in line with the tradition of the party, stating that the offices of the presidential candidate and the national chairmanship of the party should be shared between the North and South.
Apart from Wike and the host, Seyi Makinde, other governors in the group were former Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State. Other leaders of the group include former governors; Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo State), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Donald Duke (Cross River), Jonah Jang (Plateau) and former deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Bode George. Others include former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke; deputy National Chairman South of the PDP, Taofeek Arapaja; Nasif Suleiman, Nnena Ukeje, Senator Sandy Onor and Senator Mao Ohabunwa.
Damage caused by division within
The inability of the gladiators to settle the rift within proved to be fatal as the party once again lost the presidential election to the APC despite the opportunities that could have been exploited by the opposition party to stage a return to power.
It is on record that the various aggrieved governors and chieftains worked for all other candidates apart from Atiku Abubakar thus paving the way for the candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to walk straight into Aso Rock, and the mainstream members led by Atiku Abubakar licking their wounds hoping to make things happen through the law courts.
Ayu’s exit and the unabated schism Though the mainstream PDP members had maintained that it would be a tall order for anybody or any organ apart from the National Convention to oust Ayu from office should he (the national chairman) refuse to step down, respite came when a High Court sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, sacked Ayu from office.
Presided over by Justice Maurice Ikpambese, the court nullified Ayu’s membership of the party. With the judgment Ayu’s hope of returning to his position as the party’s chair became a lost hope, having now lost his membership of the party. a court had earlier sacked the former President of the Senate from office.
Justice W. I Kpo- chi of the same Benue State High Court restrained Ayu from parading himself as the national chairman of the PDP follow- ing an ex-parte request by a member of the party in Benue, Terhide Utaan.
The exit of the main source of angst for the aggrieved members didn’t solve the schism with the coming in of Damagun at the helm of affairs in line with some extant provisions of the party’s Constitution allowing the Deputy National Chairman from the region of the departing chairman to replace his boss.
The exit of the Ayu did little or nothing to douse the agitation as those still fighting the party say that the office ought to have returned to the Southern part of the country where it ought to be in the first place.
Romance of Integrity Group members with government
Notwithstanding the fact that they are members of the opposition, members of the Integrity Group are fraternizing with the APC led government both at the states and at the national levels with many of its chieftains drumming up support for the Bola Tinubu led administration in open defiance of their party, which is currently in court challenging the victory of the former Lagos State governor.
Wike and his G-5 co-travellers have been reported to have visited Tinubu where they not only expressed their readiness to work with him to move the country forward but some of them have been openly canvassing to be appointed into a new cabinet being put together by the President.
Way forward
Sources within the party told Saturday Telegraph that the only solution left for addressing the problem within the party was for the current leadership to convoke a National Convention that would be an elective one where a new National Working Committee would eventually emerge.
“The only way out is for the current managers of the party to look beyond self and convoke a National Convention where every member would participate and in the end, new leaders that would be acceptable to all would emerge,” a chieftain of the party in Lagos, Mr. Soji Samuel, said.
