Shamsudeen Abdallah
It is not as though PDP’s leadership crisis started today. PDP’s problem began when the party was snatched from accomplished statesmen and political thinkers behind it’s founding. Substituting eminent personalities like the highly cerebral Dr. Alex Ekwueme with a chain of PhDs, Chief Solomon Lar, Chief Sunday Awoniyi etc. with a band of fortune-seeking political hustlers was PDP’s entry point into troubled waters. But for a successive reinforcement of a regime of impunity, disrespect for party constitution, internal party democracy, and key principles like zoning/rotation, the PDP may have remained in power till date.
Following the resignation of Adamu Muazu as National Chairman in the aftermath of PDP’s loss of power at the centre, Uche Secondus, his then deputy, stepped in as Acting National Chairman. He was the Acting National Chairman when Governor Nyesom Wike and former Governor Ayo Fayose (to some extent) unknowingly imported alleged to be APC mole, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, to complete what remained of North East’s tenure despite protests. This political misadventure cost the PDP the Edo and Ondo governorship seats.
Again, the Secondus-led PDP had an opportunity to re-launch itself back to the national reckoning in the 2019 presidential election. However, that was not to be as a result of the flagrant display of lack of responsible thinking or better still, the outsourcing of its leadership responsibility. Party veterans, who fought from the trenches for PDP’s survival after it lost power at the centre in 2015 were shut out. The emergence of Peter Obi as the Vice Presidential candidate was so poorly handled that the party never recovered from it. Rather than an honest effort to assuage feelings and build bridges, those who expressed genuine concerns over their contemptuous treatment and revival of politics of exclusion were automatically fenced off, denied their rightful place in the Presidential Campaign Council, and condemned to peeping through the windows. All these contributed to PDP’s loss to APC.
While Secondus did not introduce the evil of anointment of candidates and trading of party’s tickets to the highest bidders, commonsense dictates that PDP should not fiddle with such luxuries again as opposition. Yet we saw the manipulations and political bulldozing that threw up Olusola Kolapo as PDP candidate in the 2018 Ekiti gubernatorial election. Former Governor Ayo Fayose was allowed to tear Ekiti PDP apart- literarily. PDP lost the gubernatorial election and until the recent return of Senator Biodun Olujimi to the Senate through the courts, Ekiti PDP couldn’t boast of a single National Assembly seat after the 2019 election. Interestingly, Fayose openly campaigned against her candidature.
The electoral robbery in Osun 2018 governorship election notwithstanding, PDP leadership didn’t demonstrate the hunger to win. It was more of individual efforts of the Adeleke family and allies. For instance, when the rerun in Iyola Omisore’s stronghold became the game changer, APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole, mobilised several APC governors and chieftains to Omisore’s country home to court the beautiful bride. But Secondus stayed put in Abuja. Only Dr. Bukola Saraki flew to Osun as the Chairman of the Osun Governorship Campaign Council to persuade Omisore. Why should anybody blame Omisore for cutting deal with the more serious suitor?
The violence, manipulations, and abuse of federal power that happened in the November 16 Bayelsa governorship election was a child’s play compared to the election that returned Governor Seriake Dickson for a second term. Yet PDP prevailed because they were of one mind. But the primary for the last election was a sham dogged by allegations of trading-off to the sitting Governor against popular wish of party faithful. Defections and resignations from Dickson government followed. Also, Secondus was aware of the frosty relationship between Jonathan and Dickson and their supporters. But the party leadership appeared more interested in the proceeds from the nomination forms/primaries than in brokering peace and strategies to win the election. A fragmented PDP gifted a very symbolic, strategic, rich, coastal, and age-long PDP stronghold to APC on a platter of gold.
The scenario was not exactly different in Kogi where the primary was marred by gun battle, but only for PDP to announce Musa Wada as the candidate. Senator Dino Melaye, who was initially nominated to head the governorship campaigns, declined in obvious protest. Commonsense should have told the party leadership that a credible primary was a prerequisite to boost their chances against a volatile and desperate Yahaya Bello backed by complicit INEC and security agencies with a N10 Billion windfall to boot. Some key political players believe PDP could still have won had Wadata Plaza rallied everyone that was supposed to be involved to fashion the right strategies to counter the APC. PDP couldn’t even mobilise its national youth wing to campaign in Kogi. Secondus was not seen on national television and radio talk shows. He didn’t mobilise the conscience of Nigerians and the international community against the well-anticipated electoral banditary in Kogi. He couldn’t lead peaceful protests in Abuja before the forged results were announced. Secondus wasn’t even at the post-election media briefing by PDP candidate at Wadata Plaza. Instead, while APC was running riots in kogi, some PDP NWC members were allegedly holidaying abroad, obviously on the proceeds of the Bayelsa and Kogi primaries.
Also, while Rome burnt, Secondus was busy granting interview against Minority leaders of the House of Representatives in a matter that he is so straightforwardly wrong. Secondus wrote to the Speaker on 21st June 2019 appointing Hon. Kingsley Chinda, Hon. Yakubu Barde, Hon. Chukwuka Onyema and Hon. Muraina Ajibola as leaders of the Minority Caucus. But over 100 of the 147 opposition lawmakers elected Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, Gideon Gwani, and Adesegun Adekoya and all signed a letter presenting them to the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Rather than find solutions to the issues, Secondus hurriedly suspended the four lawmakers and a few others. Conversely, Chinda and the three others were made to begin to sign statements as Minority Leaders and Whips. It was only when their parliamentary actions recently became a subject of legislative inquest that the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Olagbodiyan, issued a statement claiming they were just PDP Caucus Leaders- which is still wrong because leaders of Minority/Majority Caucus also head their respective party caucuses.
Meanwhile, Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution unmistakably provides that “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Senate or the House of Representatives shall have power to regulate its own procedure”. Order 7 Rule 8 of House Standing Rule unequivocally provides that “Members of the Minority Parties in the House shall nominate from among them, the Minority Leader, Minority Whip, Deputy Minority Leader, and Deputy Minority Whip”. So, the House Minority Caucus, comprising nine political parties (PDP, APGA, ADC, LP, SDP, PRP, AA, APM, ADP) acted legitimately. Parties’ role is limited to zoning the various minority/majority leadership offices, not to appoint. APC’s attempt to impose leadership on the majority caucus in 2015 was successfully opposed by their Senators.
Ironically, Secondus, who was PDP Acting National Chairman at the time, attacked APC over what he termed lawlessness and breach of legislative independence. But today, behold the same party Chairman traveling the same road he spat on and also branding his party faithful as disloyal for obeying the dictates of law rather than those of a clearly overreaching party Chairman and his overbearing godfather.
Meanwhile, it is puzzling that Secondus leadership has refused to consider the reports of the various panels set up by the PDP to investigate the matter even after four months. The report of the Committee comprising former Senate Presidents/Deputy Senate President like Adolphus Wabara, David Mark, Iyorchia Ayu, and Ibrahim Mantu should be able to settle the matter because they are authorities in legislative practice. But Secondus doesn’t appear to be interested in solutions.
Leadership should be about proffering solutions, not winning arguments; it should be about building bridges, not breaking them. It is about dialogue, negotiation, and settlement. Or what does Secondus leadership stand to gain from creating opposition within opposition? He criticised APC in 2015 for impunity for trying to impose majority leaders. Now, have the 1999 Constitution, House Rules, and parliamentary traditions changed? Why the desperation to foist Chinda on House Members? Shouldn’t the imposition of a fellow Rivers man as Minority Leader when he (Secondus) is the party’s National Chairman make Secondus feel morally uncomfortable?
Lastly, no democracy prospers without a formidable opposition. The steady decline in PDP leadership should therefore, concern all Nigerians because the emerging one party system, more so an incendiary party like APC, will spell doom for the country.
Where are the elders of the party? Where is the conscience of the party? The National Executive Council (NEC) has not been convoked to review the 2019 elections and also receive account of the billions raked in from sale of nomination forms. The position of Deputy National Chairman (North) has been vacant since January 2019. It means the 19 northern states and FCT are not fully represented on the NWC? Isn’t it high time PDP was repositioned to save Nigerians from APC misgovernance? But how can PDP remove the straws in the eyes of APC when they have not removed the log in their own eyes.
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