The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is always in turmoil. The end of one often marks the beginning of another. Pundits say it is expected because of too many interests and the struggle over who gets what in the huge bazaar that goes on in the single largest political association in Africa.
While the party is celebrating a huge harvest from defections of some heavyweight politicians, including Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State who dumped the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo from the Labour Party (LP) and the addition of Ekiti State into its fold, PDP appears once again to be on a dangerous voyage.
After weeks of horse-trading following the no imposition order from the national secretariat of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the leadership of the party, last weekend, made a vote face by handing over the state structures to governors elected on its platform.
Following the wholesale adoption of President Goodluck Jonathan by all the governors on the platform of the PDP, the party’s national working committee (NWC), its national executive council (NEC) and the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) as the party’s presidential candidate for the February 14, 2015 poll; the governors had thought that they were going to enjoy a free ride to their next ambitions.
But Olisa Metuh, the party’s national publicity secretary, had warned that governors should not anoint anybody as their successor in their respective states. The warning was repeated by the NWC not only to the governors, but to zonal and state chairmen to jettison such idea of having any anointed candidate ahead of the November 29 primary election where the PDP gubernatorial candidates would emerge.
The national secretariat of the PDP was also said to have issued the order following some complaints arising from endorsement of some individuals by their state governors, a development that had already started to tear apart the party in the affected states.
But the 19 governors on the party’s platform, excluding those of Ekiti and Ondo States, were miffed at the instruction, particularly, when they had so endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan as the sole candidate of the PDP for the presidential election.
They wondered why the double-standard by the Adamu Mu’azu-led national working committee (NWC) of the party. The governors consequently had different meetings with the party’s leadership and Aso Rock, where they made their grievances known and explicitly told the Presidency to “live and let live.” They were also said to have hinted that if the decision was not reversed; it was capable of causing a hiccup in the party’s quest to stay in power beyond 2015.
So, in a development that could be described as a direct product of the subtle protest by the governors, the party leadership, last weekend instructed the state chief executive officers to take charge of their respective party structures.
By the new order, the outgoing governors are now free to pick their successors as well as have unfettered ride to the Senate next year. The governors who are doing one term have been given automatic ticket to return.
BD SUNDAY gathered that the development has already caused some adrenaline rise in many aspirants in PDP states who are not favoured by their governors.
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It was gathered that President Jonathan had expressly instructed Mu’azu to jettison the earlier order barring imposition. The President was said to have reasoned that should Abuja maintained its stance on the “no imposition” order; it would work against his re-election ambition.
The governors were also given the powers to decide on the delegates list of their respective states to be used in choosing candidates for the different categories of elections.
Jonathan, who is seriously seeking a return to his job, is banking on the support of the governors. Having been a governor, he knows the place of state chief executives to a president’s victory at elections, hence, his desperate directive to Mu’azu.
Alluding to the powers of governors at elections, the President was quoted as saying, “the PDP constitution as currently practised gives a lot of room for the governors to influence the election of the President. So, if a governor who claims to support you cannot give you at least 70 percent of the votes, then you should know that that governor does not mean well for you.”
While the governors are toasting to their new-found absolute powers, analysts and stakeholders are saying it is undemocratic for them (governors) to single-handedly select those who should succeed them.
What appears to have irked critics so badly is the arrangement whereby the two-term governors, whose tenures are expiring in May next year, will just move into the Senate without any challenge from anywhere.
A pundit who spoke with BD SUNDAY on condition of anonymity said: “What PDP has done is absolutely undemocratic. It is very wrong. They want to cause chaos across the states. If you are saying that a governor should choose his successor, is that democracy? By the way what quality of leadership do we have in those states? How can failures succeed failures? Take a look at all the states under PDP and tell me four that have provided good leadership to the people. What they are saying is that people should prepare for additional four years of suffering and maladministration.
“A governor, who, for instance, has been busy stealing the people’s money and building estates for himself and family, will now put a stooge as a successor through whom the looting continues. Now that they have been told to move straight to the Senate, it means that the country will be paying huge wages without getting the quality lawmaking that is supposed to go on at the National Assembly. They are going there as a cult, a gathering of ‘big boys’. It is unfortunate.”
Eke Okebugwu, a legal practitioner, said the new empowerment from the PDP national secretariat would worsen the political tension in some states.
“Before now, Enugu State was boiling over the endorsement of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; those who took their case to the national office of the party in Abuja thought things would be straightened out there; now their hope is dashed. It is the same scenario in Akwa Ibom, Abia and some other places. PDP is actually stoking serious trouble. I hope they will be able to contain the backlash,” he said.
As expected, the directive has begun to generate ripples. Ray Nnaji, a former auditor of the PDP, and claimant to the party’s chairmanship in Enugu State, called on President Jonathan to perish the idea of handing over the party’s structure in Enugu to Governor Sullivan Chime to avoid losing the state to the opposition.
“Frankly speaking, not all governors have the firm control of structures in their various states and if that happens, the party might lose to the opposition. Like here in Enugu State, people are not happy with the governor. I am watching the situation because it will result in exercise in futility,” Nnaji said.
By the same token, Oghenejabor Ikimi, executive director of Centre for the Vulnerable and Under-privileged (CENTREP), condemned the development, saying, “If this is true that the Presidency has ordered the PDP chairman to allow state governors to control political structures in their respective states, the implication is that many PDP states would witness imposition of candidates by incumbent governors, thus robbing the people of true representation as those that may be qualified at the end of the day to run for election in 2015 would be known stooges of these governors who would want to cover their tracks at all costs.”
Out of the 21 PDP governors, those who still have a term to go after May next year, are Murktar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State; Garba Umar, acting governor of Taraba State,; Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe; Henry Seriake-Dickson of Bayelsa; Idris Wada; Adamawa State governor, Bala James Ngilari, among others.
Among those whose tenure expires next year include Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom; Gabriel Suswam of Benue; Saidu Dakingari of Kebbi; Theodore Orji of Abia; Sullivan Chime of Enugu; Ibrahim Shema of Katsina; Isa Yuguda of Bauchi; Jonah Jang of Plateau; Liyel Imoke of Cross River, and Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State; Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State.
Not only that, most, if not all of the two-term governors, will, by the new arrangement of the PDP, determine their successors, they are also going to go to the Senate without hindrance.
Governor Chime is already at war with Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president. The Enugu State governor wants to dislodge Ekweremadu at the National Assembly. Both hail from same Enugu West Senatorial district. Theodore Orji, governor, Abia State, wants to go for Abia Central where Nkechi Nwaogu, a gubernatorial aspirant, is currently calling the shots; Suswam wants to block Barnabas Gemade’s planned return to the upper legislative chamber; Akpabio has already concluded plans to shove aside Aloysius Etok from the chamber; Aliyu, Niger State governor, is currently giving Nuhu Zagbayi sign to vacate by all means, even though the senator was just elected August 30 in a by-election to replace the late Senator Awaisu Kuta; Jonah Jang has already picked form to replace Senator Gyang Pwajok.
A pundit told BD SUNDAY that Jonathan’s handover of states’ structures to governors was a product desperation which, according to him is capable of breeding trouble in the run up to the general election.
“I think the level of desperation being exhibited by the President is condemnable. How can Jonathan, just for the sake of going back to office, be so desperate? Now, he has made the governors to see themselves as super lords. They can now do anything they like in their states and go scot free. What manner of democracy is that? What he has done is simply to declare war in all the PDP state chapters. Look at what is happening in the Senate already. The senators feel shortchanged. We are risking anarchy in this country because of one man’s ambition,” the pundit said.
Recall that the PDP ward congresses held across the country largely ended in crisis. Many senators protested the process. Reports had it that in many states, the governors allegedly seized the materials, compromised national party officers and refused to allow for a free and fair exercise.
Last Wednesday, over 80 percent of PDP senators who reportedly lost out at the congresses, drew battle line with the national leadership of the party and the Presidency. They were said to have begun a process of frustrating executive bills pending in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.
It was gathered that the PDP senators resolved in solidarity with the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators to henceforth, abridge plenary sessions such that no state matter, including bills, would be considered until the President agrees to democratise the party structures and also grant them automatic tickets as he did for the governors.
Zebulon Agomuo
