The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party appears to have taken a different shape as disagreement between two camps continues to fester ahead of the general elections, write DIRISU YAKUBU and EL-AMEEN IBRAHIM
The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party is showing no sign of abating with less than four months to the 2023 general elections. With the crisis taking new turns every week, hope of possible resolution appears far in the horizon. Currently, neither the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu on the one hand nor the five aggrieved governors led by Nyesom Wike on the other, have demonstrated sufficient eagerness to let go of their egos in the interest of the party.
For a party that once flirted with the possibility of presiding over the nation’s affairs for 60 unbroken years, the seemingly inability to forge a common front with a handful of months away to the polls, might jeopardise its chances of returning to the centre, thereby, postponing its bid to “rescue and rebuild” Nigeria.
Ayu has always claimed that the party is not in a crisis but marred by disputes and differences of political interest among members where discussions, and reconciliation, are ongoing. This does not remove the fact that the former Senate President started it all when barely a few weeks to the presidential convention of the party, he promised to let go of his plum office should a northerner emerge as candidate of the party.
Aware of the fault lines that have kept the country perpetually on her knees for decades, framers of the PDP constitution came up with the notion of equitable distribution of party positions and elective offices between the North and South.
Thus, when the party failed to zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the South as widely expected, Ayu, a northerner was taken to task of what to expect of him in the event of a northerner’s emergence as the party’s standard bearer.
Here was his response, “I’m a very democratic person and I will do everything to promote the interest and image of my party. If the PDP says I should step down after a presidential candidate emerges and happens to be from the North, I will be very glad to do so because what we want is to take over the government and run the government in the interest of Nigerians. So, I will sacrifice anything to ensure that my party wins.”
The man has since shifted his position though, arguing recently that only God can determine his fate as chairman of Nigeria’s largest opposition party.
Disturbed by the unkept promise, Nyesom Wike, Seyi Makinde, Samuel Ortom, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Governors of Rivers, Oyo, Benue, Abia and Enugu states respectively have since formed a potent alliance against the Atiku Abubakar/Ifeanyi Okowa ticket, threatening to swing votes against the party unless Ayu honours his words.
The governor had in his recent chats with the media accused the national chairman of the party of pocketing N1bn donated to the party by a Lagos businessman, and N100m by a governor.
The national chairman, while breaking his silence on all the allegations raised by the governor in one of the party’s forums, explained that he had never collected any money from anybody, adding that the N100m that was donated to the party by a former member was used judiciously for the rehabilitation of the PDP institute which was almost ready for inauguration. Wike also accused the national chairman of manipulating processes during the convention to favour a certain aspirant, among other allegations.
Last week, Ayu at a public function in his Gboko country home, reminded Ortom, Ikpeazu, Makinde and Ugwuanyi of the enormous powers he wields, saying he could stop them from realising their political ambitions in 2023; a development that elicited sharp reaction from Wike who dared Ayu to stop anyone if truly he had what it would take to do so.
Reiterating his call on the National Chairman to quit, Wike last week said the PDP would sweep the polls at all levels in Rivers State, except the presidency, noting that the state chapter of the party had yet to decide who among the candidates to support.
For Governor Ortom, however, Ayu’s outburst was nothing but a lame threat, lacking in substance and with zero prospect of playing out. In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, Ortom insisted that his victory at parliamentary primaries was a people’s given mandate which neither Ayu nor his loyalists could overturn.
Speaking against the backdrop of the recent outbursts by Wike and his camp, the immediate past National Secretary of the PDP, Ibrahim Tsauri, advanced reasons the party was finding it difficult, if not impossible to sanction the “erring” governors.
Describing the PDP as a unique political organisation, Tsauri urged the aggrieved governors to take a trip down historical lane to understand the philosophy shared by the founders of the party. This is even as he added that the powers bestowed on the governors by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) are such that disciplinary measures are not what the party should be thinking about in the interim.
He said, “The PDP was formed as an honest political organisation. The founding members are people of wisdom, proven integrity who know what goes and what comes. Most of these people have gone but they left their footprints in the sands of political history.
“The party does not wield the stick on members unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Certainly, the party cannot be thinking of punitive measures against its governors now. If you remember, the aspirants who contested the ticket with Atiku recently said they were going to meet with Governor Wike to find a way to appeal to him to sheathe his sword and embrace the party to help us win the election. This is the path we shall continuously explore.
“These governors must realise that it is better for their stark enemies to win elections on the platform of their parties than for their best friends to win in other parties. What Wike and his group are doing is because of the powers they have. The Constitution of Nigeria has given sitting governors a lot of powers.
“In fact, they are dangerously powerful. So, whatever they say, we can’t sanction them unless we get to the point where nothing else can be done. We are barely four months away from the elections but we shall continue to talk with them. They are very powerful but we cannot allow them to use that power against the PDP.”
That said, Tsauri told Wike and his loyalists not to forget that the PDP thrusted them into national reckoning at a time millions of Nigerians had no idea who they were.
“They should be looking at the morality of what they are doing. They should not bite the finger that fed them. We are not asking them to sheathe their sword by force. We are asking them to do so in the interest of the party. If they feel that they want to break the PDP to pieces, they will be breaking themselves to pieces.
“We don’t need to tell them that what they are doing is wrong; they know. Anyone who has promised to work with a candidate who is not of the PDP is doing anti-party activities,” he warned.
Also speaking, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, noted that a lot must have changed in the mind of the governor given the series of interventions key stakeholders of the party are doing to bring the crisis to an end.
“Twenty-four hours is a long time in politics and I can tell you that if you ask Governor Ortom and others today, they may likely not hold the views you are talking about now. Ours is a democratic party and a critical component of democracy is the freedom to hold dissenting views. That is what has happened and because we are practising democracy, we are in order.
“We are doing everything to make sure the crisis is over but we won’t go to the pages of newspapers to discuss these issues. We assure Nigerians that our governors are with us and will be part of the process to rescue our nation from the hands of the incompetent All Progressives Congress,” he said.
Atiku’s camp reacts
Spokesman for the Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, Daniel Bwala, in a chat with Sunday PUNCH, stated, “My answer will be very simple; Wike is desperately seeking attention and that attention he is seeking we don’t have time for.
“Every day of inaugurating projects, he will be dishing out diatribes, nobody bordered, nobody cared. He finished inaugurating both completed and uncompleted projects, then jumped from there to travel to London, France and nobody bordered and cared.
