Saturday 14 September 2013

PDP: Old things are not past, the new is not come

The People’s Democratic Party, PDP is in a
nationwide free for all as entrenched
factions dig in, with neither side having the
capacity to give a knockout punch By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
Old things have passed away and the new
PDP of Bayelsa is currently in charge of the
State,” an associate of the immediate past
governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipire
Sylva boasted to some newsmen earlier this week as opponents of President Goodluck
Jonathan pressed in embarrassingly in his
home front. The rebellion in the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP that started exactly two weeks
ago, when six governors and former Vice
President Atiku Abubakar walked out of the
party’s special convention had this week
turned into a phenomenal distraction to governance. President Jonathan’s dithering
procrastination on rejigging his cabinet was
set aside as the president at the end of the
normal Wednesday cabinet meeting sacked
nine ministers. In all but two or three of the
cases, those sacked were allegedly fired because of their relationships with the
president’s enemies.


Tukur, Jonathan and Baraje

The paralysis in governance was not only in
Abuja. The crisis has also forced many
governors belonging to the party to take
permanent abode in Abuja, the federal
capital, and by that, undercutting the
service to their constituents. Even more wrenching is the increasing apprehension
that the seat of the federal government,
the Aso Rock presidential villa may have
been turned into an annex of the ruling
party. For most of this week, several dignitaries
visited the presidential villa for
consultations with the president as the
crisis in the PDP took centre stage in the
polity. Erstwhile military president, Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida who has not been known to have a face to face meeting with
Jonathan since the fractious 2011 PDP
presidential campaign primaries, called on
the president last Tuesday as part of the
peace emissaries. The meeting came ahead
of the anxiously anticipated peace meeting between the old PDP or mainstream faction
of the party and the Baraje led PDP in the
presidential villa on Tuesday. Remarkably, those who had been
supposedly marginalized in the party, and
had laid low took opportunity of the crisis
to surface. In Bayelsa though those who
came out to identify with the nPDP
according to independent observers may not have the muscle to derail the fortunes
of the mainstream party, yet it was an
embarrassment for the local chapter of the
party in the president’s backyard. “The new PDP will resist and match up any
attempt by the Alhaji Bamagar Tukur led
faction to discredit it, as the Abubakar
Baraje led National Working Committee of
the PDP stands for equity and fairness,”
Comrade Esinte was quoted as saying. Domestic foes of Governor Rabiu
Kwankwanso of KanoState, one of the rebel
seven governors, also saw the development
as an opportunity for them to take over
control of the party. Several chieftains of the party including one
time speaker of the House of
Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Umar Na’abba,
Nigeria’s incumbent ambassador to China,
Alhaji Aminu Wali among others last
Tuesday, stormed the national secretariat of the Bamanga Tukur led tendency of the
party to upstage the Kwankwanso inclined
state executive of the party in Kano. The dignitaries who had been invited by
Tukur were later disappointed as the
presidency intervened to stop the coup. The
intervention of the presidency was arguably
informed by persuasions on the capacities
of the Kano governor and his ‘troublesome’ Kwankwansiya movement in Kano. It would be recalled that ahead of the 2011
elections, some persons in the presidency
had sought to take the party’s election
ticket from Kwankwanso on the assumption
that he could pose a threat in 2015. The
ticket was, however, restored to him following security reports that doing
otherwise could lead to a breakdown of
security in the state. Besides Kano, other states where the Tukur
executive has threatened to dissolve the
state executive of the party are Sokoto,
Kwara and Jigawa which are all states in the
sway of the nPDP led by Alhaji Kawu Baraje. The threat of dissolution was only one
weapon that was being used by the Tukur
camp in the increasingly belligerent fierce
conflict with the nPDP. Last Monday, Tukur in a strategic move
aimed at formally identifying his allies
among the powerful state chairmen,
summoned a meeting with the state
chairmen from across the country. Twenty chairmen turned out and pledged
support to the embattled national
chairman. Some chairmen who are known to
be indifferent if not hostile to the nPDP,
nevertheless stayed away as they point to
Tukur as the major problem of the party. While Tukur was using the leverage of his
office to fight off his foes, the Baraje
faction in a seeming determination to spoil
his fun, was at the same time piling up its
own arsenal for battle. At the beginning of
the week, the faction unfolded a near complete complement of a national working
committee, drawing extensively from Atiku
Abubakar’s nationwide political structure,
prominent among whom were Chief
Chukwuemeka Eze (national publicity
secretary) and Timi Frank (national youth leader). Once Eze was named, he went into battle
mood, castigating the Tukur led
mainstream for posing obstacles to peace in
the party. Meanwhile, the Tuesday night peace
meeting was said to have been inconclusive.
Present on the side of President Jonathan
were Chief Tony Anenih, the Chairman of
the Board of Trustees, BoT and some
governors including Godswill Akpabio, Akwa Ibom; Idris Wada, Kogi and Liyel Imoke of
Cross River. On the part of the nPDP were Governors
Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Sule Lamido
(Jigawa); Babangida Aliyu; and Aliyu
Wammako (Sokoto). In approaching the talks, both sides it
seemed, were resigned to the fact that
nothing fruitful would come out of it given
the extreme position taken by both sides on
the demand on Jonathan not to stand for
re-election. In the end, discussion on that was deferred to the next scheduled meeting
on Sunday. The President, it was learnt, came into the
meeting with a mindset of making peace
with the warring governors but with the
notable exception of Governor Amaechi,
seen by the president’s associates in the
Niger Delta as a betrayer of their trust. According to a source privy to the
deliberations, “The grievances of the
governors were tabled and revisited one by
one by all those at the meeting. “When the issue of party structure in each
of the affected states came up, the
overriding interest of PDP was put into the
consideration and the President and his
team agreed that the authentic party
structures should be restored in Adamawa and Kano states. “As for RiversState, the President and his
team advised all the parties to withdraw
their suits in court to resolve the matter. “Although the President admitted that the
suspension of Amaechi was illegal and the
required 30 days had elapsed, everything
was predicated on the resolution of
disputes in court. “There was suspicion by the G-7 governors
that the Presidency came with a mindset to
resolve issues except the crisis in Rivers.
They are trying to isolate Amaechi to deal
with him. “Everybody has been wondering why the
President’s body language was different on
RiversState. Jonathan was non-committal
on the solutions to Rivers crisis.” Governor Amaechi was equally reported to
have rejected entreaties from the
President’s camp to step down as Chairman
of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF. Following the decision of both sides to
reschedule the talks for tomorrow, Sunday,
publicists of the warring parties went to
town to give their own versions of the talks. Special Adviser to the President on Political
Matters, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak described the
demands of the nPDP governors as
unconstitutional. Apparently referring to
the quest of the governors that Jonathan
should rule himself out of the 2015 contest, he submitted that it was an infringement on
the President’s constitutional right. Meanwhile, Eze, the firebrand national
publicity secretary of the nPDP in two major
salvos on Wednesday, took on Tukur,
flaying him as the impediment to peace in
the party. Noting the efforts of party elders to bring
peace to the party and the alleged efforts
by the Tukur tendency to derail them, Eze
also cautioned the Tukur camp against
alleged offensive remarks against some of
the peace mediators, notably, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Anenih.
Appealing to the duo not to be deterred,
Eze said: “We plead with them not to be deterred by
those who are feeding fat on the crisis as we
are ready to assist them in any way possible
to enable them restore peace to our great
party.” Also noting the belligerence of the Tukur led
faction, he said: “The latest of the belligerent actions by the
Tukur faction is the ill-advised move to take
over the party’s structures in the States of
the governors loyal to Baraje’s leadership.
We wish to advise Tukur and his NWC
against this or any other action capable of worsening the crisis. We say: ENOUGH IS
ENOUGH!” In a surprising twist apparently aimed at
separating Jonathan from Tukur in the
unfolding crisis, he said: “Meanwhile, we wish to commend the Party
Leader, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan,
and PDP Elders for their various efforts at
resolving this crisis which, if allowed to
continue, can only lead to the further
weakening of our great party. We appeal to them never to get tired until they achieve
their set objectives. We also appeal to Alhaji
Tukur and his NWC to respect these
distinguished Party Elders and give peace a
chance. The ball is in his court. We have noticed the erroneous insinuation
and propaganda by Tukur’s faction that the
distinguished Statesman, General Olusegun
Obasanjo, had a hand in our staging a
walkout during the ill-conceived mini-
convention of PDP and that he is the brain behind most of our activities. We view this as disparagement on us,
creating the impression that we are not
matured enough to determine our political
future and most importantly, it was as an
attempt to smear the international image
of General Obasanjo as a distinguished Statesman and father of PDP and rubbish
his current efforts to restore peace to a
party, the very existence of which is being
threatened by the undemocratic acts of
some of its leaders. We can now understand
why Tukur’s faction is hell-bent on destroying every effort to bring peace to
the party. “We are also aware of the attempts being
made to rubbish and ridicule the BOT
Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, for stating
that we have genuine reasons for what we
are doing. We want to assure Chief Anenih,
knowing all his sacrifices and efforts in making PDP whatever it is by today, that we
will not sit and watch some jokers in Tukur’s
faction rubbish him or make him look
ordinary in the affairs of the party. The
truth will always see us through.” Tukur, on his part has not kept quiet to
absorb the blows. He has through his
Special Assistant on Media, Prince Oliver
Okpala been on the offensive against his
foes, most notably, the former national
secretary of the party and now the national secretary of the nPDP, Prince Olagunsoye
Oyinlola. Reacting to assertions by Oyinlola that
Tukur is a dictator, Okpala said: “Without
equivocation, this statement is both
laughable and ridiculous for the world know
the antecedents of Chief Oyinlola as a
military dictator and administrator, whose style of politics is at variance with the
current political dispensation in the
country. “It is a fact that Oyinlola was one
of those military punch who held down our
democracy for a long time. As a former
military man, Chief Oyinlola is an unrepentant dictator of the first-order.
“Under normal circumstance, he should not
be heard to resort to platitudes or
righteous pontifications on the ideals of
democracy and the rule of law. This is
because by training and orientation, he is a slave to Order and Command of the
Military. He lacks any credible credentials to
sermonize on democracy and due process
including rule of law.” With the ruling party
engulfed in crisis, the opposition is not
surprisingly ecstatic. Governor Ibikunle Amosun of OgunState
said as much this week when he said the
opposition is praying for the problems in
the PDP to continue so that the opposition
could take over in 2015.

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