PDP: Still in the throes of defeat

PDP: Still in the throes of defeat 23 Aug 2015 12:00 AM  Following its defeat at the 2015 elections, the erstwhile ruling Peoples Democratic Party is still struggling to find its feet as the biggest opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress, writes TOBI AWORINDE Since losing the March 28, 2015, presidential election, many political observers had anticipated that within months, the defeated Peoples Democratic Party, which held sway for 16 years, would have formed a formidable opposition against the ruling All Progressives Congress. However, five months after, PDP seems to have proved the contrary. At a time when some programmes of the new administration have been generating criticisms, members of the opposition PDP, who are expected to play their important democratic role, are still at each other’s throats over who should be held responsible for the party’s loss in the last elections. Just on Wednesday, the acting Chairman of the PDP’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Bello Mohammed, claimed that dumping of his party’s zoning formula in 2011 – that is, rotation of top political offices among the six geopolitical zones in the country — was “destroying” the party. He also alleged that the issue became more complicated when former President Goodluck Jonathan was adopted as the sole presidential candidate of the party in 2015. The PDP BoT chairman, in a statement he issued, lamented that these issues he raised severely undermined the principle of justice and equity on which the party was founded in 1998, and that the shameful defeat in the last presidential election was the sad price the party had to pay for jettisoning its policy of rotation and zoning. He said, “When the founding fathers formed the party in 1998, they established the principle of justice and equity whereby power resided with the people, who could decide who became what at any point in time. But over time, the party swerved away and breached the principle, thereby disrupting its internal democracy. “When in 2011, the party abandoned its zoning formula, the party dealt itself a major blow because that action served the first notice that it had disconnected with the masses. So, we must go back to the culture of zoning and rotation of offices.” Dr. Bello Mohammed Ironically, it was the same Mohammed who moved the motion for the adoption of Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate of the PDP, which was seconded by a former Governor of Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo, at the party’s National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja on September 17, 2014. This followed the decision by Jonathan’s lone challenger for the party’s ticket and then Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, to opt out of the race. Moving the motion for Jonathan’s adoption, Mohammed had said, “We cannot change a winning formula that has been working for us since 1999. In PDP, we have a tradition of queuing up behind our leaders. President Jonathan has performed creditably well as attested to by all the organs of the party. Therefore, for the good of Nigeria and for the good work that the PDP is doing for the country, I move that the NEC endorse the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s candidate in the 2015 election.” The presidential election has come and gone; the winner, Muhammadu Buhari, has become the president since May 29. However, the crisis, which began in the PDP before the election and was worsened by the defeat, has not been resolved about five months after. Few weeks to the poll, former Federal Commissioner of Information and Ijaw leader, Mr. Edwin Clark, had accused the then National Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Adamu Mu’azu, of not campaigning enough for Jonathan’s re-election. Mu’azu, who was reportedly under close watch by the Presidency for alleged double-faced activities, was further accused of not speaking against the APC’s Buhari, a fellow northerner, during the campaigns. But Mu’azu denied the allegations, saying he did his best, in partnership with the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, to ensure that Jonathan won the election. Some weeks after its loss at the poll, the PDP vowed to regain power in 2019. The Mu’azu-led National Working Committee and state chairmen of the party had resolved to work together by adopting strategies towards winning the next general elections. But not long after, the peace moves were botched by some aggrieved persons who were still nursing the wounds from the loss. Several leaders of the PDP had asked members of the NWC to resign. One of those who first called on the Mu’azu-led executive to quit was Jonathan’s former Senior Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak. In an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH on April 19, Gulak alleged that the PDP chairman did not have the party’s interest at heart from the time campaigns commenced. Also, a former Minister of Health and founding member of the PDP, Professor Alphonsus Nwosu, said it would be dishonourable for the executive, including the BoT members, not to resign over the party’s failure. Among those who held a contrary opinion were two members of the PDP’s BoT, Chiefs Ebenezer Babatope and Shuaib Oyedokun, who faulted Gulak on the resignation call, while warning the party against rushing into taking decisions. Rather, they advised that the party should look into the factors responsible for the electoral loss and make amends. The then Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, had added another perspective to the blame game, accusing the PDP governors of causing Jonathan’s defeat. According to him, the road to the March 28 and April 11 electoral losses of the PDP started from its December 2014 primaries, when the governors deliberately shut out “unwanted candidates” and imposed their choices on the party. “The effect was the exodus from the PDP without any corresponding influx,” Ndoma-Egba noted. The party’s NWC also pointed the finger of blame at the ex-President’s campaign team for embarking on a hate campaign against Buhari. The committee explained that the hate campaign played a huge part in the PDP’s woeful outing at the last general elections, adding that the belief by Jonathan’s men that it could denigrate “a respected statesman like Buhari, who was revered in the North, instead of dwelling on issues, cost the party a lot of votes in that part of the country.” Amid the protests and condemnation of the PDP leadership, Mu’azu, speaking through his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Tony Amadi, on May 11, warned that his resignation would lead to the party’s destruction. He insisted that he would not resign despite the threats by some PDP members to factionalise the party. Later on the same day, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, announced Mu’azu’s resignation. He also announced the then Deputy National Chairman, Uche Secondus, as acting National Chairman of the party pending the appointment of a replacement from the North-East. Mu’azu’s resignation seemed to restore peace to the PDP but the peace was short-lived. The National Vice Chairman, South-South, of the PDP, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, while speaking with journalists in Abuja on July 12, blamed Jonathan for the party’s defeat — just as Mohammed did. According to Ojougboh, the party lost the election because the former president did not allow a northerner to be the party’s candidate. Another round of controversy later began on July 31, when workers at the PDP national secretariat alleged that members of the party’s NWC squandered N12bn said to have been realised from the sale of nomination and delegates’ forms between October 27, 2014 and July 2015. The workers, under the aegis of the PDP Staff Welfare Association, were angered by a memo sent to them by the party’s National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, in which the NWC expressed its intention to reduce the party’s workforce by 50 per cent and to cut the salaries of those to be retained by the same percentage. The new decision was to take effect from August. So, when the workers met in Abuja on July 30, they replied Oladipo with a stinker, which they copied Jonathan and other party leaders. In their reply, they asked the committee how the party’s funds were spent. They also asked why a party that had just exited the seat of power could be in huge debt. Later on August 1, apparently when the party had yet to meet the workers’ demands, they further accused the NWC members of demanding a N1bn bribe from the Governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada, before giving him the governorship ticket to contest the state’s forthcoming governorship election. Not done, they alleged that the NWC members demanded and received a N750m bribe from a governorship aspirant in Delta State, Mr. Ndudi Elumelu, with a promise to give him the ticket earlier in the year. Investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH showed that the money was returned to Elumelu after Jonathan got wind of the incident. The workers went further to accuse Metuh of working against Jonathan’s re-election and engaging in corrupt practices. Metuh, in his response, in a statement by his aide, Richard Ihediwa, claimed that the leaders of the PDP workers were fronting for the APC to direct attacks and threats on his person. The PDP Staff Welfare Association later published an advertorial in which it apologised to the leadership of the party for all that happened. In his assessment of the PDP’s situation, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Adigun Agbaje, who described the debacle in the party as a welcome development, called for true internal democracy within the party’s structure. He said, “I consider these developments to be positive, in terms of our search for a durable and sustainable political process. I will feel sad if these developments are stalled, considering the kind of relationship we have seen between the PDP’s NWC and the workers. But then, no matter the disappointments of today, development, both natural and otherwise, will lead us to a better party and democratic system. Secondus “When I look at the structures, in terms of the processes and the actors within the parties, what they have are still contractions, especially in the context of impunity that we have all over the place, even outside of the party system.” According to the political scientist, who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH on the matter, what is required is time and the willingness of political players to negotiate and think through their differences in manners that are democratic, rather than the old, heavy-handed, military-style way. “That is why there are tendencies for the party to be intolerant to dissent; the lack of effective internal democracy, the dominance of particular individuals and groups within the party, which of course is not unique to them. We don’t have proper parties. It is important to learn lessons as these events unfold and we would highlight as much as possible the necessity of this phase of apparent lack of order within the party.” Also, a Professor of Economics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, noted that the upheaval within the PDP was due to the unprecedented defeat of the former ruling party. According to him, the disclosures emanating from the party workers are in line with the ongoing economic reforms in the country. He said, “In Nigeria, what has never happened before is now happening, especially when we compare that to the current situation, whereby we have people, no matter how big they are, being tried. That would be a new thing in Nigeria. “The PDP NWC is evidence of what was transmitted into the Nigerian economy. Funds were being handled recklessly, even the party’s money. If those who did that can consolidate and agree that they defaulted, such that there will be reparation, then the workers will forgive them; their differences will be resolved and the party will be stronger for it. But if they continue to play the game of hide and seek, the likelihood is that the party will disintegrate.” As the crisis goes on at the national level of the PDP, the party is also experiencing different crises in some of its state chapters. In Ekiti State, for instance, there is a long-drawn battle for supremacy. The crisis was said to have begun when the State Executive Committee, at a meeting on May 13, accused the state PDP Chairman, Mr. Idowu Faleye, of inefficiency, leading to the latter’s ouster. Faleye, who is a loyalist of Governor Ayodele Fayose, was also accused of failing to convene a meeting since he was appointed in 2014. The SEC, which was said to have sacked the chairman without notifying the governor, elected Mr. Olatunde Olatunde as the acting Chairman pending the ratification of his appointment by the National Executive Committee of the PDP. But Faleye stated that he is still the chairman of the party in Ekiti, and that the issue “is all about money.” He added, “All the party leaders are behind me. The only misunderstanding we had was that they demanded for honorarium for six months, amounting to about N11m and I said I could not sign the cheque without the approval of the governor.” The crisis worsened when Olatunde, alongside 10 other State Working Committee members, at a meeting on July 27, announced the appointment of Mr. Michael Oladipo as the new Publicity Secretary of the party, to replace Jackson Adebayo, who was appointed by Faleye, among other nominations. On July 29, the situation got even worse when the party was served an eviction notice from its secretariat in Ado Ekiti for failure to pay its rent. The landlord of the property, Mr. Ropo Adesanya, who was a two-term Ekiti PDP chairman, had defected to the APC. Two days later, 50 armed policemen took over the property. The Faleye-led faction of the SEC then suspended Olatunde and other officials and set up a seven-member disciplinary committee to probe them for anti-party activities. Olatunde later told SUNDAY PUNCH that he and other officials had gone to court to challenge their removal. On the crisis in Ekiti PDP, Tella laid emphasis on the role played by Fayose in the affairs of the party. He said, “Governors are vested with a lot of power in the state’s party structure and he (Fayose) is apparently too busy to hold the fort. The crisis could disintegrate the party in the state like we have seen in other states. If that happens, the people could decide to vote out the PDP and there might be a change in government. “Whether the APC is able to leverage on the crisis will depend on their position at the time of election. If the polls come and people (PDP members) find out that they are not better off, there is a tendency for them to move to the other party.” It is also a similar case in Lagos State, where the party announced the suspension of its chairman, Mr. Tunji Shelle, on May 11. A faction, comprising 34 members of the SEC, accused Shelle of mismanaging campaign funds and manipulating the party’s primaries last year, leading to the defeat of the PDP at the polls. Shelle dismissed his suspension, saying he remains the state chairman. Subsequently, a wave of defections hit the PDP on August 11, with some party chieftains, including Mr. Babatunde Olorogun-Etti, Dr. Yomi Finnih, and Ms. Olorunfunmi Basorun, leaving the party to join the APC. On August 14, the conflict within the PDP in Lagos took a new turn as the acting Chairman, Kamaldeen Olorunoje, accused a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Chief Bode George, of contributing to the party’s defeat in the 2015 polls, leading to the recent defections. Olorunoje also urged the public not to regard Shelle as the chairman of the party. But the PDP Publicity Secretary in Lagos, Mr. Taofik Gani, came to George’s defence, describing him as the party’s prime leader in the state. According to the PDP’s spokesman, for anybody to ‘localise’ George’s leadership would be unfortunate and “it means the person does not have a good comprehension of the operation of the PDP in the state.” Recently, Shelle went beyond the issues in the state to accuse Jonathan of contributing to the defeat of the party’s governorship candidate in Lagos, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, by allowing the APC get away with “a lot of illegalities” during the last election. But the Professor of Political Science in UI said the infighting in Lagos PDP did not come as a surprise. Describing the conflict as necessary, he pointed out that it stemmed from the absence of proper political parties in the country. The professor said, “These are still very much artificial. We have a culture whose system of incentives is meant to sustain structures that are unworkable. Look at the so-called key actors in these parties; what exactly are their motivations? What are their goals? Are they in line with the strategic needs of their parties or the country? Or are they in line with the very short-term, selfish calculations of individuals, cliques and factions? It is not something that we can pronounce on or wish away. These things will take time.” In Bayelsa State, over 2,000 party members of the state’s ruling party, including close allies of Jonathan, defected from the PDP to the APC on August 16. At an APC rally in Jonathan’s home state, the embattled PDP chairman, Col. Sam Inokoba (retd.); former Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission, Timi Alaibe; Senator Heineken Lokpobiri; and former acting governors in the state, Mr. Nestor Binabo and Mr. Werenipre Seibarugu, among many others were received by the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and a host of other APC chieftains. In a similar situation in Ondo State, over 3,400 loyalists of a former governorship candidate of the PDP, Mr. Olusola Oke, left the PDP for the APC on August 16. However, Babatope, a member of the PDP’s BoT, had told SUNDAY PUNCH, that despite the ongoing crises in his party, it would bounce back from its losses and form a strong opposition under the APC-led government. He had said, “I can assure Nigerians that the PDP will build a vibrant opposition and we will defend the (Nigerian) Constitution and the people with all our might, and we will ensure that the APC governs Nigeria very well. We are going to be a very strong, disciplined, united and focused opposition to the APC. We are not opposing for opposing’s sake; we will be opposing the APC on the basis of ensuring that the Constitution of Nigeria is observed.” To this effect, Jonathan, on August 10, met with other stakeholders of the PDP at the Peoples Democratic Institute in Abuja to endorse a blueprint for the revival and rebuilding of the party, in preparation for the 2019 elections. But while some analysts are hopeful that the PDP can still rebound from its defeat, some say the PDP cannot offer a viable opposition. For instance, the Executive Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, told SUNDAY PUNCH, “I don’t know who is expecting that there will be a viable opposition to any government. We would be expecting a miracle. The truth of the matter is that once a particular party has tasted power (and is voted out), the tradition is to find a way to get into power again. So, I am not expecting the PDP to provide a viable opposition to the APC government.” Tella, on the other hand, stated that the PDP could recover if it adopted a transparent system and if its leaders owned up to their faults and worked out ways to pay the PDP workers their due. Speaking on claims in different quarters that the PDP would either keep the APC government on its toes or eventually go into oblivion, Agbaje said, “The two are possible. Much of the future remains uncertain and we have to choose what we want to happen and work towards it.” He stated, “If the PDP, deliberately or indirectly, chooses for the party to die, it will. But if a critical segment — a very vital caucus within the party — opts for democratic development for their party, then it will be sustained. The lesson for us is that the choice is ours to make. But of course, Nigeria will continue (with or) without the PDP.” Copyright PUNCH. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH. Contact: editor@punchng.com