PDP leadership crisis: Resolution still elusive

• Sheriff insists on being recognised as chairman
• Makarfi asks for co-chairmanship
• Dickson intervenes

The reconciliatory efforts to get the embattled main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) out of the political quagmire since the exit of its National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu in May last year seemed to be progressing retrogressively.

Mu’azu had surrendered to pressure and resigned following PDP’s defeat at the 2015 general elections by the All Progressives Congress (APC). His deputy, Prince Uche Secondus, had taken charge as the acting national chairman pending the election of a substantive chairman.

Secondus was not exempted from attacks and pressures by those who regarded him as part of the problems that led to the defeat of the party particularly at the presidential election.

Besides, Secondus was accused of usurping the position of the North East zone contrary to the provisions of the party’s Constitution. Ahmed Gulak former Special Assistant to then President Goodluck Jonathan, who championed this course eventually, booted Secondus out with a court order he secured to that effect.

The breather that was expected in the party when Senator Ali Modu Sheriff was drafted in by the PDP governors and other stakeholders turned out to be a stoking of the fire. Sheriff who was empowered to lead the party for a period of three months schemed to perpetuate himself in relevance not just becoming the chairman till 2018 but also possibly emerging the party’s presidential candidate for the 2019 general election.

The consequence was the emergence of two main factions that led to the holding of parallel conventions of the party in Port Harcourt and Abuja on May 21 this year. The problem was however compounded when Sheriff was removed and the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led Committee was inaugurated, coupled with the confusion created by various court orders, rulings and injunctions obtained by the different factions.

The two factions have clashed physically over who occupies the Wadata House national headquarters in Abuja and in a bid to avoid chaos and the attendant loss of lives and property, the police has sealed up the premises for about 53 days now.

Hopes of resolution of the impasse that pitched the ousted national chairman’s group against the National Caretaker Committee were raised recently when it became public knowledge that both factions met to find the way forward.

Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, appointed deputy chairman to Sheriff, claimed that reconciliation was going on with Makarfi Committee and once their position was accepted every other issue would smoothen out.

“Our position which we have put forward before them is recognise Sheriff as the chairman of the party. Once you recognize him, we would call a NEC meeting, at the NEC meeting we will fix a date for the convention. Sheriff will submit himself to the convention as chairman.

He would be chairman at the convention, he is not going to participate as an aspirant or a candidate and when a new leadership emerges, he will give his valedictory speech and then depart,” he told The Guardian.

He said that Nigerians were looking up to PDP to resolve the crisis and have a veritable opposition party for the country that can ensure good governance and development, stressing, “I can confirm to you that we are meeting and discussing solidly.”
We are looking forward and praying to God to touch the minds of everybody so that rabble-rousers, people who want to cause confusion and benefit from the crisis would not have their way. We are appealing to them to put the interest of the party first and we are also appealing to our leaders not to take a rigid position so that we will survive this battle because its not easy to battle a government in power. But when the settlement will happen is what I cannot tell,” he added.

However, The Guardian learnt that apart from the meeting convened by the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase both factions have not actually met face to face to address the issues at stake.

“To the best of my knowledge, the two groups have not met together anywhere to explore the possibility of sorting out their differences except for when Arase met with them. Even at that meeting both camps were asked to raise a team of four persons each to follow up with the discussions but that has not taken place,” a source close to Sheriff’s group disclosed.

There were allegations that several efforts by the Makarfi’s group to dialogue with the Sheriff’s group had been thwarted by the ‘unavailability’ of Sheriff.

According to Senator Ben Obi, secretary of the National Caretaker Committee, Makarfi has constituted no less than three teams in deference to the IGP’s intervention but none of them had headway because Sheriff could not be reached.

“Go and ask all the committee’s that were setup for that purpose, from Sen. Ike Ekeremadu, Hon. Leo Ogor, to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT). They have all tried to reach him (Sheriff) but for some reason he is neither available or can’t be reached.

“Sheriff has refused to submit to dialogue and had been avoiding the peace committee. If they are now available, then they can meet with the Committee headed by Senator Ekweremadu,” he reportedly told a national daily.

Furthermore he said that Sheriff would not be allowed to organize a fresh convention because there had been a competent court of jurisdiction’s judgment that there was a validly held national convention where Sheriff was removed and a Caretaker Committee installed.

But it was learnt that the Makarfi faction proposed a co-chairmanship pact. Under this pact, Makarfi and Sheriff are expected to superintend the party affairs up to the conduct of a national convention where a new substantive leadership of the party would be enthroned.

Sources at the National Caretaker Committee explained that the option of co-chairmanship was informed by fears that Sheriff may not keep to an agreement to quit at a given convention date. “You know that he (Sheriff) had reneged on the three-month mandate given him before. So you cannot blame anyone for being cautious with him now,” one of the sources asserted.

Also while the Makarfi faction wants to terminate their assignment next month (August) in line with the Port Harcourt convention terms of reference, Sheriff faction prefers to have a fresh mandate of a minimum of six months.

Apart from the surreptitious moves by intermediaries to get the two factions to meet and resolve the stalemate, it was gathered that the Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson interceded with some attempts to get the factions reconciled. But his efforts did not yield positive result allegedly because ‘some interested persons were not forthcoming.’

However, a former member of the House of Representatives and sympathizer of Sheriff, Mr. Bernard Mikko said that the problem couldn’t be resolved without looking at the Constitution of the PDP.

“Any motion moved on the floor of the convention must have been advertised 60 days, they must write to the national sec of the party 60 days to it and the text of that motion must be circulated to all stakeholders. Article 47 (3) supports that. But they did not do that,” he stated in an interview.

According to him, the way forward was to play along with Sheriff, allow him to conduct a convention legally and vote a new leadership in within a minimum period of six months.

In addition, Mikko argued that Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, should pay for their mistake in bringing Sheriff in the first place by honourably resigning as former British Prime Minister, David Cameron did over Brexit.

“I want the governors to confine themselves to governance. Once they delve into party politics and they find out that they have made mistakes, they should resign. Cameron has shown the way,” he stated.