It appeared as if the roof of Wadata Plaza, national headquarters of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja was going to fall off before the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) last Tuesday. The stream of party members was endless, as both seducers and traducers of the leadership of the party, came to the secretariat to either offer words of encouragement or gauge the mood of members of the NWC, led by the National Chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor.

THE meeting of a group of members of the party, under the aegis of PDP Reform Forum, led by former Senate President Ken Nnamani and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, penultimate week set the tone for the visible tension that gripped the party in the last two weeks.

The leadership of the party had alerted umpteen times that some persons were holding arcane meetings with the intention to destabilise the party. In fact, in the last statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, PDP said categorically that it had information about the people involved.

It was shortly after that that the party came out with the names of the two former presiding officers of the National Assembly and 17 others alleged to be the promoters of the Forum and consequently, invited them to appear before the NWC to answer questions relating to anti-party activities.

The group also slated its first public meeting for the same day.

So, last week, while the meeting of the group was taking place at the Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja, the NWC was waiting for the 19 members to appear at its secretariat.

At the meeting of the Forum, invectives were poured on the party leadership. All the speakers at the meeting, including former Minister of Health, Prof ABC Nwosu, former governor of Taraba State, Rev. Jolly Nyame, former Minister of State, FCT, Iro Danmusa had no kind words for members of the NWC.

According to them, unless a surgical operation was carried out on the party, it would go into extinction in a matter of months. Former aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Doyin Okupe, bluntly said: “The party has no soul.”

Of course, the party was busy gathering intelligence as the meeting progressed and after waiting in vain for those summoned, the leadership came down heavily on them, referring their cases to the Disciplinary Committee.

“The NWC expressed its surprise at the refusal of members of the party, operating under a group called the ‘PDP Reform Forum’ to appear before it, despite extensive invitations extended to them.

“The NWC is of the view that the concerned members had adequate notice, but declined to utilise the opportunity granted them by the invitation to explain their roles.

“The NWC held that the decision to dishonour the invitation to appear before it is a calculated attempt to disregard lawful directives of the party in order for them to continue to ridicule the party, contrary to Article 12.1 of the PDP Constitution,” the NWC stated.

It added: “Consequently, the following members of the so-called PDP Reform Forum are suspended from the party forthwith, in accordance with Article 21.4 of the party constitution- Senator Ken. Nnamani; Hon. Aminu Masari; Chief Onyema Ugochukwu; Chief Tony Ukasanya; Senator Adolphus Wabara; Chief Sunny Iroche; Senator Emmanuel Agboti; Senator Sylvanus Ngele; Senator Ifeanyichukwu Araraume; Chief Achike Udenwa; Chief Rochas Okorocha; Chief Chris Ekpeyong, former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State; Chief Abiye Sekibo; Hon. Auwal Tukur; former Chief Whip, Hon. Bawa Bwari; Prof. ABC Nwosu; Dr. Peter Odili; Kelechi Igwe; and Chief Bernard Eze.

“Their case has been referred to the National Disciplinary Committee for further necessary action.”

This decision heightened the tension, and those affected went ahead to file a suit to refrain the party from holding last Tuesday’s NEC meeting.

They took that action because of the fear that the case might even be slated as part of the agenda and if they were not be part of the NEC meeting, their fate could be decided in absentia.

The Abuja High Court, where the case was instituted found, a middle of the road course for the parties when PDP went to court seeking to vacate the order refraining members from holding the NEC meeting by asking both parties not to mention the suspension of the members.

Two events happened before the NEC meeting, which raised the tension in the party. Ogbulafor was asked to appear in the court last Monday to answer charges of corruption against him. The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), following petitions from some quarters alleging corrupt practices on the part of Ogbulafor when he was minister of Economic Matters, had charged him to court for trial and the case came up last Monday.

But Ogbulafor was represented by his counsel, but the court held that he should appear physically next week.

Some have interpreted this trend as a ploy to get Ogbulafor detained before the Tuesday NEC meeting, so that some members could raise the matter of his alleged corruption and in the process suspend him as national chairman.

The second issue was that if the group seeking to put NEC on hold had succeeded, enough room would have been created for the crack between the NWC and some other powerful members of the party to widen.

The meeting was slated for 12 noon, but from midnight on Monday, security agencies had cordoned off the PDP secretariat, venue of the NEC meeting, and while the party’s legal team, led by the National Legal Adviser, Olusola Oke, was trying to vacate the court order, PDP secretariat was occupied by security operatives until about 11am, when words filtered in that the court had given them the green light.

In a matter of seconds, sea of heads emerged and all the national officers of the party, as well as members of NEC, assembled, but the meeting started at about 3pm.

The speech delivered by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan left no one in doubt about the tension in the party. While acknowledging that the party has immediate challenges, Jonathan assured party faithful that PDP still has a future and charged them not to allow personal ambition tear the umbrella.

“I believe that our level of success will have its challenges and the opposition would like to crack that and if you crack PDP, then it is easier for some people to play big. But if PDP is solid, then the opposition will have limited space to play.

“So, we should not be tempted to divide among ourselves. We should work together.

“In terms of political ambition, every human being is free to aspire to any office he likes. But within this period, while we are doing that, we should do it in such a way that it should not over-heat the polity… There is something called mosquito campaign. You will be going round to market yourselves, but let us not over-heat the system. If we do that, we create problem for the party,” he cautioned.

Jonathan spoke on the seeming division within the party and charged them not to forget the PDP covenant of 1998.

“Within this period, especially the three or four weeks, we have challenges as a party. The chairman made reference to some of the issues.

“Also, we have to thank God that no matter the challenges, we have been able to stabilise. And I believe that is part of democratic setting. Sometimes they say that necessity is the mother of invention…

“I have always believed in PDP. People believe that PDP will split into fragments. No matter how we disagree, at the end of the day, PDP comes out stronger.

“But I will sincerely plead with aggrieved party men and women that this is a very challenging period. It is period that people do things that they are not supposed not do. Say thing they supposed not to say, especially either through communication or test messages.”

According to him: “Some of them are true, some have truths, and most of them are completely blatant lies. But nobody will be there to explain things. They will say this man said so or this man has done this, especially those of us, who by divine providence and by your grace, are holding offices of Acting President, governors and chairman of the party.”

He tasked PDP faithful to operate by the constitution of the party, stressing: “Some of the statements ascribed to some of us are false; there are name dropping here and there. So, I will plead with our party members, because probably people are thinking more of 2011 election when a number of issues will come up, that whenever you have some stories, take pain to ascertain before you react.

“I appeal very sincerely that as a party, we have the constitution that guide our activities. As a nation, we have our constitution and laws, and this government emphasis on the rule of law. We must follow our party constitution in the way we do things. We must follow the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other laws.

“And until a law is amended, we have no choice to but to obey the law, so that our actions and inactions must be guided.”

He reiterated that PDP members should allow their actions to be guided by law, adding: “I know if people follow our constitution and other guidelines the party will issue from time to time to guide our day to day activities and follow the laws of our land, most of these frictions would not be there.

“But one thing I believe is that in every human society, there may be tendency for people to disagree on certain issues. Even husband and wife disagree, but most important is how we resolve our crisis, and PDP has that power to do so. We believe that if we all don’t work together, then we cannot win elections smoothly.

“From my little understanding of party formation in the country, PDP is the first party one can say is the truly national party. We have other party that can claim national, but with one leg. But PDP can claim to be truly national party with two legs.”

The meeting passed a vote of confidence on both the Jonathan and Ogbulafor.

The import of that action is that Ogbulafor and other members of the NWC should be allowed to steer the affairs of the party. From the way the party handled the issue concerning members of the Reform Forum, it does appear that in a matter of days, the case would be withdrawn from the court.

The challenge before the party is whether the charges of anti-party activities will just be withdrawn or they will still face the disciplinary committee. This still remains thorny, because if the party waives the matter, it could be cited as precedence some time in future when other members are affected.

On the other hand, if the court process continues, the affected members of the Forum may not want to have any dealing with the party and may even work against the interest of PDP in the next general elections.

One hope the party has in the resolution of the impasses might be its governors, who have carved a role and recognition for themselves within the party.

As a matter of fact, they decide the direction in which PDP flows and the several stabilising roles they have played in the party in recent times have confirmed their influence.

It took their intervention for the last NEC meeting to take place, as they get the Acting President to appear in the meeting and speak like a father.

The governors held several meetings with Jonathan on the way forward for PDP.

The lesson party ought to learn from the present situation is that something serious should be done to stem this tendency of party members revolting all the time, to the extent of undermining the leadership. It happened in 2006, when a group that called itself ‘Authentic PDP,’ led by two former national vice chairmen, Ibrahim Safana and Shuaibu Oyedokun, established another secretariat, only to be uprooted by Obasanjo.