Can Dickson’s reconciliation committee save PDP?

 Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, examines the pockets of grieviances within the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and wonders if the Governor Seriake Dickson-led National Reconciliation Committee can once again return the troubled party to the path of peace.

IT is no longer news that the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), through its National Reconciliation Committee led by Governor Seriake Dickson is making serious effort to combat a fresh intra party crisis occasioned by the dissatisfaction expressed by many chieftains of the troubled party over how a new national leadership was chosen at its last elective national convention.

The question on many lips weeks after the committee went to town with its message of peace and reconciliation is how far it can go in its quest to stop the PDP from sliding back into the infamy of the past. This followed indications that the task of reconciling some of the aggrieved party men with the opposition party may be failing. Party sources say it appears Dickson, though threading a familiar road, may be encountering unfamiliar challenges.

“The committee is trying but the situation is not as simple as you think. Some of the issues are such that unless something miraculous happens, it may be hard for the committee to resolve them. Imagine a situation where almost an entire zone of the party is considering dumping the PDP and moving to another party. Or a situation where a group of PDP founding fathers are convinced that the party has been hijacked by just two people.

“The committee never said it has resolved the issues. It announced that it met the people involved and discussion continues. So, if we are now seeing signs that some of these people are not ready to explore merely the internal mechanism of the party in their quest for justice, it simply means the PDP may have to do more than forming a committee to stop another round of crisis ahead of the 2019 general elections,” a chieftain of the party in Lagos state said.

It would be recalled that on December 9, 2017, at he Eagle Square in Abuja, the federal capital territory (FCT), leaders and members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sought to return the troubled party to its glorious ways when they held an elective national convention that many had predicted will usher in a new and acceptable leadership for the opposition party after years of protracted intra party squabbles that nearly ended the very existence of the PDP.

The convention held amidst uncertainties and controversies. Winners were declared even as nearly a half of the chairmanship contestants either boycotted the process or raised alarm midway into the convention. Worse still, leaders of the party in the southwest zone left the convention insisting that the party had not only marginalized the zone, but had also insulted its leaders in the manner the new leadership of the party was elected.

“Governor Wike must tender an unreserved apology to the Yoruba people for his unguarded utterances against the Yoruba race. I listened to my younger brother and I see it as an insult. I consider it as an insult. I entered the contest on the micro-zoning principle, which has been thrashed by little men who have compromised. It appears the PDP is bent on self-destruction. I can’t be part of this. ”

“The chairmanship position has been sold to the highest bidder,” Chief Bode George, a leading chairmanship aspirant from the southwest, stated while briefing newsmen at his campaign office in Abuja on his decision to pull out of the contest some hours to the start of the convention. His position was later echoed by many leaders and members of the party from the zone.

Nonetheless, Prince Uche Secondus, who had earlier been rumored to be the anointed candidate of the Governors elected on the platform of the PDP, and whose name featured prominently as chairmanship choice on the now controversial “unity list” circulated to delegates at the venue of the convention, was announced as the winner of the chairmanship election.

The conciliators return

Expectedly, the outcome of the convention was rejected by some of the party’s leading figures, especially from the southwest geo-political zone. Some prominent PDP chieftains from other geo-political zones also expressed dissatisfaction with the manner Secondus emerged as the national chairman of the party. Many alleged that the distribution of a unity list at the venue of the convention rendered the entire exercise a nullity.

“We reject the entire electoral process. The election has been grossly compromised to achieve a predetermined end. The illegal unity list is prepared by governors Wike and Ayodele Fayose to foist on the entire delegates,” Shehu Garba, Director General of the Tunde Adeniran Campaign Organization, had said shortly after the convention. Similarly, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, another chairmanship aspirant from the south-south, faulted the entire process and called on party members to reject it.

But the leadership of the troubled party, appearing to have foreseen the unfolding post convention scenario, wasted no time in assuring the world that it intends to reconcile the aggrieved party men with the PDP and avoid a return to the inglorious era of intra party crisis. “The PDP cannot afford to fight itself. The task ahead of us as we approach 2019 is such that we must have all hands on deck,” one of the newly elected national officers told The Nation during the week.

And selected for the job of ensuring that the grievances emanating from the convention are quickly managed to prevent any serious crisis was the same man who had earlier performed the same task following the Supreme Court judgement that ended the reign of Senator Modu Sherif as the national chairman of the party and confirmed Senator Ahmed Makarfi’s position as leader of the party, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa state.

Dickson, along with other members of his National Reconciliation Committee wasted no time. Within a week of its inauguration, the committee had toured several states of the country, talking to party members and aggrieved aspirants as well as urging PDP chieftains to refrain from inflammatory statements. And it appeared the reconciliation efforts were yielding fruits with many of those aggrieved talking about peace and solutions instead of crisis and fictionalization.

Bode George told Dickson he will not fight the PDP but will appreciate an apology from Governor Wike. Adeniran urged the committee to ensure that the issues being raised by the aggrieved party leaders are thoroughly looked into. He added that it was important to also reach out to as many members of the PDP who did not contest for any position but fought gallantly to ensure the preservation of the party.

Former Minister of Information and Orientation, Prof Jerry Gana, vowed he would never leave the PDP for whatever reason. Just as he told Dickson and other committee members that he had serious observations that would make the party stronger while former Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ibrahim Mantu, wants the party to focus on the 2019 elections, and strive hard to restore the party’s lost glory.

Beaming with smiles of satisfaction after a meeting in Abuja last week, Governor Dickson said, “we have established contacts already with those who are, for one reason or the other, dissatisfied and who have concerns and issues, and grievances and which is normal in an exercise such as this. We can report to you that the efforts we have made so far to establish contact with all chairmanship aspirants, and indeed we intend to interact with all other aspirants.

“All those who purchased forms, all those who actually contested, it is our intention to engage and interact with them to find out what the challenges and issues are with a view to promoting amicable resolution and promoting better understanding within the PDP family. We are pleased to announce that our contact with all the major candidates, with all the chairmanship candidates was very positive, our overtures were well received, and in the next couple of days and weeks, we are going to see a lot of activities undertaken by this committee, and also we are at liberty to co-opt other party leaders whose input would be helpful.”

Twists and turns

But just as Dickson and the new leadership were about concluding that solutions are at hand to the post convention grievances, the unfolding drama within the opposition party took several new turns as a number of twists were introduced into the scenario by the same aggrieved party men the committee said had been met and appeased to give peace a chance and allow it address their complaints.

The latest is coming from the southwest where there are talks about a plan by leaders and members of the party to dump the PDP in protest agains the inability of the zone to produce the national chairman of the party. The Nation learnt during the week that several meetings have been held by chieftains of the party in the zone following the convention and it appears the majority opinion is for the zone to abandon the PDP in protest.

“We are meeting. We are a proud people and we will not take kindly to some characters insulting us as a people. It is obvious the PDP has no respect for us in the southwest. Imagine the people they chose as representatives of the party in the new leadership. We don’t even know them. Some disloyal party chieftains who refused to support the southwest agenda at the convention are now parading themselves as PDP southwest leaders.

“We are determined to show that the Yoruba race is not secondary and will never allow itself to be relegated anywhere we find ourselves. If the final resolution is that we move away from PDP, we will do so en bloc. And if that happens, you can be rest assured that it is over for the PDP in the southwest. The real leaders of the PDP are the ones complaining against the treatment meted out to us at the convention.

“Imagine a situation where Bode George, Ebenezer Babatope, Tunde Adeniran, Taoheed Ladoja, Remi Adiukwu, Buruji Kashamu, Gbenga Daniel, Tajudeen Oladipo, Makanjuola Ogundipe and others like that decide to leave the PDP. What would be left of the party in the southwest? I can tell you nothing would be left. So, we are considering many options. One of it of course is the reconciliation Governor Dickson is talking about,” a party source said.

And just as the Dickson committee and the PDP leadership were wondering how best to stop what has become a looming crisis in the southwest, the Adebayo Dayo-led factional executive committee of the Ogun State chapter of the party dragged the new leadership of the PDP before the Federal High Court, Abuja. The suit, which was instituted by Dayo and Semiu Sodipo on behalf of themselves and the Ogun State Executive committee of the PDP, has the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Elder Yemi Akinwonmi as the first, second and third defendant respectively.

They want the court to replace Akinwonmi, who was elected Deputy National Chairman (South) of the PDP at its National Convention on December 9, with Hon. Segun Seriki. The Dayo-led exco also wants the court to determine whether the national leadership of the party has the powers to dissolve the state executive committee when its tenure has not expired. They are also challenging the use of some people as delegates to the National Convention of the PDP which held in Abuja on December 9, since there is a substantive judgment which recognizes the Dayo-led exco as the authentic leadership.

Few days earlier, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, one of the chairmanship aspirants at the recent national convention of the party had also approached the court seeking to nullify the election of Secondus as the new national chairman. Adedoja, in the suit filed by Mr. Rikky Tarfa, is seeking the nullification of the election of a new executive on the premise that his name was removed from the ballot for the election for national chairman.

“I went to the convention for the position of national chairman of the party with the strong belief that the party needed a chairman with wide experience, acceptability across Nigeria, integrity and a man with fresh and innovative ideas, with a view to bringing intellectualism to the governance of the party. Towards achieving this, I paid the necessary nomination fee, obtained and returned the national chairmanship nomination form; was invited for screening and subsequently screened with clearance certificate issued to me at a well-attended ceremony at the PDP headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, December 07, 2017.”

“Surprisingly, on the election day of December 09, 2017, my name was deliberately excluded from the list of national chairmanship contestants posted on the ballot boxes/ cubicles meant for the election of the national chairman of the party, thereby, wilfully and unlawfully excluding me from participating in the said election. On realising the misnomer, I drew the attention of the chairman of the Convention Committee, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to it; who in turn promised to rectify the anomaly. The promise was not kept, culminating in the zero score credited to me during the declaration of results,” Adedoja said.

According to him, his lawyer, Ricky Tarfa on Monday filed a suit before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to amongst others, “declare the election of national chairman of the PDP held at the Eagle Square, Abuja on December 09, 2017, null and void; declare as null and void any document submitted by PDP or by the purported occupier of the position of the national chairman to INEC.

The “fresh” angle

Last week, the confusion rocking PDP following the controversial outcome of its December convention peaked with the emergence of a parallel leadership led by Emmanuel Nwosu. The group, which referred to itself as Fresh PDP, is calling for the nullification of the party’s convention held on December 9 at the Eagle Square in Abuja. Briefing newsmen at the party’s secretariat located at Tito Broz street, off Jimmy Carter street, Asokoro, Nwosu said the process leading to the emergence of the Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee was fraught with illegality and abuse of electoral process.

Earlier that week, the group had staged a protest in Abuja to express disaffection with the outcome of the just concluded national convention of the party. Led by Nwosu, members of the group had threatened to form a splinter PDP group, saying they were out to reform the party. An aggrieved aspirant for the office of the National Organising Secretary (NOS), Dr. Godwin Duru blamed purported unity list at the election which had his name removed as the reason for his dissatisfaction.

He added that the neglect of their complaints by the reconciliation committee after the convention was also to be blamed for the emergence of the new faction. “After the convention, I called some of the party hierarchy to register my disgust over the outcome of the election and processes but all of them refused to pick my calls. They felt we are not important; the only people they recognised were the chairmanship aspirants.

“We also went through processes of screening like the chairmanship aspirants; their reconciliation committee is only to the chairmanship aspirants and not to us in other positions, because they felt we are not important having dealt with us. The PDP election was never an election, it was a fraud, my name was removed from the ballot and not even on the purported unity list. Unity list means all the aspirants have come together to agree on the people that will be represented but in this case nobody notified or consulted me on people compiled in the list.

“You can have a list but a list with PDP logo is wrong and all activities on Dec 9th went in same line with the list. Most people on the unity list did not campaign or buy form, were not screened but came up to become winners. We are all co founders of PDP therefore had the right to take the decision without the aforementioned. Nobody is above each other, we are all equal founders of the party so we have right to take our decision.”

With the deluge of actions that suggests some of the aggrieved PDP chieftains as unwilling to co-operate with Dickson’s committee in spite of assurances that their grievances will be looked into and addressed appropriately, many observers of happenings within the opposition party are wondering if the reconciliation committee will save the embattled party from returning to its crisis ridden past.

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