The national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have come and gone, but it still remains the talk of town, YUSUF MOHAMMED, who covered the event reports.
The build-up to the National Convention of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)was unprecedented. There were many political heavy weights jostling to become the Chairman of the PDP.
The convention proper, however, did not live up to the hype because of how, Uche Secondus, finally emerged as the Chairman of the party in a landslide victory, polling 2,000 votes.Tunde Adeniran who came second was far behind Secondus with 261 votes. The outcome of the election was obvious to all that the whole exercise was not as tough as people expected it to be.
The outcome of the convention has left sour taste in the mouths of some of the candidates who alleged that the election was manipulated in favour of Secondus.
However, the task ahead for the party right now is to reconcile aggrieved members and make sure the party is on its feet in preparation for 2019 general elections.
How did the PDP, the party that lays claim to being the largest in Africa, get to where it is now?
In 2015, the PDP lost the presidency to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Some prominent members of the PDP decamped to the APC, that singular action weakened the party. Most of them blamed highhandedness of former Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, as one of the main reasons they dumped the party for the APC.
Tukur was fired by President Goodluck Jonathan and replaced by former Governor of Bauchi State, Adamu Muazu. It was, however, too late to redeem the dwindling fortunes of the party. To add salt to injury, Jonathan who was an incumbent lost the presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari of the APC.
Months after the general elections, the next biggest challenge was the leadership tussle between former Governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sherrif, and former Kaduna State Governor, Ahmed Markafi. It lingered on for a long time until the Supreme Court declared Sen. Markafi as the acting Chairman of the PDP.
Saturday, December 10, 2017, was another opportunity for the PDP to redeem its battered image. It was the date of the National Elective Convention. Nigerians from all walks of life trooped to the event, which was held at the Eagle Sqaure in Abuja, to witness what analysts termed ‘the rebirth of the PDP’.
The chairmanship election was the biggest of all. Nigerians watched with keen interest to know who would emerge as chairman of one of the largest political parties in Africa.
Before the day of the election, there were nine aspirants. But on the day of the election, those who contested were four aspirants. That was as a result of aspirants withdrawing from the race due to one reason or the other.
On the eve of the convention, one of the aspirants from the South West, Bode George, withdrew without formally notifying the party. On the day of the election, a few other aspirants from the South-West also withdrew from the race.
To complicate matters further, there was a ‘unity list’ that was allegedly given to delegates to guide them on candidates to vote in all positions. While the election was going on, one of the candidates, Raymond Dokpesi, in conjunction with others spoke to journalists about the list.
On the list, Secondus was chosen to be Chairman of the party. After the results were announced, it was discovered that it tallied with the controversial list. This has left many stalwarts of the party especially those from the South-West aggrieved. Some of them have claimed that the South-West had been marginalized.
Members of the APC who were waiting in wings for PDP to falter, are trying to take advantage of the fall-out of the convention by claiming that the South-West has been schemed out just to incite people against its arch rival.
According to the findings of The Next Edition, that may not seem to be the case. The power play, according to our findings, is geared towards 2019. Although the party has not officially zoned the position of Vice President to the South-West, investigation has revealed the party, after zoning the presidency to the North will zone the position of Vice President to the South-West. This calculation, The Next Edition learnt was what was responsible for the alleged ‘unity list.’
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It was also gathered that not all the aspirants from the South-West withdrew to support Adeniran. While some did so in order to support Adeniran, some others stepped down to throw their weight behind Secondus.
Speaking with The Next Edition, a political analyst, Michael Adepoju said, “I don’t see why they are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. If they say the process was not free and fair, I will agree. But saying the South West has been marginalized is a big lie. The positions were evenly shared. The reason why majority of the governors insisted that Secondus should be chairman is because they are in favour of a Yoruba man as Vice President in 2019. It is very simple.”
The ‘unity list’ was believed to contain names of aspirants who would eventually emerge winners for various positions.
One of the aspirants for the Chairmanship position, Dokpesi said his attention was drawn to the list by some delegates who said they were directed to vote for those whose names were on the list.
Dokpesi reported the matter to the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, who was the Chairman of the convention. He, therefore, called for the cancellation of the convention.
Aside from Dokpesi who was clearly aggrieved by the outcome of the convention, George who was one of the aspirants also condemned the process.
In order to appease aggrieved members and make sure that the party does not suffer from another crisis, the National Reconciliation Committee of the PDP led by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, visited some aggrieved members of the party on Tuesday.
One of the members visited by Dickson’s team was one of the aspirants in the race, Adeniran. Dickson and his team also visited Jerry Gana, Senator Ibrahim Mantu and a former Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Ina Ciroma, who ran for the position of National Chairman, North.
Adeniran, who came second, urged Dickson to reach out to all candidates and members of the party.
“We should try to interact with various players. I will suggest that we should not leave any stone unturned to reach out as much as possible,” he said, adding “there are those of us who carried the flag, but there are some others who are key players in this party, who may not even contest for positions but they are no less concerned about this party.
“When you look back, you can see some of those key members of the concerned stakeholders who fought gallantly to ensure that indeed this party survived. Let the contacts, the consultations be as all-embracing as possible; it takes time, it takes energy but then what is worth doing is worth doing well,” Adeniran said.
Former Minister of Information and National Orientation, Gana, on his part said he would never leave the PDP for any reason.
Former Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ibrahim Mantu in a similar vein said he would not leave the party. He advised the PDP to focus on the 2019 elections, while Dokpesi has also accepted the results by congratulating Secondus.
Dokpesi said “Ì appreciate the delegates for voting at the convention and congratulate the newly elected National Working Committee of the PDP led by Secondus. You will recall that I said that the PDP must be the ultimate winner at the end of the contest. “God bless the Peoples Democratic Party. Congratulations PDP as I wish all our members the best of luck.”
Now that the convention is over, the question now is: what next for the PDP? Only time will tell.