Give PDP a befitting burial

The events at the official headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) this week revealed that PDP has not only died, but if care is not taken, its carcass may be thrown into the evil forest to be consumed by vultures and other scavengers. For the avoidance of doubt, it is PDP members that declared their party dead. Ayo Fayose, former Governor of Ekiti State, under the PDP, who is still claiming to be a PDP member, but who supported President Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the presidential election of 2023, and has vowed to support him again in 2027, called PDP a carcass (corpse).

Nyesom Wike, the APC-appointed Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who is also claiming to be a member of the PDP, admitted that he is being referred to as an undertaker of the PDP. The dictionary defines undertaker as a person whose business is preparing dead bodies for burial or cremation and making arrangements for funerals. By the latest condition for peace given by Wike, there’s no better description of his role in PDP than being an undertaker. According to Umar Sani, former Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to ex-Vice President Namadi Sambo of Nigeria, and a chieftain of PDP, “the BOT, in their last resolve to settle the matter, set up a reconciliation committee. The committee approached Wike, and one of his (Wike’s) conditions was that we (PDP) must agree that we’re not going to field a presidential candidate in 2027; that is the only condition he would allow, or that this is a fight to finish.”

Certainly, a party that has elected governors and legislators at all levels of governance cannot be dictated to as to who to choose as their presidential candidate come 2027 by a Wike, an appointee of the APC-led Federal Government. They demonstrated this capacity in insisting on going on with the Ibadan PDP elective convention despite the objection of Wike’s faction, and numerous conflicting decisions of courts of coordinate jurisdiction. Two immunity-enjoying governors of PDP, Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde, fed up with the shenanigans of Wike’s faction, further caged the Wike’s faction like birds when, after the convention, they marched with their “army” to the Wadata Plaza and forcefully dislodged Wike’s faction led by the Senator Anyanwu-appointed Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Mohammed Abdulrahman, and installed the Ibadan-produced PDP National Chairman, Kabiru Turaki. By the next day, the security agencies were tired of the back and forth of the PDP squabbles and officially barricaded the headquarters of the PDP. The party now is a ghost zone with no human occupants at the national office.

The PDP started having stress from 2023 when the Gov Samuel Ortom-led zoning committee refused to zone the position of the President to any geo-political zone, but instead threw it open to every aspirant to contest for. This is despite the plea of some of their leaders, like Atiku Abubakar, that the presidential ticket should be zoned to the South-East. Ortom, who was a member of the G-5, reached that decision because of their belief that Wike, who was their leader, would win the presidential primary ticket. Unfortunately, Wike lost. Ortom also failed to secure the vice presidential ticket for Wike. Having lost out of the PDP party power equation, they opted to work for President Tinubu’s re-election. This was an express assault on their party’s constitution, as such act was deemed to be an anti-party activity capable of attracting expulsion or suspension from the party.

Surprisingly PDP condoned such treachery, and the G-5 used this treachery to buy political favour from President Tinubu who later appointed their leader, Wike, into his cabinet as a minister. Wike, who was known for his capacity to fund the party in times of lack, boasted that the entire PDP structure supported his acceptance to serve as a minister under APC. This was when PDP sold its soul and birth right to the APC for a pot of porridge, but later started searching for it with tears when the deed was already done. There’s an Igbo proverb that when an aberration or abomination lasts more than a year, it becomes a culture. PDP’s penchant for impunity has lasted more than years and lawlessness has become a culture in the party.

The latest ugly turn of events started when the South-East nominated Sunday Udeh-Okoye to be the National Secretary of PDP to replace Samuel Anyanwu who left to contest the governorship position of Imo State. Wike insisted that Samuel Anyanwu would remain as the secretary, after he lost the election. The case reached the Supreme Court where the court told the party that it’s not the duty of the courts to choose who its secretary should be. That the party should go back and determine who its secretary should be. Unfortunately, PDP went back, and in deference to Wike, chose Anyanwu as its National Secretary. This strategic mistake meant that a member of the PDP from the faction that had adopted Tinubu as its presidential candidate in 2027 has acquired the capacity to be a signatory to the form of who shall contest or not; when a meeting should be convened or not.

With this vantage position, Wike’s faction shut down every action of PDP intended to reposition the party for recovery. They refused to agree to a national convention at Ibadan that will usher in a new set of leaders, but chose rather to take their party to court to scuttle the convention. The court granted them their request and decided that the convention should not hold. The Umar Damagum faction, backed by Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State, got a favourable judgement from an Ibadan High Court, which ruled that the convention should go on. However, Sule Lamido, former Governor of Jigawa State, who wanted to contest for the position of National Chairman, was denied the form for the contest. He secured an injunction stopping the convention. Eventually, being overwhelmed by the different court decisions on the matter, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) abstained from the convention.

As a result of the great confusion ridiculing the party, Umar Damagum, former Acting National Chairman suspended Samuel Anyanwu and his gang. Samuel Anyanwu, National Secretary, suspended Damagum and his gang. The National Convention, led by Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde expelled Wike and his gang. Wike’s gang in turn suspended Bala and Seyi’s gang. The situation is becoming comical and messy, even childish. The fight appears like a confrontation of confraternities. If nobody is willing to back down, it will result in a fight to finish and there would only be one outcome – PDP’s dispatch, ignominiously, to the grave.

The lessons from this debacle are quantum. How did our judiciary degenerate so low that courts of coordinate jurisdiction would be churning out contradicting orders on the same matter? How does an institution that is constitutionally mandated to discipline and punish erring members of the public become so inefficient in disciplining its own members, leading to an unacceptable level of impunity among them? Every succeeding Chief Justice of Nigeria, including the current one, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, laments the gradual decay of the judiciary, yet does nothing tangible to nip the situation in the bud. The National Judicial Council must rise up to discipline erring judges in order to purge the judiciary of incompetent and corrupt elements who are out there to desecrate the hallowed temple of justice through bought and procured judgements. Even President Tinubu agreed that a corrupt judiciary could destroy our democracy.

Our security agencies must amend their ways and be non-partisan in the maintenance of law and order among political parties. When the Samuel Anyanwu led faction of the party sacked the Damagum led faction from the headquarters, the security agencies did not remember to come to the aid of the Damagum faction, despite the fact that Damagum was the authentic Acting National Chairman of the PDP, while Mohammed Abdulrahman was rejected even by INEC as the Chairman of PDP. However, when the Bala/Seyi faction sacked the Wike faction from the PDP headquarters, the security agencies remembered their duty to separate the two factions and even sealed up the PDP’s headquarters. This is being partisan and the security agencies must be seen to be apolitical and enforce the laws equally without respect to persons.

PDP itself must realise that as far as 2027 election is concerned, it is not on the ballot. Indeed it’s dead. Any aspirant that is picking PDP nomination form is doing so at his own political peril. Reason is that PDP did not manage the fall out of the rebellion among them very well. Immediately it noticed numerous conflicting court orders, it would have changed the elective convention to an unelective convention in which it would have suspended the erring members from participating in the affairs of the party. Parties are not compelled to give any statutory notice to INEC for a non-elective convention. Being the highest decision making organ of the party, its suspension of Wike and his gang would have stood the test of the law.

Also this would have helped them resolve the Sule Lamido’s grudge over illegal exclusion from contesting the election before the new date for elective convention. The Sule Lamido’s case may be the most potent court order that may nullify the convention. It would have used Damagum, whose name is already recognised by INEC, to stabilise its control of the party pending next convention date. As it is now, the names of Mohammed Abdulrahman or Tamuno Turaki are not recognised by INEC as PDP Chairman and either faction would not allow the other to outwit the other. This may put PDP in permanent limbo at least till after 2027. If it happens this way, Wike’s faction would have won. The best way for PDP members to give PDP a decent burial is for them to align with the other political parties in opposition and help remove the ruling APC that has helped to destroy their party beyond repair.

•Written By Kenneth Okonkwo