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After almost two years of bickering and internal crisis, the warring factions in the Peoples Democratic Party appear to have discovered that their ambitions can only be realised in a peaceful atmosphere as gladiators decide to give peace a chance. But how long can this last?
| By Olu Ojewale | Apr 3, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT |
AFTER about two years of wrangling, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is on the mend. On Thursday, March 23, the feuding parties agreed to sheathe their swords in the interest of peace and Nigerians.
The national reconciliation committee led Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State achieved a feat by bringing the warring parties together to sign an agreement to put aside their differences and work together to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, from power in 2019.
The party in a communiqué signed by both the Modu Sheriff faction and the Ahmed Makarfi Caretaker Committee, agreed to stop the current spate of inflammatory public statements capable of further stoke the crisis. The communiqué was jointly signed by Bernard Mikko, the factional PDP acting national publicity secretary for the Sheriff group, and Dayo Adeyeye, his counterpart in the Makarfi faction.
Other signatories to communiqué are Dave Iorhemba, factional acting national legal adviser of the PDP, and Ahmed Gulak, a former political adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
During the event which was witnessed by Governor Dickson and Ibrahim Mantu, a former deputy Senate president, the groups also resolved to work with the committee to put an end to the prolonged crisis.
The major actors in the matter emphasised that they would henceforth stop all activities capable of further weakening the party, rather than strengthen it for the challenges ahead. The communiqué said in part: “That all actors of the party should desist from making derogatory, inflammatory and divisive statements against party officials, stakeholders and members.
“That the party should not dissipate her energy amongst itself but to focus on how to unite and be a formidable opposition capable of taking over power from the failed APC led government.”
Both Sheriff and Makarfi were absent from the meeting, but some of their loyalists, among them Cairo Ojougbo, Sheriff’s deputy, and Walid Jibrin, chairman, Board of Trustees of the PDP, attended. Jibrin promised to convene a meeting of the trustees soon to consider the report.
Prior to the Thursday ceasefire announcement the two factions in the crisis had seized every given opportunity to attack each other with various allegations in the media.
The gladiators are led by Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor, who a court recognised as the national chairman of the party, and Ahmed Makarfi, a former governor and leader of the national caretaker committee of the party.
Aside from accusing each other of various allegations, both factions are also in court to determine, who is the rightful leader of the once, perhaps, the biggest party in Africa. The division has also perforated to the grassroots where there are also parallel chairmen in states and local councils.
To unlock the political lockjam, the parties again appeared at the Supreme Court on Thursday, March 23, which now fixed May 4, for the continuation of hearing in appeals concerning the leadership crisis in the party.
The apex court gave the date after listening to counsel’s arguments in the appeals challenging the February 17, judgement of the Appeal Court which confirmed Sheriff, as leader of the opposition PDP.
Based on the decision of the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt, Makarfi approached the Supreme Court, to challenge the decision, which promises to be the final phase of the judicial battle for the PDP leadership tussle that has lasted almost a year.
At the Supreme Court on Thursday, March 23, Akin Olujim, SAN, counsel representing the Sheriff faction, said the PDP, his client, was not aware of any application, challenging the emergence of the current leadership of the party.
That, indeed, formed the basis for the adjournment of the hearing to May 4.
The judicial struggle in the leadership tussle began on May 17, 2016, when a Lagos division of the federal high court ordered the party to suspend its national convention earlier scheduled to hold on May 21, that year.
But contrary to the order, the PDP held the convention, amid conflicting information from the Makarfi and Sheriff led factions of the party, respectively, on the said convention. In any case, at the convention on May 21, Makarfi was elected leader of the caretaker committee of the party.
That did not please the Sheriff faction which filed a motion before the federal high court, FHC, in Lagos, challenging the emergence of Makarfi as leader of the party.
Consequently, on May 24, the court presided by Justice Ibrahim Buba nullified the emergence of the Makarfi-led leadership of the party, and reinstated Sheriff as leader of the party.
After that judgement, other judgements emanating from separate divisions of the federal high courts, gave controversial rulings on the same convention.
In February, however, the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt pronounced Sheriff as the authentic leader of the party, thereby paving the way for the suit at the Supreme Court.
But whether the current found roadmap to peaceful resolution of all issues would lead to enthronement of permanent peace in the party is yet to be seen. In the meantime, the PDP supporters, and indeed, Nigerians would expect the gladiators to show greater commitment to finding a political solution to the crisis in party by withdrawing their various court cases.
In any case, the window of opportunity to finding a political solution to the crisis was not initiated or directed by court actions. Rather, it has been the same national reconciliation committee led by Dickson that eventually provided the avenue for party faithful to reach a peace accord.
Initially, the Dickson-led committee was not embraced by every member who regarded it as an extension of political manoeuvre by the Sheriff group to keep their man at position of authority.
This, perhaps, was responsible for why the recommendation was not given to the Makarfi caretaker committee. Hence, 14 days after Dickson submitted the recommendations of the committee to the Sheriff group on March 8, he submitted the same report to the Makarfi faction on Wednesday, March 22. Political watchers said the development should give hope to supporters that the party might be on the way to attain peace and reconciliation.
Dickson accompanied by Ibrahim Mantu, a former deputy Senate president, and some members of the committee gave the document which would serve as a template for peace and reconciliation to Makarfi.
In his remark, Dickson said the election of all officials of the party at state and zonal levels before the botched May 21, Port Harcourt convention should remain valid. The governor reiterated his position that the report of his committee which seeks to return peace and cohesion to the party was not cast in stone, and that it could always be improved upon by the appropriate organs of the party.
The governor, along with other members of the committee also promised to meet with other key organs of the party to present the template for lasting peace in the PDP.
Responding, Makarfi promised to study the template and relate with other organs of the party on the report before making any serious pronouncement.
True to his promise, Dickson similarly took the recommendation to Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president, the same day, in Abuja.
Apparently touched by the crisis, Ekweremadu appealed to members of the PDP to stop flexing muscle over leadership when Nigerians were suffering. He said: “The country is in crisis. So, our house is also burning. We cannot be chasing rats when our house is burning. The PDP house that is burning needs to be rescued. Everybody needs to put efforts to ensure that happens.
“There is hunger in the land; there is also anger in the land. So, we cannot be struggling over leadership when our people are dying of hunger and starvation; while there is tension all over the place.”
He, therefore, said it was time to stop division in the party and act to salvage the situation in the country. Ekweremadu said: “There is hope not because we are here, but because Nigerians want us to show that we care for them.
“Whatever happens, I believe that surely, PDP will be back in 2019.”
Ekweremadu, who commended the committee for its effort at reconciling all aggrieved members of the party, called on members to support the peace process.
Lending his voice to the deputy Senate president’s call, Godswill Akpabio, a senator and former governor of Akwa Ibom State, said effort by the committee was a step toward the final resolution of the crisis in the party. “We are yearning for peace. I do not know when we got to where we are. We are determined for Nigeria to succeed so that we can takeover in peace,” Akpabio said.
Restoring peace in the fragmented PDP, it appears, would need to beyond the surface and down to the roots where divisions are also pronounced in the states and local councils where there are parallel chairmen and other party officials.
The pointer to the deep-rooted divisions in the party came forth on Saturday, March 18, when Sheriff and Makarfi clashed over the position of the chairmen of 23 states’ chapters on the party. Then the states’ chairmen had converged in Abuja where they endorsed Sheriff and the recommendations made by the Dickson Reconciliation Committee for the PDP National Convention not to hold later than June 2017.
But Makarfi promptly dismissed the meeting and its resolution, describing the whole exercise as “fake.” “At the illegal assembly held in Abuja, on Friday night (March 17), the group of fake state chairmen also announced its support for the illegal occupation of the party secretariat by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff under the pretext of being PDP national chairman,” a statement by Makarfi said.
Ekiti State chapter of the PDP also disowned the Abuja meeting of the party chairmen, saying those who attended were appointed by Sheriff. The 23 Chapters’ chairmen, in a communiqué read by Yunusa Suleiman, PDP chairman, Federal Capital Territory, after the meeting, said that following the Court of Appeal judgement affirming Sheriff as party national chairman, it was only wise that all the PDP members supported him.
The opposition from Ekiti State also is understandable. Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State also rejected the recommendations of the Dickson committee his party set up and vowed not to be part of any convention organised by the Sheriff faction of the PDP.
Fayose, national chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, in a statement issued by his spokesperson, said he was certain Sheriff was being sponsored by the ruling APC to disorganise the PDP.
He said among others: “There cannot be any meaningful reconciliation with an impossible character like Senator Ali Modu Sheriff who is obviously working for political interests different from that of the PDP.”
The governor said he was aware that more than $1 million had been provided by the APC to fund the convention being planned by the Sheriff group while adequate security would also be provided by the security agencies that were now more like part of the APC. “This is being done so as to sustain the party’s plot to turn Nigeria to a one party state,” he further alleged.
The governor, who said he had nothing against Governor Dickson, added that: “I respect Governor Dickson, he is my brother and he is entitled to his own personal opinion just as I am entitled to mine. But I must state it categorically that no genuine lover of the PDP will take part in a convention sponsored by the APC.”
Fayose, who said the implementation of the Dickson Committee report was beyond Sheriff, said further: “I am speaking for myself and the entire people of Ekiti State that I represent; we won’t be part of any PDP convention sponsored by the APC and I must state categorically that Sheriff is being sponsored 100 percent by the APC.
“We therefore remain undaunted in our support for the Markafi committee and its decision to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the Appeal Court, Port-Harcourt judgement.”
But Fayose himself does not enjoy 100 percent support at home. Oni Olamide, a member of the National Assembly, broke away from the PDP caucus stance at the House of Representatives, with Johnson Agbonayinma (Edo-PDP) to endorse Sheriff and pronounced support for the reconciliatory efforts of the Dickson committee.
That notwithstanding, the chairmen advised the Governor Dickson reconciliation committee to take its recommendation to all stakeholders in the party for a genuine reconciliation to be realised.
Nevertheless, with the current development, it is hoped in many quarters that various PDP parallel chairmen across the country as well as local council chairs would be forgiving and embraced.
Even with the current development, some political analysts said it would be very difficult to get all the divided persons and group of persons to reconcile and queue behind a leader.
Already, a lot of disenchanted former members of the PDP have crossed over to the ruling APC, while others are contemplating forming a new mega party.
Indeed, one of the latest members to show his frustration is Sullivan Chime, a former governor of Enugu State, who recently announced his departure from the PDP. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Friday, March 17, in Enugu, Chime said that his decision to quit the PDP was because the party was “no longer in existence in the true sense of it.”
Chime said, however, that he had yet to join another political party, contrary to speculations that he had defected to the APC.
He said that he was still making consultations to determine the political party to join, but pointedly said: “The PDP, we used to be members of is dead. The party I joined in 1999 and had the opportunity of leading in the state for eight years is no longer in existence.
“We have two groups claiming to be in charge of the party as chairman. These two, none of them can actually lay claim to the chairmanship of the party.
“There is no provision in the PDP’s constitution for interim caretaker committee led by Sen. Ahmed Maikarfi. The PDP convention has no power to set up a caretaker committee and did not seek to amend the party’s constitution,” he stated.
Besides, the former governor said that Sheriff on his own was brought in to serve out the tenure of Adamu Mu’azu, a former PDP national chairman, and that the tenure had long elapsed.
Chime said that remaining in the PDP would be a deceit and, therefore, advised his supporters to look for a better platform to actualise their political aspirations.
Now, that peace and reconciliation seem to be at the horizon, will the likes of Chime be willing to return to the party? The answer to that is a matter of conjecture.
But it must be said that, with their utterances, the two main gladiators in the leadership tussle have not made it easy for those who may wish to remain in the party.
Just as recent as Tuesday, March 21, Makarfi accused Sheriff of planning to use the party platform to realise his presidential ambition in 2019.
He said this was why the former governor of Borno State was unable to deny the allegation when confronted by journalists at his press briefing in Abuja on Monday, March 20.
Makarfi, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, through Adeyeye, on Tuesday, March 21, said that Sheriff’s refusal to deny his presidential ambition was a confirmation that he was actually positioning himself for the PDP ticket.
“Now, the truth has been revealed. Senator Sheriff has told the entire world that his fight for the soul of the PDP was to achieve a set objective which he has been working towards since January 2016 when he was appointed to office just to complete the tenure of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur cum Adamu Mu’azu who resigned having led the party to electoral failure in 2015,” Adeyeye said.
Sheriff had said on Monday, March 20, that though he would not vie for the office of the national chairman of the party at its national convention and that he would allow God to decide on whether or not to contest the 2019 presidential election.
Similarly, Sheriff alleged on Monday, March 13, that the main reason Makarfi would want to remain as chairman the party’s national caretaker committee was because of N50 million monthly subvention he (Makarfi) was receiving from the PDP governors.
Sheriff also alleged that Makarfi did not want to throw in the towel despite the appeal court judgement which gave him (Sheriff) legitimacy because he wanted to sit-tight and grab the party’s presidential ticket in 2019.
Cairo Ojougboh, deputy national chairman of the PDP, who addressed journalists at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, said he was speaking at the instance of Sheriff and the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party.
“They know that the N50 million monthly subvention Makarfi gets from the governors will stop after the reconciliation and convention. They know that as soon as the ongoing reconciliation pulls through they will no longer exist,” Ojougboh said.
But Adeyeye, spokesman of the Makarfi group, described Ojougboh’s allegation as blackmail. “This is a lie from the pit of hell and a very cheap and unintelligent attempt at blackmail. It is a known fact by all critical stakeholders of the party and even the staff that the National Caretaker Committee have from inception been hamstrung by inadequate finance.
“So much so that simple secretariat duties have been a struggle while we have been unable to pay staff salaries of just N18 million a month. Members of the National Caretaker Committee do not enjoy any remuneration.
“The governors are all alive and are free to come forward and declare publicly their level of contributions to the National Caretaker Committee since May 21, 2016,” Adeyeye said.
That notwithstanding, according to him, it is normal for organs of the party to freely make contributions towards the running of the party, stressing that there is nothing illegal about receiving contributions from party members.
“Our only regret is that these contributions have not been forthcoming as expected, given the heavy weight of responsibilities placed before us and especially the burden of having to deal with distractions caused by Senator Sheriff and his cohorts.
“Nevertheless, no matter how little, it is better to be funded by our party members than by the All Progressive Congress, APC, as is the case with Senator Sheriff and his cohorts.
“Dr. Cairo Ojougboh should tell us which APC governor, minister or official bought Sport Utility Vehicles, SUVs, for them? Governor Fayose has also made a public allegation that Senator Sheriff had received $1 million from the APC to organise a new convention. Senator Sheriff is yet to publicly refute the allegation,” he said.
Similarly, Makarfi also accused Sheriff of frustrating the peace process. He made the accusation in Abuja while meeting some Northern leaders of the PDP recently saying Sheriff reneged on a proposal by former President Goodluck Jonathan that arrangement should be made whereby both of them would resign their positions.
“In response, I told the former president that the caretaker committee has nothing against his proposal but that it will be presented before the organs and if accepted, the caretaker committee will stand by it.
“Former President Jonathan said he told Sheriff to go and consult and after his reply, he will get back to him. Until now he has not gotten back to him. What it means is that perhaps, he did not get positive response from Sheriff.”
Now that the two factions have agreed to work together, it was still difficult to know if both leaders in the conflict would resign their positions. Indeed, some analysts have reasoned that both gladiators in the struggle should have to resign in order to get to the roots of the crisis and resolve it. Ambrose Owuru, a lawyer, said it appeared the crisis would continue because Sheriff would insist that his tenure would expire in 2018 while Makarfi’s awaits the Supreme Court’s judgement on his own.
But Onyekachi Ubani, second vice-president of the Nigerian Bar Association believes that the only way out of the political crisis in the PDP is to allow a political solution and not court actions.
Ubani said in an interview: ”PDP can put its house together for 2019 if it solves the problem politically.
“If they (PDP members) insist on court actions, and the court makes a pronouncement, I do not see any reconciliation.
”The best way is to put the matter out of court; both factional chairman should agree not to contest for the leadership of the party and allow neutral people to emerge as leaders.
”The moment they want this matter to be solved by the Supreme Court, the court’s pronouncement may be in favour of any of the factions, and the other faction may not accept it.”
While supporting the recent reconciliation efforts, Ubani warned that continuation of the crisis would kill the party. He insisted that only internal and political solution would solve the PDP crisis and not court pronouncement. Only, then, he said the PDP could hope for a total reconciliation.
But whether the numerous interest groups already aligned in the party would allow a total reconciliation is another matter altogether, especially as 2019 election year is fast approaching.
In the time being, the political juggernauts in the PDP must have realised that there is not much time to lose as the 2019 election dates approach. But how much the interest groups are willing to sacrifice to bring peace to the party will be made manifest in days ahead.
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