Politics

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It has been a rough and perhaps, a tumultuous, ride for Bamanga Tukur, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, whose tenure has alienated some party members and caused more problems for the ruling party. But how long can he last?

|  By Olu Ojewale  |  Aug. 5, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

IT IS typical of Bamanga Tukur, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to be enmeshed in controversy. Since he became the national chairman of the PDP last year, Tukur has ruffled a lot of feathers and alienated many leaders of the party. It appears that he does not want to change all that. The latest controversy involving the PDP chairman is the appointment of a 30-man national reconciliation committee, which he constituted on Monday, July 22, without enough consultation and put Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State at its helm. The committee which is to help resolve all lingering issues disrupting the unity of the party, was slated for inauguration on Thursday, July 25,

Ahead of the inauguration, the PDP Governors’ Forum held a meeting on Wednesday, July 24, which Tukur himself was to address to explain the modalities he used in appointing members and chairman of the committee. But out of the 23 governors expected at the meeting, only 12 of them showed up or sent representatives. The other 11 members simply ignored the meeting. The governors that boycotted the meeting were those of Adamawa, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Cross River, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto and Taraba. Tukur himself was said to have departed the Akwa Ibom State governor’s lodge, Abuja, the venue of the meeting because of poor attendance.

The appointment of Dickson as chairman of the reconciliation committee was said to have been rejected by the PDP governors and other leaders of the party. They claimed not to have been consulted on the matter. Dickson is regarded as more or less a factor in the PDP crisis for which he has been given the assignment to resolve. Apart from coming from the same state as President Jonathan, Dickson was a prominent figure in the controversial election of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, of May 24, which Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State won by 19 votes. But Dickson pitted his tent with Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, who scored 16 votes. He even took advertisements in the press to congratulate Jang for winning the NGF chair. Jang was and still, the favoured candidate of the president. All these seem to have disqualified Dickson as an impartial arbiter in the reconciliation process.

But the real culprit in the matter is Tukur. The Bayelsa State governor was said to have told his colleagues that he was not consulted before his appointment and would be willing to step down to allow another person to do the job. Indeed, Dickson’s appointment was announced by Tony Okeke, acting national publicity secretary of the party, on behalf of the members of the National Working Committee of the party, in Abuja, on Monday July 22.

Some of the party leaders have also complained loudly against the national chairman’s style of administration. They accuse him of not consulting the critical organs of the party like the NEC, the National Caucus and the Board of Trustees, BoT, before constituting the committee. Some of them said they would prefer that a recent reconciliation mission undertaken by Tony Anenih, chairman of the PDP BoT, be allowed to continue instead of the 30-man committee.

A PDP governor, who did not want his name in the press, said he doubted the sincerity of Tukur and ability of Dickson to handle the matter objectively. “With the magnitude of the crisis in the party, do you think Governor Dickson can address it? Is there any difference between Dickson and President Goodluck Jonathan? Is Dickson not a party to the PDP crisis, going by the face-off between Bayelsa and Rivers on oil wells? Governors have been going to statesmen and elders to intervene and save our democracy from collapse but the PDP leadership is playing to the gallery,” he said.

Another governor was quoted in the press to have said: “I think you should count some of us out of working with the reconciliation committee. Those of us who are members of G-19 are uncomfortable with the membership. They cannot broker peace at all in the PDP. There is no record to show that any of the organs of the party was consulted by Tukur, not even the PDP Governors Forum or the 50-member Advisory Committee established by Tukur.”

According to Umar Ardo, former PDP governorship aspirant in Adamawa State, the reconciliation committee is nothing but trouble for the PDP because it poses danger to the PDP’s electoral fortunes in 2015. Ardo said the Dickson committee was dead on arrival, unless Tukur reconsiders its membership. He said Tukur did not table any reconciliation plan at the last NEC meeting of the party, held June 20, and if he had done that, Dickson would not have been the choice of the party. “In the first place, Dickson lacks the national exposure and experience that such a task requires. Secondly, Dickson himself is a subject of conflict within the party apparatus and membership. The way and manner in which he was brought in as governor, and the furore and controversy that it generated across the country, drain him of all moral standing to undertake a reconciliatory mission,” Ardo said. Besides, he said Dickson cannot be objective and fair in handling the assignment. “Given that one of the most central causes of the present disputes within the party is the inordinate ambition of the President for 2015, I cannot see how Governor Dickson can depart from this goal, should it be imperative for the Committee to do so in the course of its assignment. In fact, Dickson’s appointment will only be seen as an act of nepotism aimed at satisfying the impulsive determination of the President to achieve his aspiration. This perception will automatically estrange most aggrieved members and stakeholders of the party. The committee will thus be dead on arrival,” Ardo said.

Understandably, the government of Rivers State holds a similar view. Tony Okocha, chief of staff, Government House, said that Dickson, as an interested party in the crisis rocking the party, should not have been selected to lead the reconciliation committee. “That committee headed by Dickson has a script to act out. When you are out to make peace, you must try as much as possible to isolate interested parties. Seriake Dickson is one of the hatchet men of the President,” Okocha said. According to him, Tukur’s decision to make Dickson head of the committee has shown that the party is not serious about reconciliation. “You can’t bring those that were the masterminds of the crisis in the NGF to head the reconciliation committee. It will not help any reconciliation effort. I can sit here now and tell you the outcome of the panel’s efforts. Like I said, they are only acting a script,” he said.

A party source, however, said that Tukur consulted the president and some leaders of the party on his reconciliation plan so as to bring back the aggrieved members ahead of the 2015 poll. The source also claimed that most of the appointed members of the committee were non-partisan or involved in the crisis rocking the party.

Appointed to work with Dickson on the committee are the likes of Ibrahim Mantu, former deputy senate president, Onyema Ugochukwu, former editor of Daily Times and governorship candidate in Abia State, Arthur Eze, business mogul in Anambra State and Dapo Sarumi, former minister of information. Other members are I.A. Obuzor, Salisu Suleiman, Walid Jibrin, Hope Uzodinma, Bello Mohammed, Niyi Fadimula, Jerome Eke, Tijani Kiyawa, and Chris Marizu. The rest are Christy Silas, Jangwe Yusuf, Ngozi Olejeme, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Yakubu Shehu, Mohammed Kuchazi and Adedeji Olarenwaju. The list also includes, Emma Iwuagwu, Umar Gada, Dosun Fatokun, Harold Eze, Hajia Fati Sabo, Wakili Mohammed and Shittu Mohammed. Asheik Jarma, a former governor and Umar Damagun, an ambassador, will serve as the deputy chairman and secretary, respectively.

But that doesn’t seem to have totally absolved Tukur. As the debate on reconciliation committee was still gaining currency, Tukur was again in a verbal war with Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State. Reacting to a statement made by an aide of Nyako who called for the removal of the national chairman so that the PDP could survive, Tukur, who is also from Adamawa State, said there was no way the party could die, whether the governor left or not.

In a statement issued by Oliver Okpala, media assistant to Tukur, in Abuja on Wednesday, July 24, Tukur said it was wrong for them to have said the party would die. “The question of his threatening to move out of the party is his constitutional right and nobody can challenge his right to move out of the party. However, as long as he remains in the PDP, he must align himself with the party discipline; which is the bedrock of enthroning internal democracy in the party. His utterances and wishes for the death of the PDP, clearly in the eyes of the party and the public, portray him as a believer in a sect without faith,” Okpala said.

The statement said further that the, “PDP cannot die, as being predicted by Governor Nyako and his government,” Okpala said by predicting the death of a political structure that brought him to the limelight and recognition as a governor, Nyako had shown that “he is not a true party man.” He said there was no way Tukur, as a father, would work towards the death of a political structure he helped to establish, adding that as the national chairman of the PDP, Tukur had brought peace and mutual understanding to prevail among those he described as “true members and faithful of the PDP family.” Okpala said by their utterances, it was no longer a hidden fact that Nyako and his followers in Adamawa State had been romancing with the opposition.

The Nyako camp ruffled the hornet’s nest on Tuesday, July 23, when Kobeis Aris, secretary to Adamawa State government, declared Tukur’s leadership of the PDP as a failure. Aris, who noted that since Tukur assumed office as leader, the party had been dogged by crisis, said it had become apparent that Tukur lacked the capacity to manage the party. “Tell me anything good that has come out of the party since he became the chairman. Rather, he has brought the party to ridicule. He has reduced the party to one day, one trouble. Tukur, if not removed now, will lead the party to perdition. All the state chapters are in crisis. The national headquarters of the party is in chaos. It is evident that Tukur, who is our father, cannot lead the party. He can, however, remain in office if the leaders of the party want it dead,” Aris said, adding that if Tukur should be allowed to remain in office, some leaders of the party would be forced to join other existing parties.

Before the recent outburst, it was common knowledge that there was a cold war between Tukur and Nyako over the control of Adamawa State. Having been elected as the national chairman of the PDP, Tukur has been trying all he can to control the machinery of the party in the state. Tukur’s penchant to dictate the affairs of the party as he wishes has brought him into collision with a number of personalities in the PDP.

Recently, it took the intervention of President Jonathan to force Tukur to rescind the suspension order he placed on the party’s proposed PDP mini convention slated for August 31. The PDP chairman had unilaterally asked the convention committee to stop action on the proposed convention which was agreed upon by the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting in June. The order did not go down well with Jerry Gana, former information minister, who heads the committee and Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president, who is a member of the committee.

While the leaders tried to speak with him on the need to start the process of organising the convention, he shot them down and even screened them off from coming to him until the matter was reported to the president. Prior to the meeting, there was apprehension that the committee might be disbanded and another person chosen as chairman. But at the meeting with the president, Jonathan warned against such a move saying it would not be in the interest of the party. After the president’s meeting with the Tukur-led NWC and the convention committee members, the PDP boss bowed to pressure from Jonathan and inaugurated the convention committee on Wednesday, July 24.

At the inauguration, Tukur called on members of the committee to begin work immediately.  Prior to the inauguration and the meeting with the committee, Tukur, told the press that their disagreement had been resolved and that the resolution of the problems was an indication that the party could always solve its problems. Corroborating Tukur’s statement, Gana said: “I like to confirm that we just concluded a very fruitful, peaceful meeting with the NWC under the able leadership of our chairman and all the issues concerning planning and execution of the special national convention have been fully and properly resolved… We are also delighted that the party has shown that all issues can be resolved.” Since the NEC of the PDP established the planning committee on June 20, there had been a battle of supremacy between the committee members and the Tukur-led NWC, with complaints that Gana and his men were operating as a parallel NWC. Worried about the situation, President Jonathan held a meeting with them three times before he could get Tukur and Gana to sheathe their swords and embrace peace in the interest of the party.

Tukur must, somehow feel vindicated as an Abuja high court on Thursday, July 25, stopped the proposed special convention describing it as “recklessness of a high degree.” The court said the convention, which was slated for August 31, should be put on hold pending the determination of a suit filed by three members of the party, namely Abba Yale, Yahaya Sule and Bashir Maigudu. The plaintiffs had also, in their application filed by Jibrin Okutepa, senior advocate of Nigeria, SAN, asked for an order restraining Tukur from acting as the party’s national chairman.

However, in his ruling on the matter, Suleiman Belgore, the presiding judge, refused to stop Tukur from serving as PDP chairman. He also refused to nullify the appointment of the acting NWC members. Belgore held that the request that Tukur be stopped from acting as national chairman, as well as the demand that the appointment of the acting NWC members be nullified, were not part of the prayers sought by the plaintiffs in their originating summons.

But he ordered the party to refrain from proceeding with the planned special convention, where national officers of the party, are to be elected, in order to “allow sanity to reign.” The judge upheld the plaintiffs’ argument that the plan by the PDP to hold the special convention, even as the suit was pending, was aimed at foisting a fait accompli on the court.

Yale, Sule and Maigudu had gone to court to challenge the “election or appointment” of members of the NWC on the grounds that their emergence breached certain provisions of the PDP constitution. But after most of the NWC members voluntarily resigned, they again asked the court to nullify the appointments of the national officers, whose nominations were ratified at a National Executive Committee meeting of the party on June 20, 2013.

But it looks like it would take more than presidential interference to bring back some leaders of the party to reconcile with Tukur. The weekend of Saturday July 20, to Sunday, July 21, was no doubt a busy moment for five PDP governors. The governors, namely Babangida Aliyu, Niger; Sule Lamido, Jigawa; Aliyu Wamakko, Sokoto; Murtala Nyako, Adamawa and Rabiu Kwankwaso Kano, visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Saturday, July 20 where they held a two-hour discussion with him over the situation in the party. Their mission, it was said, was to get him to return to the party to help resolve its crisis.

On Sunday, July 21, four of the governors took their campaign to Minna, capital of Niger State, where they met with retired generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, former heads of state. Governor Nyako could not attend because he had some urgent matters to attend to in his state. After the meeting, Babangida said: “I want to commend the governors and some of their colleagues. I was very impressed because they have seen the problem of the country as our problem and they have taken the right steps to consult widely in trying to find solution to some of these problems. These governors are real patriots and I am very happy and I told them so.”

But critics of the meetings deduced that the aim of the governors’ visit was to wrestle from Tukur and Jonathan, for the control of the PDP. But that was not the impression created by the governors. Speaking through Ahmed Sajoh, his director of press and public affairs, Nyako said that the governors would “continue to make efforts to save the party. But, if our efforts fail to work out, we have no alternative other than to fold our arms and see PDP dead. We will help in burying it.” That was one of the statements that enraged Tukur and prompted him to ask Nyako to leave the party if he was not happy to remain under the PDP umbrella.

Since assuming office as chairman of the party, last year, Tukur seems to have caused more division than unity in the PDP. At various times, he has been at loggerheads with the party governors. Ahead of the NEC meeting, which he was forced to hold on June 20, President Jonathan had to set up a committee to resolve the crisis bedevilling the party. Having escaped being axed at the NEC meeting, some party members say he is probably scared of losing his position at the mini convention scheduled to hold August 31. If and when Tukur is eventually removed, he will not be the first. Former President Obasanjo had done a similar thing with those he had supported to occupy the position in the past. Solomon Lar, the first national chairman of the party from 1998 to 1999, was unceremoniously removed by the president and replaced with Barnabas Gemade, who served from 1999 to 2001, when he lost in the power struggle in which Obasanjo ditched him. Audu Ogbeh, who succeeded him in office, lasted for about four years when his criticism of Obasanjo’s handling of Anambra State crisis forced out of office in January 2005. Ogbeh was succeeded by Ahmadu Ali, a retired colonel in 2005. His tenure lasted until 2010 when Okwesilieze Nwodo, former governor of Enugu State, was elected in 2010. His tenure was brief because of his disagreement with Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State. He was replaced by Vincent Ogbulafor, former national secretary of the party. He was forced to resign from office by the then acting President Jonathan for daring to suggest that it was the turn of the North to produce the next president. He was eventually taken to court for corrupt practices while he was a minister. But when the same fate which saw the back of past national chairmen of the party would fall on Tukur is what everyone seems to be anticipating now.

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