THE Peoples Democratic Party is embroiled in a fresh crisis over who leads the former ruling party, The PUNCH learnt on Tuesday.
The PDP, after 16 years in power, lost
the 2015 general elections amid internal crisis, at the peak of which
five of its governors defected to the then opposition All Progressives
Congress, which eventually won the presidential election.
The latest crisis has its roots in the
desire by the North to regain the chairmanship of the PDP, barely three
months after Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu resigned from the position.
Mu’azu,
from Bauchi State, had resigned from the party’s chairmanship on the
heels of its abysmal performance in the 2015 polls thus paving way for
his deputy, Uche Secondus, from Rivers State, to assume office as acting
national chairman since June.
A former aide of ex-President Goodluck
Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, however stormed the Wadata House headquarters of
the PDP in Abuja on Tuesday and asked Secondus to vacate the seat.
Gulak said he wanted to take over the seat though sources said he was fronting for certain northern interest.
He was on the entourage of a former
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Bala Mohammed, to Ado
Ekiti about two weeks ago, where Mohammed had gone to ask for Governor
Ayodele Fayose’s support to become the PDP national chairman.
Fayose, however told the ex-FCT minister
that it was the turn of the South-West to produce the chairman of the
PDP at the national level.
The Ekiti governor said Mohammed should
go to his ward and start rebuilding the party, saying there was no need
for a substantive national chairman now and that Secondus should be
allowed to finish Mu’azu’s tenure, which should end in March 2016.
The former FCT minister, also from the
same Bauchi State like Mu’azu, had told Fayose that he merely wanted to
complete the former national chairman’s tenure.
Gulak told journalists on Tuesday that
he had informed members of the National Working Committee of the PDP
that Secondus should leave office immediately.
He said he had submitted a letter to the
NWC, informing the members that another person from the North-East
should replace Mu’azu.
He said, “My visit was to bring in
writing to the notice of the party my intention to replace the former
National Chairman of the party, after his voluntary resignation”.
“As a member, and by virtue of the
constitution, I know there’s a vacancy. So it needs to be filled and I’m
here to fill it. We need vibrant, bold and courageous leadership in
PDP.
“The resignation of the former chairman
was done voluntarily. And maybe due to the disastrous outing of the
party in the last elections, he decided to resign as a man who wants to
take responsibility for his actions
“The position of the constitution is
that when a principal officer of the party resigns, the replacement
should come from the zone from which the former person had come.”
He berated the Governor of Ekiti State,
Mr. Ayodele Fayose, for suggesting that the South-West should produce
the next national chairman of the party, saying that the governor must
be ignorant of the party’s constitution.
He said, “Fayose should avail his mind
to the provisions of the party’s constitution. This, if he had, he
should have known that a replacement for the resigned chairman should
come from the North-East. I didn’t say so, the party’s constitution did.
“If the National Secretary had resigned, then it would have been natural for the successor to come from the South-West.”
He denied being pushed by any interest
group to raise the dust, saying that “I believe that I’m enough a force
in this party to push myself.”
But, the party’s National Secretary,
Prof. Wale Oladipo, while reacting to the Gulak’s “letter”, said
Jonathan’s former special adviser on political matters was ignorant of
the workings of the party.
Oladipo denied seeing Gulak at the party’s secretariat let alone receiving any letter from him.
He said, “Gulak should know that the
current acting chairman is not leading a Caretaker Committee, and the
constitution provides that he, being the Deputy National Chairman,
should assume office in the event that the chairman is not there.
“And there is no time limit for such a
situation as this. So, there is no vacancy for anybody to come and
occupy until the NEC decides on what to do at a congress.
“Gulak is a lawyer, and so is the acting
National Chairman; and they both, I believe, should be conversant with
the party’s constitution.
“The NWC is not afraid to hold NEC
meeting. We just lost an election. It is not our character to lose
election. This is the first time we are losing election.
“We need to look at how we got it wrong and where we erred. We have been meeting regularly, consulting with stakeholders.
“We don’t call NEC for the sake of NEC.
We are waiting for the Ike Ekweremadu committee to submit its report. We
have had two NEC meetings before now and we are supposed to meet
again.”
The PDP National Legal Adviser, Mr.
Victor Kwon, also said there was no time limit for Secondus to remain at
the head of the party.
He cited relevant sections of the party’s constitution to buttress the NWC position.
He said, “Section 47(6) of the party’s
constitution enables the NEC to, in the event of any vacancy, nominate
somebody to occupy the position. And there is really no time limit under
second 45 (2) where an acting national chairman may cease to act.
“So, it is still within the
constitutional provision that the acting national chairman continues in
his capacity until a congress is called by the NEC and a nomination is
made thereto.”
Also, the PDP National Publicity
Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, said the party’s NWC was waiting for the
Ekweremadu-led Committee’ report before it could call for a NEC meeting.
“We are waiting for Ekweremadu-led
committee report to know the next step to take. The decision to either
make an appointment from anywhere lies with the NEC,” Metuh added.
Others jostling for the PDP national
chairman job are Prof. Ahmed Alkali, a former special adviser on
political affairs to Jonathan; former Minister of State for Power,
Mohammed Wakil; and PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Jalo
Abdullahi.
It was gathered that some northerners are of the opinion that the PDP is now becoming a regional party.
A chieftain of the party from the
North-West, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent
that “the composition of the party, it’s management, it’s actions are
anti-North.”
The source added, “When the former
National Chairman of the party, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor resigned, they
quickly replaced him with Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo.
“But now, they are dragging their feet
when it is our turn to replace the chairman that came from the North and
left. These are part of the crises that caused the party to lose the
last general elections.”
The PDP has only two governors from the entire 19 states of the North.
The states are Kogi and Gombe.
Governorship election is to hold in Kogi
State on November 21, while the APC is contesting the result of the
last governorship election result in Gombe State.
Meanwhile, the party has said it will not discipline Gulak and others who have been agitating for the removal of Secondus.
Metuh, who stated this in an interview
with our correspondent in Abuja, said that the former presidential aide
remained a respected member of the party.
Metuh said, “We are not going to
discipline him. Why are we going to do that? He is a respected member of
the party. He has paid his dues and he remains a staunch member of the
party.
“We respect his view as well because
he’s just expressing his fundamental human right. The only thing is that
we are always encouraging our members to follow the right channel of
communication.
“But to think that we are going to
sanction him or anyone asking for this, we won’t. We would only ask them
to use the right form of communication.”
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