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."
-PUNCH
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