New Ruling Party Dispute Over North-South Power Sharing

Chuks Okocha and Olawale Olaleye in Lagos

16 May 2011

The zoning arrangement recently approved by the expanded national caucus of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be tearing the party apart as members and groups are kicking against it.

Those opposed to the arrangement are asking that the party’s stakeholders should be allowed to choose their leaders in a process that is devoid of imposition.

Also, some high-ranking members of the party in the South-west have initiated moves to check the domineering role of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the affairs of the party in the zone.

The party members taking the leadership to task over the zoning arrangement, THISDAYâ€Ë,gathered, held a series of meetings at the weekend.

The meetings were aimed at either truncating the zoning formula or modifying it altogether.

At the National Working Committee (NWC) level, it was gathered that those aspiring to become national chairman of the party are campaigning that the office be thrown open to allow members interested to contest, instead of ceding it to the North-east geo-political zone of the country.

Meanwhile, some members of the party from the South-east, in conjunction with some of their colleagues from the North-west, are pushing ahead in their quest to produce speaker of the House of Representatives in the next dispensation.

As they dig further in their quest, their counterparts in the senate are working on their support for the retention of the senate presidency

in the North-central zone of the party and the South-east retaining the deputy senate presidency.

However, some politicians have equally stood their ground, moving for the retention of the national chairmanship position in the South-east, but top members of the NWC are kicking against this, insisting that the position be reserved for the North, since the President is already from the South.

Specifically, it was gathered that some NWC members of the party who have an ambition to become the national chairman are against the zoning of the office of the national chairman to the North-east.

THISDAY further gathered that within the PDP’s NWC, some members of the party from the Northern part of the country are excited by the ceding of the chairmanship of the party to their zone, but want it open to all so that members can freely run for it.

This group is also canvassing that the Acting National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Harilu Mohammed Bello, be gloriously eased out of the race, by allowing him to pick an ambassadorial posting in any country of his choice.

They cited the case of former national chairman of the party, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, who was given ambassadorial posting to South Africa, but which he later rejected. The party, in its last week’s zoning formula, gave the office to the North-eastern part of the country.

With the zoning of the office of the national chairman to the North-east, members of the party’s national caucus, other pressure groups and stakeholders have commenced the search for a national chairman that would unite the party against the emerging opposition in the North.

Over the weekend, several groups and members of the national caucus of the party were locked in meetings listing qualities of a new national chairman that would emerge at the party’s forth-coming national convention.

Alhaji Abdulrazaq Bello of the PDP National Transformation Network and Hajia Halima Alfa of the PDP national caucus who spoke to THISDAY after their various meetings, said the next national chairman of the party must have the leadership capacity to unite members of the party.

“We are just out of a national election with its attendant crisis; the next national chairman must be one that possesses the qualities of a father to unite the PDP. We are facing stiff opposition in the North and the next chairman must be one that will wield the big stick, where necessary.

“Our next chairman from the North-east must be one that will not be a distraction to the President; he must be one that will have the quality to hold the party firmly to enable the President to perform his duties, and not a distraction. We are searching for a national chairman that will not see money and faint”, Halima Alfa said.

In his position, Bello said, “now that the office of the national chairman has been zoned to the North-east, we have focused our search light on leaders with political guts that can move the party forward from the present disposition.

“The challenge of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the North is real. Therefore what we need as a party is a national chairman with the political will and sagacity that would instill discipline and internal democracy into PDP,” he said.

He also said that “series of meetings and consultations are on going on the search for a credible national chairman and very soon after our consultations with President Goodluck Jonathan we shall let members of PDP know who we are supporting.”

He explained that in their meeting, three names were been pencilled down, but the names would be made known after due consultations with the President.

PDP is expected to hold a national convention early next year to choose members of the National Working Committee (NWC).

Meanwhile, some high-ranking members of the party in the South-west, composed of former ministers, lawmakers among others, are determined to end what they described as “Obasanjo’s years of absolutism.”

A source privy to some of the meetings of the party members informed THISDAY at the weekend that the aggrieved members are already putting together a team to reposition the party to give members a sense of belonging and ensure equity, justice and fairness in the affairs of the party.

He said the party members were no longer comfortable with Obasanjo’s leadership style which they said led to various crises in the state chapters of the party in the zone that led to a dismal outing for the party in the last general elections.

The PDP members, the source said, were worried that Obasanjo’s recent disposition had not shown that he had learnt anything from the party’s poor showing at the elections.

The members, the source said, would meet Jonathan soon on how he could help in checking Obasanjo’s overbearing posture in the party.

Jonathan, they said, has to choose between them and the former president

.Another source said the hardline posture they adopted had become imperative because Jonathan had appeared indifferent to their plight, adding that as stakeholders, they can no longer stand by and watch Obasanjo dictate to them to the detriment of the party.

They accused Obasanjo of being behind the zone’s nomination of Hon. Muraina Ajibola for speakership of the House of Representatives, a choice they said was unpopular among the lawmakers.

The party member recalled that the same thing happened in 2007 when Obasanjo, along with others, tried to impose Hon. Oluwole Oke on the House to replace former Speaker, Hon. Patricia Etteh.

He said Obasanjo had, at a meeting with lawmakers from the zone in Abuja, directed other candidates to step down for Oke.

He also said the outgoing Speaker, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, refused and had barely justified his reason when the Clerk of the House came to announce to the meeting that the House in session was waiting for the party’s nominee.

“As they all rushed to the floor, expecting others to back down for Oke, Bankole differed and insisted he was interested in the speakership and immediately, lawmakers from other parts of the country supported him in protest against Obasanjo’s imposition. That was how Dimeji became speaker against Obasanjo’s candidate. The same thing will play out again, if this is not properly managed,” the source said.

In the meantime, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Ghana, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, has dismissed a report that he had concluded plans to defect to the Action Congress of Nigeria.

In a statement he personally signed, Obanikoro said the report was an ill-timed distraction that failed to achieve its target objective.

“As a loyal party member, not only have I continued to stand by my party, PDP, at all times, I am currently the nation’s High Commissioner to Ghana. So, I make bold to say that the story is a figment of the imagination of the writer and his sponsors. I know nothing about it and I dissociate myself completely from it,” Obanikoro said.

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