More trouble for PDP

FIDELIS SORIWEI writes that the Peoples Democratic Party has continued to seek a solution to calm the frayed nerves in the South-West and the North-East over the violation of the party’s zoning arrangement by the election of the new Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal of the House of Representatives and his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha.

The initial response of the South-West chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party to the loss of the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives was disbelief and smouldering silence. But the region didn’t need to wait for too long to look inward for a response to the Tambuwal challenge. The region, which has produced a president, several Representatives and other top public office holders in the past, has since come to the bitter realisation that the required balm for the theft of the speakership position from the zone may not come without some steps. Members of the PDP in strategic positions from the zone have since come to the realisation that silence was not the preferred option in the perceived relegation of the zone to political irrelevance in the current administration.

On Monday, some top officials of the PDP in the six states making up the South-West geopolitical zone, comprising party chairmen and secretaries, protested the loss of the position of the Speaker to the North-West at the Presidency. The state chairmen and secretaries from the South-West PDP are insisting on getting the position of the Speaker in accordance with the erstwhile decision of the PDP to zone the number four position in the land to the area. The aggrieved PDP members were said to have expressed their determination to go for the lost position originally zoned to the South-West in the meeting with the Vice-President, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, and the acting PDP chairman, Alhaji Haliru Mohammed in Abuja.

The secretary of the Oyo State PDP chapter, Alhaji Bashiru Akanbi, restated the opposition of the South-West to the circumstances that threw up Tambuwal as the Speaker. Akanbi said the South-West would resist attempts to sideline it in the distribution of political offices in the country.

Akanbi and his group, who insisted on zoning and the enforcement of party discipline, were even optimistic that the South-West would retrieve the position from the North-West. What he didn’t say was how the enraged region would work out the solution that would lead to the retrieval of the prized position from the talons of the North-West.

Although, the leadership of the PDP had accepted the profuse apologies tendered by Tambuwal and Ihedioha, there are indications that Tambuwal’s revolt has caused serious harm to the internal unity and cohesion of the party. An investigation by SATURDAY PUNCH showed that things were no longer at ease within the membership of the National Working Committee of the party. Interactive sessions with top politicians from the South-West and the North-East, the two zones which were adversely affected by the violation of the PDP zoning formula, showed that the two zones were locked in a fierce contest for the position of the next national chairman of the party. Like the South-West, which lost the position of Speaker to the North-West, the North-East also lost the position of deputy Speaker to the South-East.

The two zones are locked in a festering contest for the position of the national chairman of the PDP, which they insist is the biggest available position that can make some difference in the search for fairness in the distribution of political offices to the South-West or the North-East. A member of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, captured the dilemma of the ruling party when he said that while the South-West was moving to produce the next national chairman of the party, it was also very important that the North-East, which also suffered losses in the power equation in the country, was settled.

“I know that the Presidency and the NWC of the party will have effective answers to the strange development in the House of Representatives. I know that the South-West will not be left in the political lurch by the party’s leadership,” he had said.

Another top member of the NWC from the South-West, who made comments but preferred to remain anonymous, argued that a critical look at the distribution of political offices put the South-West in a stronger position to bid for the position of national chairman of the PDP. The source said that he had his strong doubts that the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, would support zoning the position of the national chairman of the party to the North-East in view of the fact that several core positions in the country had been taken over by the North. Going by his argument, it would not be on the side of reason and fairness for the North, which has produced the vice-president, the Senate president and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to get the office of the national chairman of the party. The source said that the South-West had a strong argument because the South had only produced the President and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who is an appointee of the President. He denied reports that the President and governors of the North-East were gunning for the candidacy of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the next chairman of the party. To him, age was not on the side of Tukur as a younger politician would be preferable to take over the responsibility of running the party.

It was his contention that the PDP and the Federal Government had a massive responsibility to work towards repositioning the South-West by giving strategic and influential political positions to the zone. He argued that removing all such appointments from the area was not in the party’s interest as it would bring no good but kill the party in the face of the emergent threat from opposition parties, especially the Action Congress of Nigeria.

“I don’t know; nobody is sure of the arrangement that the President and the North-East governors are planning to make Bamanga Tukur the next chairman of the party. I’m not aware. I really don’t know because the South-West and the North-East are the two zones that have been deprived of what was given to them by the rebellion in the House of Representatives. The issue of distribution of political offices between the North and the South is a strong argument. It is a strong argument; it means you are giving all the core offices to the North because if you take a look at it, the North has the vice-president, the Senate president and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. It is a strong argument; the North would have taken everything.

“The South has nothing apart from producing the President. The SGF is just a part of the Presidency. The BOT is an advisory body; it is the conscience of the party. The NWC is the highest political head of the party. Anything BOT is advisory. It does not take decision for the party. It does not organise election for the party. Obasanjo does not attend any of the National Executive Committee meetings. Decision making is headed by the NWC of the party. If you take everything away from the South-West, you are relinquishing the South-West to the ACN. You need positions to be given to them, if you scheme then out completely; you are killing the party in the South-West. They voted strongly for Jonathan; it won’t be right to take away everything from them.”

But the National Vice-Chairman of the PDP for the North-East, Chief Paul Wampana, disagreed with the position of the PDP stalwarts from the South-West that the North-East should cede the position of the national chairman to the South-West. He said that it would only be proper and fair for the North-East to which the position was allegedly zoned before the Reps’ revolted and gave the position to another zone. He argued that it would be unreasonable to appoint a national chairman of South-West extraction for the PDP. His contention was that while it was on record that the South-West voted en masse for the President, the party is nonexistent in the South-West, having suffered an excruciating defeat in the hand of the ACN in the April polls. Wampana, a pioneer speaker of the old Gongola State House of Assembly, said that while the Presidency could give consolatory appointments to the South-West, it would be wrong for a zone which did not vote for the PDP to produce the party’s leader.

“Now, we know and the whole country knows that both the North-East and the South-West have been left empty. This is a statement of fact. It is also a statement of fact that the South-West voted for the President but did not vote for the PDP in the last election. It is also a statement of fact that the North-East voted for the PDP. When there are patronages from the Presidency, the South-West can make claim from the President. The North-East can lay claim to the leadership of the PDP because they voted for the PDP,” he said.

With the seemingly extreme positions taken by key political figures from the South-West and the North-East on the issue of the next national chairman of the party, the PDP is confronted with a serious internal rift, strong enough to threaten the existence of the party. Perhaps the desperation to wriggle free from these ominous challenges forced the NWC of the party to constitute a four-man committee to look into the emergent challenges and proffer the needed solution to the problem created by Tambuwal’s emergence as Speaker of the House of Representatives.