By Ismail Omipidan, Lagos and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Historically, apart from Dr. Ahmadu Ali, no national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ever served out his four-year tenure. Ironically too, no chairman has ever challenged the party’s authority to remove him, the way Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is doing today.
Sheriff, like two previous chairmen of the party, came in as a joiner; yet, beat two other founding members of the party to emerge chairman, after the 2015 polls that saw to the exit of the party’s erstwhile “Game Changer,” Alhaji Adamu Muazu.
According to one of the National Executive Council (NEC), members, who incidentally, is a former governor, on the day NEC voted Sheriff as the acting chairman, he (NEC member), had no idea that Sheriff was in the race. “It was when we got to the hall, that we were told that the former Borno State governor was in the race,” he told Daily Sun.
And with 69 votes, beating four other aspirants, Sheriff emerged acting chairman, amid protest from other party stakeholders, who were opposed to his emergence. In spite of his ratification by the organs of the party, critical stakeholders, including former ministers, led by Tanimu Turaki, SAN, and other leaders, were vehemently opposed to his emergence.
For instance, barely a week after his emergence, a group, known as PDP Rescue Group, which comprises notable leaders of the party, most of whom were foundation members, described Sheriff’s emergence as a “disappointment to the PDP.”
The group, comprising former President of the Senate, Adolphus Wabara, former governor of old Gongola State, Ambassador Wilberforce Juta, and former deputy governor of Sokoto State, Mukhtar Shagari, among others, said that the party at the time needed someone with an “impeccable character,” adding that “the current leadership crisis is a challenge to every Nigerian.
By acts of error of judgment as being witnessed now, PDP is denying Nigeria of a strong opposition party that is badly needed if Nigeria’s democracy is to be strengthened and all tendencies towards civilian dictatorship checked.
“The crisis must challenge all party members to action to halt the party from further drift. The plan of PDP Rescue Group is to mobilise party members and leaders to help attain this noble goal,” Juta, who had read the text of the group’s position, said.
The group went further: “We are upset by the decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party in appointing Senator Ali Modu Sherrif as the new National Chairman of the party. We are convinced that this decision by the NEC is against the will and wish of the generality of faithful members.
“We know for a fact the North-East zonal wing, having been directed by the National Caucus of the party to forward nominees from the zone, did not nominate Senator Sheriff for the position of National Chairman.
“In the interest of the PDP and the country, Sheriff should do the needful by stepping down honourably as it is evident that party members nationwide overwhelmingly reject his imposition. The PDP Rescue Group is calling for early congresses and National Convention to elect party leaders as the term of the current leadership is due to end in March 2016. We want to warn that under no guise should the tenure of the current leadership of the party be extended, if we must make the needed fresh beginning.”
Peace deal
After all the controversies and media war, a peace deal was reached, which saw the critical stakeholders of the party, agreeing that Sheriff would spend just three months, organise convention, and leave in May, 2016. Sheriff, Daily Sun learnt, agreed to the peace deal and in fact even said so at different fora that he would neither seek the chairmanship of the party, nor stay a day beyond the three months deal, secured for him.
However, shortly before the convention, Sheriff, again, with the backing of Governors Ayodele Fayose and Nyesome Wike of Ekiti and Rivers states respectively, began plotting to run for the chairmanship. And by the time the whistle for the convention proper was blown, he emerged the sole candidate for the contest.
But the convention did not eventually hold, as Sheriff, apparently sensing that the rug might be pulled off his feet, hurriedly called off the convention. However, the other stakeholders went ahead with the convention, and appointed a caretaker committee, led by Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi. Since then the party has never known.
Implications
Ironically, even Sheriff’s position as chairman of the party, needed to be ratified by a convention of the party, since he came in by appointment, not through election. However, no convention has been held since his appointment as acting chairman, about a year ago. Also, since Muazu, was appointed in 2014, to complete Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s tenure, which ought to have ended in 2016, and since Sheriff was appointed to complete Muazu’s tenure too, technically, Sheriff’s tenure, should have ended by 2106, regardless of how he came in.
Besides, the FCT High court, presided over by Justice Valentine Ashi, had in June 2016, nullified the amended PDP constitution, a provision, which incidentally was what the party leaders had relied on to appoint both Muazu and Sheriff, into the chairmanship position, in an acting capacity. Daily Sun gathered that till date, that judgment is yet to be challenged by Sheriff. And by implication, the said judgment renders invalid the decision reached at the 68th NEC meeting of the party, where Sheriff emerged as acting chairman,
Sheriff reacts
On his part, Sheriff, while explaining how he emerged the national chairman of the party, said: “If you don’t understand the organs of the party, there is nothing like former ministers’ forum. In any case, they were not the ones that brought me in as national chairman. I became national chairman through due process. The NEC met and through voting, I got about 69 votes. There were four other aspirants. I am in touch with the governors, making consultations on how to hold credible convention and elect new officers of the party.
“As the national chairman, I have not called for any meeting. I am making consultations; I will only call for a meeting after the consultations. I have said on Saturday, that there is no sacrifice that is too big to make for the party. I want to believe that at my level, I can’t make statements that cannot be justified. I always act within the rule of law. As of today, since the judgment, I have spoken to seven governors, members of BoT and their views tally with mine. You can’t step down without a convention. The sacrifice I am talking about making is that I don’t intend to run the tenure prescribed for me.
“If I am a mole, he (Wike) was among those who asked me to come and be the party’s national chairman. He invited me thinking I would take instructions from him.”
New twist
There are strong indications that the ruling All Progressives Congress Party (APC), may have infiltrated the rank of the PDP, thereby fuelling the crisis within the party to its advantage. And those who hold this view are quick to point out how police disrupted the party’s convention in Port-Harcourt, how it sealed off the party’s secretariat and the latest sealing off of the International Conference Centre, where the Makarfi-led group was billed to hold an emergency meeting on Monday, to buttress their position.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, on his part, while bemoaning the sealing off of their meeting venue on Monday, described the development as the “manipulation of vital institutions of democracy and radical decline of democratic freedoms in Nigeria.”
Insisting that their group remains the real PDP, Ekweremadu said the solidarity of all key organs and bodies of the party, towards the Makarfi-led PDP National Caretaker Committee, despite the recent judgment of the Court of Appeal on the party’s leadership tussle, showed that “it is not the hood that makes the monk.”
Speaking during the PDP National Stakeholders meeting, which held at the Ekiti State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, on Monday, the Deputy President of the Senate, said: “We are aware that all the institutions of democracy are being manipulated and harassed in this country. The National Assembly and the press are not left out.
“The INEC has been captured and now a part of the APC. Our judiciary is being insulted and assaulted every day. Their houses are being attacked very late at night and the judges are being harassed. So, we are not surprised at what we are seeing today (sealing of meeting venue). But what remains is for us to remain resolute.
“If you look around this room, you will see a lot of people who are being harassed, persecuted, and taken to court. What is their offence? They claim they allegedly received stolen property, yet nobody has been arraigned for the actual stealing. As a lawyer, I know that if you are being arraigned for receiving stolen property, you must first of all arraign the man who stole the property. That is not so in our own case. Is that democracy?
“We have heard there was a judgment in Port Harcourt. Now, those who benefitted from the judgment, where are they? Are they with our former ministers? Are they with our National Assembly members? Are they with our governors? Which organ of the party are they with or is with them? The truth is that it is not the hood that makes the monk. I therefore call on all PDP faithful to remain strong as the party would work with Nigerians to restore true democracy and hope to our people. I believe that with determination and sticking together, we will triumph and Nigeria will be better for it.”
Last line
The way things stand, it appears it would be difficult for the larger PDP, led by Makarfi to get Sheriff out of its way. If it will ever happen, it will certainly not be with the same ease, with which Tukur and Muazu were eased out.