By Willy Eya

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere, the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

For those conversant with recent events in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), perhaps, the above stanza of the poem, “The Second Coming” by the Irish poet, W. B. Yeats, is the only way to capture the current mood in the main opposition party once touted as the biggest in Africa. Last Saturday, May 21, the protracted cold war among power brokers in the party boiled over when the two factions of PDP held their National Convention simultaneously in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

For critical observers, it was the climax of the intrigues, horse trading, power tussle, mudslinging, battle for survival and even drama that played out ahead of the convention.   While one faction led by former Minister of Information, Jerry Gana, held its convention in Abuja, the other headed by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, the embattled former party’s national chairman organised its own at the Sharks stadium, Port Harcourt.

And as the battle raged, the two factions claimed ownership of the soul of the party which, until the 2015 general election dominated the nation’s political landscape like a colossus. On Friday, May 20, all efforts to reconcile the two factions under one umbrella failed as former PDP governors and ex-ministers rejected an aircraft sent to them by Senator Sheriff to convey them from Abuja to Port Harcourt for the convention.

It was reported that the plane was sent to the former governors and other anti-Sheriff PDP leaders with the aim of truncating the parallel convention planned for Abuja. But when effort to appease the Gana group failed, Senator Modu Sheriff and his supporters called their bluff and headed for Port Harcourt for the national convention. And before the table turned against Sheriff, the calculation was that the real power base of the party would be in Port Harcourt as all the 12 elected governors, National Assembly members, State Assembly members and key leaders supported the Port Harcourt convention.

But members of the Gerry Gana faction would have none of that and their argument was that even though majority of those with Sheriff are currently serving in government, many of them do not even know the history of the party as they were not there when the PDP was being formed.

Then, the takeaways of the power game that played out before, during and after the convention.

Friday May 20

It was a long and eventful Friday. That day, Justice Muhammed Idris of the Federal High Court, Lagos ordered members of the PDP not to take any action that would void the proceedings of the court on the issue of the parallel convention.

Also, Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos on the same Friday refused to vacate the order not to conduct election into the offices of the National Chairman, National Secretary and National Auditor.

However, even with the restraining order of the court, and insinuations that the convention was not going to hold, Senator Sheriff and his perceived supporters had assured majority of the delegates, who were already in Port Harcourt that the event would go on.

After a short meeting at the Rivers State Government House that night, the Chairman of the PDP National Convention Planning Committee and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, had declared that the 2016 convention would go on as scheduled.

He said though there were two conflicting court orders on the conduct of the National Convention, lawyers of the party had filed stay of execution processes and appealed both orders, hence the party had not disobeyed any subsisting order. He noted that under legal procedures, once a court order is timeously challenged, an affected party could not be said to have disobeyed any order.

Addressing newsmen at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Friday night, Governor Wike said that the national convention in the Garden City was the only one recognised by law. He said the parallel convention being talked about had no place in the party structure, as it had no connection to the legally constituted organs of the party.

He explained that the Port Harcourt convention of the party was the only one recognised by law because it was approved by all the organs of the party. According to him, the National Working Committee, NWC, the Board of Trustees, the National Executive Committee and the Governors Forum upheld that the convention be held.

The press conference had Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state, David Umahi of Ebonyi State and the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio in attendance.

So, after the briefing, it seemed that all was set for the convention.

Saturday, May 21

On the day of the convention proper, as early as 9 am, the Sharks stadium venue of the event was already filled to the brim. Delegates and members of the party from different states in their PDP regalia trooped to the venue.

Getting into the venue of the event was literally like a sheep passing through the eye of a needle. It was obvious that Sharks Stadium was too small for the convention, as members of the PDP came in their numbers.

The security personnel commandeered to control the crowd of supporters had an uphill task, carrying out their duties. Some people, including journalists who came to cover the event sustained injuries in the melee.

But it was not long before rumour filtered in that the convention had been cancelled and that Senator Sheriff would be addressing the media to that effect at the Le Meridian Hotel, Port Harcourt.

It was later that people knew that Sheriff pulled a fast one on the party. Initially, many believed that the conference was the decision of the party leaders but it did not take long before the whole truth unfolded.

Addressing the media, Sheriff had said: “The challenges are that the courts have stopped our convention from taking place. After due consideration of the numerous issues and special circumstances confronting our dear party, taking into account the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to supervise the election into the office of the chairman, secretary and auditor based on the order of the court and in respect of the account that our party is responsible, law abiding with high respect for the judiciary and courts, we do hereby put off the National Convention from taking place.

“We will suspend it until when all the court cases have been resolved. The issues are so many. We have about two different court cases. From Abuja where they say that the 17 working committee members’ tenure have not expired. It will be expiring in 2017. There is another one in Lagos which says that the tenure of the chairman and secretary will expire in 2018. And INEC also wrote that they would not supervise the election in Port Harcourt. Taking into consideration all these, if we go out and conduct election in Port Harcourt, the National Working Committee of the party(NWC) would be charged for contempt of court. We asked for stay of proceeding in Lagos yesterday but the court denied us that also.

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Immediately he finished with the conference, the embattled PDP chairman left for Abuja in a private jet.

Game not over

All the stakeholders of the party, who were in the Rivers State capital did not want to leave without a major decision that would be to the best interest of the future of the party. The stakeholders included all the PDP governors, former PDP governors, former Senate President, David Mark, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu,  the Senate  Minority Leader , Godswill Akapbio, among other prominent members of the party.

Even though many had supported Sheriff initially but when it became obvious that his candidature was not going to fly, they decided to ditch him to move forward. When the embattled chairman got wind of it, he quickly arranged a press conference to postpone the convention. So, while Sheriff was proclaiming postponement of the convention, governors, party leaders and delegates were assembled at the Sharks Stadium where they dissolved the National Working Committee and announced the composition of a National Caretaker Committee headed by former Kaduna State governor, Senator Ahmed Markafi, and Senator Ben Obi, who would serve as the Secretary.

The motion to sack the national officers  of  the party,   was  moved  by the  former Deputy Speaker of the  House of Representatives, Austin  Opara, and was seconded  by the  former Speaker of the  House of Representatives, Emeka  Ihedioha.

But the motion to set up the Committee was moved by the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill  Akpabio,  and seconded  by  the Governor of  Gombe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo.  The  seven-member  Caretaker  Committee  was tasked to organise a convention  within 90 days,  and work toward  reconciling all the feuding  members  of  the party.  The committee was immediately sworn in to commence work.

Another  major decision  taken at the convention was zoning  of   the presidential candidate  of  the party  for  2019  general elections to  the  North. The former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliu moved  the motion,  while the Delta State governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa seconded  it.

In his acceptance speech, Senator Markafi, who expressed surprise at the appointment, pledged to work for the sake of the unity and progress of the party.

Many had thought that the setting up of the Caretaker Committee would assuage the feelings of the Gerry Gana-led group but it did not. Members of his group who opted for a non-elective national convention, said the decision fell short of their expectation.

Co-chairman of the forum, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, who addressed the press Saturday night said: ”There is a body that is constitutionally mandated to take over the affairs of the party. And that body is the conscience of the party called BoT. The stakeholders had already set up a 57-member steering committee to run the affairs until the court order is vacated and proper convention conducted to elect officials of the party.

According to Mantu: “After watching events at Port Harcourt convention, it is necessary for us to react to some of the things we saw there. “First and foremost, we want to thank our members throughout the nation for giving us support that has actually led us to achieve some of the goals we have set for ourselves.

“We were opposed to the zoning and indeed the zoning has been cancelled or set aside. We are also opposed to the convention taking place and the convention did not take place courtesy of the court.

“Again, we were opposed to the way the congresses have been conducted, that they fell short of our expectations; now these congresses and conventions have been set aside. This group can confidently say that we have achieved all the targets we set out to achieve.”

But analysts argue that with the emergence of a caretaker committee in Port Harcourt and 57-member steering committee in Abuja, the party is still far from achieving the kind of harmonisation of interests required for it to go into the next general elections as one house.

Sheriff fights back

As it appears, the PDP may not have seen the last of the Borno State governor with him still claiming he remained the national chairman of the party even when the NWC that he led had been dissolved.

Inuwa Bwala, the spokesperson for Mr. Sheriff, reportedly told the media on Saturday that his boss remained opposed to what happened at the Port Harcourt convention, since he had announced its suspension after consulting with members of the NWC. His words: “Immediately the chairman (Sheriff) received another court injunction, he called a meeting of the National Working Committee and told them that it wasn’t safe to continue with the convention of the party, especially since the court had forbidden elections virtually into all the offices.

“He announced the suspension of the convention at a press briefing, only for some people to go behind and claim that there was convention.“There was no organ of the party that was represented at the convention.

“The convention was cancelled, and it remains cancelled until such a time the matters in court are resolved, for us to convene another national convention.”

Mr. Bwala said Mr. Sheriff remained the national chairman of the PDP, going by the pronouncement of the court.

On Sunday, May 22, heavily armed policemen took over the premises of the PDP when news filtered in that Sheriff and his supporters would storm the place to continue to lay claim to the office. Five police vehicles, comprising two trucks and two pick up vans blocked access on both ends of the street directly in front of the secretariat.

Permutations

With the unfolding drama in the PDP, all manner of permutations are currently in the public domain. Many believe that at the periphery, it is a battle among the power brokers in the party to take over the structure but there are those who insist that the whole drama is geared toward 2019.

Some say Sheriff is struggling to position himself for the next presidential election while others say he is a mole planted by President Buhari’s core supporters to ensure that his reelection would be smooth in 2019.

In all of this, it is difficult to pin down the reason or reasons causing the crises in PDP but the truth is that all is not yet well with the main opposition party. Only time would tell what would be the future of the party.