It has been reportedthat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seems to be racing against time ahead of the 2023 presidential election over the lingering crisis between its leadership and some aggrieved governors of the party

The crack in the Peoples Democratic Party ((PDP) has continued to widen despite efforts by some stakeholders of the party to ensure that warring camps close ranks ahead as the clock ticks towards the February 25, 2023 presidential election. The main opposition party has been engulfed in crisis since its May 28 Special National Convention that saw the emergence of a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar as the party’s standard bearer for the 2023 presidential election. Indication that the PDP would witness the seasonal implosion that usually rocks it every general election was clear given the high level politicking that pitted the party’s presidential aspirants against each other during the presidential primary election and claims of financial inducement of delegates.

While all the presidential aspirants pledged to rally behind Atiku and work for the success of the party at the presidential election after the primary election, there is no doubt the PDP has not known peace since then, particularly over Atiku’s choice of Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate and calls by some members of the party for the resignation of the National Chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. Many had thought that the performance of Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, at the shadow election would earn him the party’s vice presidential ticket but that was not to be.

As expected, Atiku’s choice of Delta State governor as running mate over his Rivers State counterpart was greeted by mixed feelings. Wike trailed Atiku at the PDP presidential primary election by 237 votes 371 votes, while a former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, polled 70 votes to place third. To pick a vice presidential candidate, a 17-man panel set-up by the party to advise its leadership and Atiku on the issue and it was reported that 14 members of the panel recommended Wike but Atiku in his wisdom, opted for Okowa, an action that infuriated members of the River governor’s camp.

Whereas some leaders of the PDP initially played down on the rift in their party, it did not take time before the cold war between Atiku and Wike’s camps on one hand, and Wike and Ayu’s camps on another hand, showed that all was not well with the PDP. Since then, Wike’s supporters have continued to insist that Ayu must step down as a condition to resolve the rift with the Rivers State governor and the PDP presidential candidate. According to them, the demand is in line with a pre-convention agreement that he (Ayu) would step down if the party’s presidential candidate emerges from the North.

Wike has the support of four other PDP governors in his push for Ayu to resign. They are Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) but Ayu, on his part, has vowed not to resign. The PDP national chairman at a time described those plotting his removal as children. He added that he was elected based on the laid down rules of the party.

In an interview with the Hausa Service of the BBC, Ayu argued that the candidacy of Atiku does not in any way affect his position as PDP national chairman. He averred that he stood for election, won a four-year term and wondered why some people would be calling for his resignation,when he is yet to spend even a year in office. His words: “I stood for election and I won the election and I am fixing the party, I have not stolen anything, I have not committed any offence, we will not allow one person to come and spoil the party for us with frivolous calls and conditions.

“I was elected as PDP chairman for a four-year term and I’m not up to one year, so the call for my resignation is uncalled for. The election of Abubakar Atiku as the PDP presidential candidate cannot affect my election as national chairman. Even if the candidate is from Benue state, I stood for election and I was voted for by Nigerians,” he said.

When asked if he will yield to the conditions of Wike’s camp in the interest of the party, he said: “All that he is doing does not affect me because I know I am fixing the party, I am doing my work diligently, I have not committed any offense. I have not stolen any money, so there is no reason for my resignation. When we started the PDP, all those ones were children, they were not there, we will not allow one person to become a spoiler.

“This is our country, so all that is expected of us is to fix the country, provide security and dividends of democracy when we take over power in 2023. As expected, Wike fired back at Ayu with a warning that he (the PDP national chairman) might cause the party to lose the 2023 presidential election. He added that those who Ayu described as children brought him from nothing to be chairman of the party.

“You can imagine what power can do. You can imagine how people can be ingrates in their lives. I thought as a chairman of a party, who wants to win elections, your business is to bring peace to your party; your business is not to divide your party.

“Your business is not to show arrogance to your party. Yes, the children brought you to be chairman of the party. The children brought you from the gutter to make you chairman. Ayu, you were impeached as Senate president. Ayu, you were sacked by Obasanjo in his administration. Arrogance cannot take you anywhere. “Now, we have seen that you don’t want the party to win the election. We will help you. These children, these people you call boys, brought you from nothing,” he said.

The Rivers State governor alleged that Ayu doesn’t want to resign because of the billions of naira in the PDP coffers, which was made from the sale of forms during the party’s primary elections.

However, Wike’s insistence that Ayu must go informed Atiku’s meeting with the Rivers governor and key members of his camp in London on August 25. Although details of what transpired were not made public except for pictures that were published by the media, some analysts insisted that peace was still afar. Reasons for the doubt were not farfetched. Wike is not known to be a supporter of the former vice president and has never hidden his indifference to his presidential ambition. It would be recalled that the Rivers governor spearheaded the 2019 onslaught against his presidential ambition by throwing his weight behind Governor Aminu Tambuwal for the PDP ticket although Atiku eventually clinched the Ticket but lost the main election to President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Wike also mobilized whatever he could to stop Atiku in the recent PDP presidential primary election and probably would have succeeded if not for the last minute political horse-trading that saw Tambuwal withdrawing from the contest and backing Atiku. No doubt that the Rivers governor promised to support whoever emerged as PDP’s candidate during the presidential primary election, but he has ruled out such support as long as Ayu remained in office as the party’s national chairman.

Several meetings have been held by the aggrieved PDP governors and the resolutions have always been the same. At one of such meetings at Wike’s Obio-Akpor, Rivers State country home, the G5 governors insisted that there will be no deal with Atiku until Ayu vacates his office to allow for an acting chairman from the South to lead the party.

At the meeting were Governors Wike and Makinde; former governors Jonah Jang (Plateau), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Donald Duke (Cross River); former Deputy National Chairman Chief Olabode George; Senator Garkin Lado, former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker, Prince Chibudum Nwuche, Caleb MutFwang, Senator Sandey Onor and Senator Mao Ohuabunwa. Others were Chief Dan Orbih, David Emmanuel Obugadu, Mohammed Maifada, Senator Suleiman Nazif, Nnenna Elendu Ukeje, former Information Minister Prof Jerry Gana, Bayou Lawal, Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau, Senator Olaka Nwogu, former Justice Minister Mohammed Adoke and Mohammed Jamiu. George, who read their resolution said it amounts to putting the cart before the horse for Atiku to have gone ahead to publish his presidential campaign council list without addressing the structural imbalance in the party. His words: “Senator Iyorchia Ayu must resign as national chairman of the party for an acting chairman of the Southern Nigerian extraction to emerge and lead the party on the national campaign.

Consequently, we resolve not to participate in the campaign council in whatever capacity until the resignation of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.” Jang, who also spoke, accused Ayu of compromising the PDP presidential primary through his conduct. He likened Ayu to a bad referee, who assisted one side to score a goal during a football match and later blew the whistle to end the competition.

Reiterating their support for Wike, the former governor of Plateau State averred that everything the Rivers governor had said on the party’s crisis remained the only truth. “We want to take this opportunity to assure our teeming supporters in the PDP that everything Governor Wike has been saying is not for him as a person. And it is not because he lost the primaries and he was not taken as a vice-presidential candidate as some people are making it look like.

“We are gathered here to assure you that we are in support of what he is saying because he has been saying nothing but the truth. Some of us who are founding members of the PDP know that we formed this party on the principles of fair play and equity. But as you heard from our elder, former military Governor of Ondo State, it is true that everything is being done for us to have internal democracy in the party.

“But for Senator Ayu to go and embrace Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, calling him the hero of the convention, it meant that there was a private arrangement with Tambuwal to shortchange other contestants, including Governor Wike. Here was a referee, who helped one of his sides to score a goal and then blew the whistle. This is not what we formed the PDP to do for Nigerians. “Therefore, we unequivocally ask that Ayu must step down, so that having got the presidential candidate from the northern part of the country through his assistance, he should as well step down so that the national chairman can move to the South so that the party can be united for the campaign towards 2023,” Jang said.

Wike, on his part, seems not only determined to fight to an end but has drawn the battle line by daring the leadership of the PDP to sanction him if it can. The Rivers governor, who was at a time reminded that he faced possible suspension from the PDP over his opposition to the party, said: “Who will suspend me; the party, which party? They can go ahead. I am not saying I am bigger than the party. But those who ran away from the party cannot suspend me from the party. I beg them today and they shouldn’t waste time to tell the governor of Rivers State, you are hereby suspended from the party.

Then, anything you see, you take! They know what I can do. “What I am saying is that if we misuse this opportunity Nigerians are giving us, we will pay dearly for it. For me, everything must be done to make sure the right thing is done for us to get the support of Nigerians. But if we continue this way, we are going for a shocker, and that I can tell you. I believe justice, fairness, and equity should be allowed for our party to progress. That is when our party can stand as a party that wants to take over the reign of affairs of this country.” The Rivers governor also made shocking revelations on the PDP’s presidential primary election, which he lost to Atiku.

He alleged that Ayu played a vital role that was detrimental to other aspirants. According to him, the PDP national chairman not only pressurised several presidential aspirants to step down for Atiku but collected N1 billion from one of them. Their stand, notwithstanding, the G5 governors and their associates (now known as Integrity Group) said they have not shut the window of reconciliation on the crisis rocking the party.

They stated this after a recent meeting in Lagos. Jang, who addressed journalists, however said the group is still insisting on the removal of Ayu as national chairman of the party. “After a careful review of developments in our party, we have decided to stand on the decisions we took in our Port Harcourt meeting. And we hereby reiterate that the window for reconciliation in our great party, PDP, remains open,” he said.

However, Atiku has not only repeatedly told Wike and his allies that he cannot force Ayu out of office, but has continued to urge them to reconsider their stand. “On the calls for the resignation or removal from office of our national chairman, I must reiterate what I have said ‘severally’ in public and in private.

The decision to resign from office is personal to Dr. Ayu and, neither I nor anyone else can make that decision for him. “I will state that as a committed democrat and firm believer in the rule of law and democratic tenets, and our party being one set up, organized and regulated by law and our constitution, it is my absolute belief that everything that we do in our party must be done in accordance with and conformity to the law and our constitution. “

If Dr. Ayu is to be removed from office; it must be done in accordance with the laws that set out the basis for such removal. In any event, you will all recall that the very body that is empowered by law to initiate this removal from office has already passed a vote of confidence in him,” he stated.

While many have kept wondering how PDP intends to win the 2023 presidential election with a divided house, Okowa raised the hope of party faithful and supporters recently, when he hinted that there are efforts to reconcile with the G5 governors. The PDP vice presidential candidate, who disclosed this after a meeting with other South-South PDP governors – Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Godwin Obaseki (Edo) and Douye Diri (Bayelsa) at Government House, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, assured that Atiku and the G5 governors will meet soon.

“We believe that we are one family. There are still issues and they are being attended to. Very soon there will be a meeting between the presidential candidate and the G5 governors. They are part of the family and we are not going to allow them to go,” he emphasised.

So, obviously, everything is being put in place to reconcile all differences and move together as a family.” Okowa’s assurance is on the heels of Wike’s disclosure on Tuesday that he will soon reveal his choice of presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. The Rivers governor, who spoke at the inauguration of the Rukpokwu- Igwuruta link road in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of the state, told his audience to vote for PDP in all the elective positions in the 2023 elections but his choice for president would be made known in due course. The governor added that there is no political party that can win the presidential election in the state without his support.

No doubt, politics remains a game of the possible in which nothing can be ruled out, however, developments in the days ahead will determine whether the PDP will put its house in order before the presidential election or go into the poll a divided house. (New Telegraph)