AUSTIN OBOH
All seems to be quiet in the meanwhile in Nigeria’s main opposition get together, the Peoples Democratic Occasion (PDP), because it awaits its Nationwide Government Committee (NEC) assembly rescheduled for November 28, which is about 4 weeks from now. What is key at this level is what seems to be a standard dedication to reposition the get together to play its function because the arrowhead of the opposition within the nation. To this finish, all eyes are on the approaching NEC assembly to resolve the conflicts within the get together, which has its roots primarily within the disagreement over the continuation of Umar Damagun as appearing nationwide chairman.
Earlier than the current cessation of hostility, main stakeholders of the get together have been insistent on holding the NEC as a matter of urgency amid the harmful escalation of inner disaster.
Nationwide ex-officio members of the get together have been amongst those that supported the peace effort of the PDP Governors’ Discussion board led by Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed.
The ex-officio members in an announcement signed by Dr. Yunana Ilya (North-Central), Dr. Nicholas Msheliza (North-East), Chief Madumere Chinemerem (South-East), Chief Patrick Agbe (South-South), Chief Faboyede Clement (South-West) and Alhaji Ibrahim Alhaji (North-West), expressed deep concern over the state of affairs within the PDP, highlighting what they known as a “harmful flip of occasions” that had the potential to destabilize the get together.
A part of the assertion learn: “As an integral a part of NEC of our nice get together, and certainly one of its final bastions with the grassroots, who imagine within the resurgence of our get together’s recognition, we’ve critically brainstormed and dispassionately resolved, as a matter of urgency, to name on the management of the get together to make sure that the NEC assembly scheduled for October 24, 2024, holds.
“This can afford members, who’re aggrieved, the chance to be heard and their points addressed. We’ve got considered with utter dismay and concern the harmful flip of occasions inside the high echelon of our get together in current occasions. These occasions have the tendency to shake the very basis of our get together.”
Additionally they emphasised the necessity for a NEC assembly to offer a platform the place aggrieved get together members might voice their considerations and search resolutions, including: “The NEC assembly will afford members who’re aggrieved the chance to be heard and their points addressed.”
In keeping with them, the PDP structure mandated that the NEC meets no less than as soon as each quarter, regretting that the get together has failed to stick to this provision.
Whereas acknowledging that the interior disagreements had remained unresolved, they praised the efforts of the PDP Governors’ Discussion board, led by Senator Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi State.
“By way of the agency and sterling management qualities of His Excellency, Senator Bala Mohammed, the PDP Governors’ Discussion board has not solely supplied the wanted course however has certainly lived as much as expectations,” they said.
They have been all for ongoing peace initiatives to revive the get together’s unity and energy, making a robust case for the get together to stay a reputable various to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), because the PDP continues to place itself for future elections.
“Nigerians nonetheless imagine that PDP is the one viable various to the failed Tinubu-led APC administration,” the ex-officio members declared.
The choice of the get together to postpone the assembly of the NEC was reached after about 4 hours of assembly on the evening of Tuesday, October 22.
Addressing journalists on the finish of the assembly on the Bauchi Governors’ Lodge in Asokoro, Governor Bala Mohammed stated the choice was to permit the get together prosecute the Ondo Governorship election slated for November 16.
The Chairman of the Governors Discussion board who led different members out of the assembly at about midnight additionally stated sustaining the established order will give the opposition get together the wanted impetus to unseat the All Progressives Congress-led administration in Ondo State.
A communique issued after the assembly stated the gathering was a consultative one with varied get together organs, together with the PDP Nationwide Working Committee, the Board of Trustees, the Nationwide Meeting management of the get together caucus, and the discussion board of former PDP governors.
The communique signed by Governor Mohammed stated: “Rising from the consultative assembly of the varied organs of the Peoples Democratic Occasion, the get together has resolved that the Nationwide Government Committee assembly, initially slated for twenty-four October 2024, has been rescheduled to twenty-eight November 2024.
“The postponement is to make sure that the get together approaches the forthcoming Ondo gubernatorial elections on 16 November 2024 with the unity and energy required to unseat the struggling All Progressives Congress (APC) authorities within the state.”
Talking earlier than going into the closed-door session, the Bauchi State governor stated the assembly was not simply PDP governors’ assembly. “It isn’t a caucus assembly, however a gathering of PDP stakeholders with one agenda: to reconcile all variations,” he stated.
He added: “We’re all united at this time below the management of Umar Damagum, and we’re right here to debate important points. We are going to resist any try to show Nigeria right into a one-party state. We are going to use our expertise since 1999 to offer Nigerians with a viable various platform.”
Governors on the assembly included Bala Mohammed (Bauchi); Ademola Adeleke (Osun); Dauda Lawal (Zamfara); Siminalayi Fubara (Rivers); and Caleb Muftwang (Plateau). Others stakeholders have been Damagum; former Senate President Adolphus Wabara; Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi; Samuel Anyanwu; Debo Ologunagba; Ahmed Yayari Muhammed, and Senator Abba Morro, amongst others.
The chairman of the get together’s nationwide reconciliation committee, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, had assured that the committee had reconciled feuding members of the Nationwide Working Committee, NWC. He stated this shortly after a gathering with NWC members in Abuja.
Former governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu – who had been prominently a part of the factionalisation within the PDP within the run as much as the 2023 elections – stated the disaster troubling the get together would quickly finish. He stated all points can be resolved earlier than the 2027 normal elections.
On the top of the disaster, Damagum and Nationwide Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, had suspended the get together’s Nationwide Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, and Nationwide Authorized Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade.
In response, Ologunagba and Ajibade suspended Damagum and Anyanwu, resulting in a stalemate, which was damaged by the PDP Governors Discussion board.
Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State had, after a gathering with the feuding get together leaders, referred to as for a ceasefire and a return to the established order.
Commenting on the conflicts, former Deputy Nationwide Chairman (South-West) of the PDP, Bode George, lamented that the PDP was regularly deviating from the imaginative and prescient of the founding fathers.
Whereas revealing his expectation for an imminent NEC assembly, he had stated: “If the NEC assembly comes up, we’re going to inform ourselves some critical issues. For me, at my age, what am I searching for? I’m nonetheless involved as a result of the ethics left by Dr Alex Ekwueme is the minimal customary we must always use as a yardstick to construct up on the inspiration. All sides have requested us to settle down.
“Errors have been made at that nationwide conference. That mistake now has turn into an enormous instrument, like a rock that wishes to smash individuals. We, the elders, would be the NEC. We have been the primary elected managers of the get together in December 1999 when the previous babas handed over to us they usually have been alive.
“Most of those that are alive now are already too previous to become involved with all these discussions. That’s the reason a few of us proceed to imagine within the ethics of this get together. We’re nonetheless speaking to those individuals. No particular person can flip the get together into a personal enterprise.”
Talking on the genesis of the present disaster, George blamed former Sokoto Governor, Aminu Tambulwa, for taking an unpopular resolution that subsequently divided the PDP. He admitted that the get together wanted therapeutic.
His phrases: “It was on the presidential conference that it began when Atiku gained. Those that have been capable of manipulate the conference at the moment gained the hearts and minds of the individuals. That was how they spoke. Tambuwal made an deal with to the conference, all people clapped and the final candidate was Wike. The following factor was for us to start out voting. The person who was chairman of that conference was David Mark.
“He introduced that the Governor of Sokoto (Tambuwal) has a message for the conference. All people was saying, ‘What message?’ And he stated he was stepping down and all delegates ought to vote for Atiku. I bear in mind Ayu saying ‘Tambuwal is the hero of the conference,’ not realizing that we have been planting one other tree that might eat this get together and the philosophy on which these founding fathers established the get together. And that was the start of this disaster. And we must always have gone forward to nip it within the bud.
“Merely put, the Nigerian structure doesn’t have all these zones. Nigerian structure doesn’t recognise south-west, south-east, south-south, north-west, north-east, north-east. These fathers conceptualised it. We’ve got allowed devils to enter into our get together. Let’s get in there. We haven’t had a critical NEC assembly for a really very long time. However have a look at the APC, are they not virtually rejoicing?”
A former PDP Nationwide Publicity Secretary and member of NEC, Kola Ologbodiyan, nonetheless, appealed for calm, stressing that the get together was greater than Wike and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. In keeping with him, the welfare of the plenty and their function in nation-building ought to be the main focus.
“I truthfully don’t imagine that the totality of PDP revolves round these two leaders alone. The scenario confronting Nigerians and the nation at this time is regarding to all, and as such, the PDP should not be allowed to go down for any motive.
“PDP should not be compromised to the extent that it’s going to turn into a division within the APC. That’s the crux of the matter. Due to this fact, decreasing the problems of PDP to Atiku and Wike is begging the challenges confronting the get together,” he stated.
The get together leaders’ need to resolve the disaster might or is probably not impeded by the probably failure to rein in Nyesom Wike, who stays strongly influential within the get together regardless of his intransigence and dalliance with the opposition.
