The Good news drawing a lesson from PDP’s failed convention in Port
Harcourt Saturday is PDP has proven once
more that it is not a party inclined to mindless violence. Come to think of it meetings
in Rivers State government house 12 PDP Governors hitherto pro-Sheriff backing down.
Then Sheriff leaves government house to Le Meridien where a a press
conference held. Then PDP Governors and the national Assembly members past and
present move away from Sheriff to the Stadium to hold the convention anyway and
to dissolve the NWC whereat former KD Governor Markafi steps in as interim
Chair to hold sway for 3 months.
Amidst that, a parallel convention was called in Abuja on the same
day. Considering Wike Fayose and the rest of the Governors armed to the teeth
long arguments with Sheriff spanning over three hours with Sheriff whose hope
of picking the PDP Chairmanship slot on Saturday was vaporized. With all the
sharp turn of events not a dagger drawn.
I know some political parties that would have left the convention
venue filled with body bags. Those are the real dangerous signs to our cherished
democracy. People who tend towards fascism and façade of violent acts if they
were not in Shiittes massacre, they are slaughtering IPOB unarmed citizens at
prayer grounds. Even citizens quietly asleep, killer-herds go after mindlessly
slitting throats from Agatu to Enugu
In power rather than concentrate on delivering the dividends of
democracy, All Presidential
(Campaign Promises) Cancelled (ruling party) are more keen
in abusing our human rights and threatening our human rights Icons than
settling down to resolving the galloping inflation, galloping exchange rates,
securing the land and its people.
Ben Obi emerges party scribe How governors turned against sheriff Gana’s group seeks BoT’s intervention
Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt and
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
In a bid to urgently reposition the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and stem the growing tide of opposition
within its fold, the national convention of the party yesterday in Port
Harcourt sacked its acting national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.
Sheriff was replaced with a caretaker chairman, former Kaduna State
Governor, Senator Ahmed Makarfi. Former presidential adviser to
ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Senator Ben Obi, was elected secretary
of the caretaker committee, which was mandated to manage the affairs of
the party for three months.
Sheriff’s tenure was a major source of
division in the party, as a faction supported his stay in office while
another fiercely sought his removal.
The changes that emerged in Port Harcourt were amid a parallel
convention of the PDP held in Abuja by the faction of the party that had
been traditionally opposed to Sheriff’s leadership.
Sheriff had until a couple of days ago
been backed by the PDP Governors’ Forum, a powerful bloc within the
party, and other key sponsors of the convention in the Garden City. His
removal by the Port Harcourt convention came as a complete surprise. He
had looked forward to the convention with optimism following discussions
about his possible confirmation for another two years.
Meanwhile, details started to emerge yesterday about how the tide turned
against Sheriff in Port Harcourt. The 12 PDP governors, former
governors of the party, National Assembly members led by Deputy Senate
President, Ike Ekweremadu, and other party leaders had held a marathon
meeting at the Rivers Government House, Port Harcourt where Sheriff was
also in attendance.
THISDAY reliably gathered that the
stakeholders had during the meeting asked Sheriff to step down as acting
national chairman of the party. They noted that his emergence as acting
chairman had divided leaders of the party and polarized the rank and
file, raising fears that if urgent steps were not taken to halt the
slide, the party may not recover from it. They wanted to make room for
someone who would be a unifying factor – instead of the divisive factor
that Sheriff had become. He was said to have refused, insisting that he
has till 2018 to preside over the affairs of the party.
It was also gathered that part of the
reasons the governors and other stakeholders asked Sheriff to step aside
was the fact that, contrary to widespread belief, he was broke and
thought to lack the financial muscle needed to steer PDP out of its
current difficulties. The fear, sources said, was that he would rely too
much on the governors for funding, and many would be unwilling to
venture into such responsibility under the present cash crunch and in an
era of anticorruption campaign.
There was also the issue of trust as
many leaders of PDP found it difficult to trust Sheriff, who had been in
the opposition for the greater part of the Fourth Republic and came
into the former ruling party not long ago. His manner of exit from the
opposition coalition ahead of the 2015 general election, which also
bordered on trust among his former comrades, was further cited as reason
not to entrust the affairs of the party in his hands for too long.
THISDAY gathered that there were fears
among even those that had been backing Sheriff about his motive for
wanting to stay in office at all cost even when his stay had polarized
the party and that there were tendencies that he would be out of control
once he secures a new mandate.
Besides, many of the stakeholders argued that his tenure had ended and he should vacate office.
Sensing he would be sacked at the convention, Sheriff quickly called a
press conference at Le Meridian Hotel, Port Harcourt announcing the
convention’s suspension after he left the meeting at the Government
House that lasted several hours, citing court orders, which he had,
however, consistently tended to jettison.
At the press briefing, Sheriff said, “If
we proceed with the convention, we will be charged for contempt of
court. As a responsible party, we have to respect the court orders. We
will reconvene as soon as we are able to dispense with the court cases.”
He added, “We’ve been meeting since morning. We had challenges of series
of court cases; we’ve decided to abandon election into chairman,
secretary and auditor (positions). We have suspended the convention; we
had three different cases in Abuja and Lagos. INEC also said they will
not supervise the election. We will be contravening the court and we
will be charged for contempt of court. We went to court, but we were
denied permission.”
His directive was, however, ignored, as the convention went on as
planned with the 12 PDP state governors and other leaders of the party
in attendance.
While Sheriff left Port Harcourt after
his press briefing, the 12 PDP governors as well as members of the
National Assembly and other stakeholders headed to the Sharks Stadium
venue of the convention and kicked off the programme. Rivers State
Governor and chairman of the National Convention Committee, Nyesom Wike,
was in charge of the process. The convention dissolved the NWC,
effectively sacking Sheriff, and set up a national caretaker committee.
One of the first decisions taken by the
convention was the dissolution of the NWC by a motion moved by former
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Austin Opara, and
seconded by another former Deputy Speaker, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
The convention, via a voice vote, set up a national caretaker committee
following a motion by Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio,
which was seconded by Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Dankwanbo. The
caretaker committee, which will be in office for not more than 90 days
and conduct a proper convention for the party, also has as members
Senator Odion Ogbesia, Senator Abdul Ningi, Barrister Kabiru Usman,
Prince Dayo Adeyeye, and Alhaja Aisha Aliyu.
Another motion for the zoning of the
position of presidential candidate to the North head of 2019 was moved
by former Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu and seconded by Delta
State Governor Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
In his acceptance speech after being elected chairman of the caretaker
committee, Makarfi called on all aggrieved PDP members to give peace a
chance in the interest of the party.
“I humbly accept the challenge and I do
so on behalf of other members of the committee. I assure you have no
cause to worry. None of us is contesting for any office. Please, give
peace a chance, so that we can rebuild our party for the benefit of not
only Nigerians and Africans, but the entire black race,” the former
governor pleaded.
One of the key conditions given to Makarfi and other members of the
caretaker committee, THISDAY learnt, was that they will not contest for
any position at the next PDP national convention.
The Concerned PDP Stakeholders, led by
former informer minister, Professor Jerry Gana, at their parallel
convention in Abuja, set up a 57- member steering committee co-chaired
by former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, and
former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran. The committee
was required to oversee the affairs of the faction until the court
orders against the election of new PDP officers were set aside and a
proper convention was held.
The concerned PDP stakeholders said they decided to hold a non-elective
convention in deference to court orders stopping the party from electing
new National Working Committee members.
The faction said given the current
disagreements in the party, the Board of Trustees is in the best
statutory and moral position to assume the leadership of the party
pending the reconstitution of its National Executive Committee.
Mantu said the stakeholders “resolved to rebuild, renew and rebrand” the
party in line with the vision of the founding fathers. “This becomes a
non-elective convention in respect of court orders, and also to enable
us have a tete-a-tete with our brothers in Port Harcourt.”
He reiterated that the decision to choose Sheriff as chairman of the party was in violation of the established procedure.
Former presidential adviser on public communications in the Jonathan
government, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said in an interview, “We are not ruling
out reconciliation, we are open to setting up a caretaker committee.”
He was referring to the group that convened in Port Harcourt.
Among party leaders at the Port Harcourt
convention were former national chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo; former
Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed; outgoing
nNational vice chairman (South-south), Dr. Cairo Ojougboh; former
chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council, Mrs. Esther Audu; and former
governors of Imo, Adamawa and Taraba states, Achike Udenwa, Ahmadu
Fintiri, and Garba Umar, respectively.
Speaking after a meeting in Abuja to
appraise the decisions that emerged from the convention in Port
Harcourt, Mantu said there was no other body constitutional mandated to
take over the affairs of the party at this time than the BoT. He stated,
“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. At this point in time, the only legal organ constitutionally
empowered to actually take over the affairs of the party is the BoT.”
Mantu added that his group had been vindicated by the removal of Sheriff
in Port Harcourt, saying that is what the Concerned PDP Stakeholders
have been advocating.
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