There is no end in sight to the crisis rocking the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Intrigues in favour and against Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, National Chairman of the party, continue even after the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party passed a vote of confidence in his leadership last week. In this piece, ‘DARE ODUFOWOKAN, Assistant Editor, examines latest developments within the party and options available to the gladiators, likely effects of the unending infighting on the quest of the party to displace the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the presidency in 2023.
In the run up to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) National Executive Committee (NEC) held last Thursday in Abuja, there was so much anxiety within and outside, over the fate of its National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, as well as the future of the troubled political party, following the fierce disagreement between the camps of presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, over the calls for Ayu to leave office.
Anxiety mounted amidst reports that the NEC members were divided over the matter. Prior to the meeting, mixed reactions had trailed Wike’s clamour for the chairman to resign or be removed.
The River State governor is insisting that it is not the tradition of the PDP for the presidential candidate and its chairman to come from the same region of the country. He is also reminding everyone who cares to listen, that Ayu had promised to vacate office if a Northerner like himself emerges flagbearer.
While some NEC members who agree with Wike and his supporters argued that Ayu’s removal was the only way out of the lingering crisis confronting the party, those opposed to the clamour said Ayu would not step aside at this critical time when the PDP was preparing for election. A third camp would rather have him leave after the presidential election next year, when the party’s candidate would have being elected as president.
Amidst the pressure on him to leave office, Ayu had vowed to stay till the end of his four-year tenure. He also dismissed those demanding his removal as youngsters who had little knowledge about the formation of PDP. He dared his traducers to do their worst and accused them of being disloyal to the party. According to him, the all important task that loyal members should concern themselves about at this crucial time is how to prosecute the 2023 presidential election successfully.
Thus, the opposition party had remained engulfed in crisis leading to the crucial meeting between Atiku and Wike on the serious disagreement over some thorny issues, especially what the fate of Ayu should be. A recent meeting between the two politicians, after weeks of calls on them to meet and iron things out, failed to douse the tension as feelers continue to point to a sour relationship between the two leading light of the opposition party.
Last Thursday, the all NEC important meeting held and the embattled Ayu must have heaved a sigh of relief when he got a confidence vote from members, signaling that he should retain his seat. It was the PDP’s 97th NEC meeting involving all organs of the party. Analysts say the outcome was a huge blow to anti-Ayu forces as the debate on whether he should go or stay was officially laid to rest.
The vote of confidence was sequel to a motion by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu. He had said: “You (Ayu) have shown maturity. Nigerians are suffering today and PDP is the only solution and that is why it is important for the PDP to unite. A lot has gone wrong. Let us put behind the anger and move forward. It is the devil that is trying to stop us from winning because they know, in the spiritual realm, we have won. We can never be distracted. We must talk to our people to collect their PVCs.
“On behalf of my colleagues, we have decided because the NWC has tremendously performed, our governors are our pride, forget what you are reading. “They are united. I believe they will deliver their states for PDP in 2023. Let me move a motion. I move that a vote of confidence be put before the NWC for their doggedness; forthrightness and professionalism, especially in giving us Osun State and I believe they will give us the Villa in 2023.” Promptly, Hon. Ishola Balogun from Kwara State, seconded the motion and Ayu was saved.
But the decision did not go down well with Wike who insisted that Ayu must step down. Yesterday, he reiterated that no amount of vote of confidence will save him. But Atiku, same day, in a statement by one of his aides, agreed with the NEC when he said removing Ayu from office at a time like this won’t be good for the party. As it is, Atiku and Wike remain at loggerheads over the matter in spite of the outcome of the NEC meeting.
Behind the scenes at the NEC meeting
The Rivers governor and his supporters, including some governors, former governors, NWC members and other prominent party chieftains across the country, are aggrieved and making demands as efforts are being made to pacify them. They allege marginalization in the scheme of things within the party.
Trouble started after Wike lost the presidential ticket to Atiku and things got worse after Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, was picked as running mate ahead of Wike who was recommended by the selection committee put in place by the party to screen candidates.
Despite the calls for his removal, Ayu presided over the NEC meeting on Thursday. Furthermore, he walked into the meeting venue with the party’s presidential candidate. Party sources claimed anti-Ayu forces had earlier made effort to prevent him from taking charge at the meeting as part of moves to ensure he was ousted at the meeting. But their efforts failed to yield fruit as the Benue-born politician took charge of proceedings.
His arrival at the venue with Atiku was also seen as a subtle message from the camp of the presidential candidate to NEC members as regards where he stood on the debate over Ayu’s sack. “Their being seen together that day sent across clear message about what Atiku would want done. They even moved around together for a while before the meeting was called to order. Nobody was left in doubt about Atiku’s support and preference for Ayu. Many NEC members who came to the meeting undecided made up their mind after the show of support.
“Similarly, many hitherto anti-Ayu members of the NEC changed their mind and started supporting him after they realized Atiku won’t dump him. That’s politics and it is understandable. It was a strategy that paid off and helped the National Chairman survive the axe that was dangling over his head. It is also one reason why some prominent anti-Ayu chieftains of the party stayed away from the meeting. When they saw the body language of Atiku, they realized he would not move against Ayu as expected,” a source said.
Another masterstroke was the resignation of Senator Walid Jibrin as Chairman of the Board of Trustees ahead of the meeting and the decision to replace him with Senator Adolphus Wabara, a Southerner. The move won over many members of the BoT from the South to Ayu’s side. Before then, there had been a clamour among members of the board for the chairmanship to rotate to the South in the spirit of equity and fairness. Party sources claimed that Ayu, aided by Atiku, convinced Jibrin to quit and urged the members to accept Wabara.
The chairman made the best use of the lifeline offered him by the BoT change as he started the NEC meeting on that note last Thursday, further wining support with the move. Ayu said, “I want to start this meeting by announcing that the Chairman of the BoT, has decided to step down. He stepped down to enjoy his remaining months. He has served this party meritoriously rising to the position of BoT Secretary and Chairman.” He went ahead to inform the gathering that Wabara would step in as BoT chairman of the PDP.
According to investigation, a kite was also flown to win over more Southern delegations at the meeting. A source while explaining what allegedly transpired, told our correspondent that “hours before the meeting, it was widely spread among members that Governor Aminu Tambuwal had resigned his seat as Chairman of PDP Governors Forum and that Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, would replace him immediately. With Tambuwal present at the secretariat, many people believed him and saw the move as reconciliatory on the part of the Ayu camp.
The well spread piece of news which was not debunked till the meeting started and ended, helped Ayu’s cause as it pacified some pro-Wike attendees who saw Makinde’s reported appointment as something to cheer. With the confirmation of Wabara’s rise to BoT chairman and Makinde’s rumoured elevation to chair the Governors’ Forum, many Southerners at the NEC meeting were convinced about the need to let sleeping dogs lie by dumping their ‘Ayu Must Go’ stance.
Tambuwal’s resignation and Makinde’s chairmanship of the Governors Forum turned out to be a ruse as it was eventually debunked by appropriate quarters within the party, hours after the meeting. The Nation gathered that Makinde’s refusal to acknowledge his alleged election hours after the news broke was interpreted by the promoters of the idea as an embarrassment and the denunciation of the news was a face saving move by the Ayu camp. “The plan was reversed because Makinde, an ally of Wike’s, refused to acknowledge his appointment in time,” our source claimed.
Also, The Nation gathered that prior to the NEC meeting, Ayu and his backers made frantic efforts to have majority of the PDP state chairmen on their side. Before the meeting, state chairmen of the party were divided over the demand for Ayu to vacate office as part of the reconciliation process in the party. Many of them had said he should step aside if that would be in the interest of the party. They noted that it would be his sacrifice for unity ahead of the polls. But some others disagreed and vowed to support him to the end.
The party chairmen were scheduled to meet and take a position on these contentious issues when the NEC meeting was called. “We saw the need to ensure our state chairmen understood what the party needed right now. Many of them didn’t know what the real issues were and they were making public statements out of sentiments and loyalty to certain quarters. But when we met with them ahead of the NEC meeting and explained the implications of some of these demands being made here and there, they saw clearly and dropped their agitation,” a party source told The nation on Saturday.
Stalemate still
But in spite of the support being enjoyed by Ayu currently, Wike, has vowed to sustain the fight for his removal which he described as “the return of a healthy party structure that will allow even representation of the interests of the North and South in the national leadership of the party. He insisted that the current structure, with the North holding the presidential ticket as well as the National Chairman positions, was against the PDP constitution. To him, it is the chairman that must resign and not the BoT helmsman.
However, the party’s presidential candidate Atiku disagrees. To him, sacking Ayu at a time like this will be injurious to the party. Spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organisation, Charles Aniagwu, said it would plunge the party into deeper crisis ahead of the 2023 general elections. He added that as a listening party, the PDP is taking a second look at the various demands by aggrieved chieftains based on what was permissible by the laws of the party.
This is just as Wike insisted that the current hierarchy of the PDP did not give room for the interest of the South; particularly when decisions were to be taken. The governor described the resignation of the BoT chairman as a distraction, revealing that the PDP’s presidential candidate had told him that Ayu must relinquish his position. “Ayu said if the presidential candidate comes from the North; he will resign after the convention of our party, and that the chairman of our party will come from the South.
“When the North-Central leaders met in the house of the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, he said so there. When he met the caucus of the Senate, he told them that. Now, when we finished our convention on Sunday; the candidate of the party came to see me in my house in Abuja on Monday around 10:30 am. The candidate told me I want us to work together, and then he said: ‘look, Ayu must go.’I said, why? He (Atiku) said because when a candidate comes from the North, the Chairman will come from the South.”
“And I’m saying, implement what you told me. What offence have I committed? It is nothing to do with Wike. It has to do with integrity. This is what he told me. I challenge the presidential candidate to deny this. If he denies it, I will go further to say so many things to Nigerians because enough is enough. We can’t continue this way. One ex-General went to see the BoT Chairman and the candidate too went to see him to resign that we’ll give you advisory position. That is to insult us. And all of us are here,” he explained.
But Atiku’s camp, speaking through Anoagwu, countered Wike’s fresh claims. To them, sacking Ayu would create fresh constitutional crisis for the party which can boomerang into more serious confusion than what the opposition party is currently grappling with. The Delta State Commissioner explained that the main issue being discussed by the parties was the stepping down of the National Chairman. He added that the issue has now been laid to rest by the vote of confidence passed in him at the NEC meeting of the party.
“People may misinterpret it to mean calling the bluff of certain stakeholders but that is far from it because the party leadership examined the issues vis-a-vis the provisions of the party’s constitution as amended in 2017. When you look at that constitution, there are principal officers called the National Working Committee of the party led by the National Chairman and in the other of hierarchy, the Deputy National Chairman who must also come from same zone with the National Chairman is next in line.
“The third in line is the National Secretary and when you look at these positions, the National Chairman is from the North, the second in command is also from the North by virtue of the provision of the party’s constitution. In section 45 of the party’s constitutional in the event of removal or resignation of the National Chairman, the National Deputy Chairman takes over and acts in the position of that National Chairman pending when the party is able to organise another election or do a NEC meeting to be able to take a decision as to how to rearrange the hierarchy of the party.
“Even if Ayu were to step down for power to come to the South, the provisions of the constitution of the party would also be offended. Can you also take a decision to remove the Deputy National Chairman of the party who the lot immediately falls on by provisions of the law? Even if the party is able to solve that puzzle by bringing both National Chairman and Deputy to South, the third person in the hierarchy of the National Working Committee of the party is the National Secretary and that is in the South specifically Senator Samuel Anyanwu from Imo State.
“Now if you decide to bring these two positions to the South, have you also made arrangements to take the National Secretary to the North? Because of these legal impediments the party decided that given that there are just six months to the general elections, it may snowball into some form of crisis that would be worse than the one we are seeing at the moment.
“That greater crisis is what the ruling APC is waiting to happen but the leadership of the party is intelligent enough and am happy that Governor Wike and other leaders appreciate the need for the party to move as a whole into the 2023 general elections,” Aniagwu said.
With the two sides unwilling to yield ground on their positions as regards the fate of Ayu, observers of happenings within PDP are of the opinion that the last may not have been heard of the crisis rocking the opposition party ahead of the 2023 general elections.
But, just how much harm would this lingering face-off do to the PDP’s chance of returning to the presidency in 2023? Will the gladiators somehow find common ground soon and give peace a chance in the interest of the party or has the chasm between them become unbridgeable? It appears too early to hazard a guess as to what it really is.