the PDP brightens its chances of returning to power with the unity demonstrated by party members at the National Convention which dovetailed into early Sunday in Abuja. Akani Alaka writes on the convention and the challenges ahead of the party.
Members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP left the Eagle Square venue of their National Convention early Sunday morning convinced that they have achieved another crucial milestone in their bid to retake power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC at the 2023 general election.
The seemingly flawless organization and the fact that the two-day convention was rancour-free were cheering enough for chest-thumping by the leaders of the party.
Yet, they can also take the credit for laying the groundwork for the success of the event, at least for working tirelessly to ensure that there was a consensus that led to avoidance of wrangling on candidates for 18 out of the 21 positions contested at the convention.
Governors Hold All The Aces
Leaders of the party, especially the all-powerful governors, had concluded the horse-trading and solidified the consensus agreement with contestants for only three positions still refusing to concede before delegates began to troop to Eagles Square on Saturday morning.
Contestants for three positions – National Youth Leader and PDP National Chairman (South and North) had refused to step down for each other and agree to a consensus despite pressures from the governors and other PDP leaders.
Former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Hajiya Inna Ciroma, a former minister had insisted on testing their popularity against Taofeek Arapaja and Umar Damagum, who have the endorsement of the governors for the positions of the Deputy National Chairman of the South and North respectively.
In the same vein, Usman Elkudan insisted on testing his strength against Mohammed Suleiman who was favoured for the position of National Youth Leader.
But the contest turned out a disaster for each of them as they were massively floored by the anointed candidates in further confirmation of the fact that the governors hold all the aces in the party.
Arapaja, a former deputy governor of Oyo State and a strong political ally of Governor Seyi Makinde, the secretary of the PDP Convention ended Oyinlola hopes of emerging as one of the national leaders of the party with 2,004 votes against 705 votes.
Arapaja’s victory again solidified Makinde’s position as one of the new power brokers at the national and southwest level of PDP was received with wild jubilation at the Eagle Square.
In the same vein, Hajiya Ciroma stood no chance against Damagun as she was beaten mercilessly, scoring only 365 votes to her opponent’s 2,234 votes.
Also, Suleiman emerged as the National Youth Leader of PDP, defeating Elkudah with massive 3,072 to 219 votes.
Ayu Leads PDP
With the election of Arapaja, Damagun and Suleiman, the authenticity of a list of consensus candidates circulated before voting began as having the endorsement of the governors was thus confirmed.
As listed in the list and confirmed after the end of voting former Senate President Iyorchia Ayu is expected to take over from the embattled Uche Secondus as the National Chairman of the opposition party. He got 3,426 affirmative votes out of 3,511 accredited voters as the consensus candidate as declared by the Returning Officer for the election, Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri.
Other consensus candidates who got similar affirmative votes and have thus been elected members of the PDP National Working Committee are Stella Effah-Attoe as National Woman Leader; Kamaldeen Adeyemi Ajibade as National Legal Adviser; Debo Ologunagba as National Publicity Secretary and Okechukwu Daniel as National Auditor. Also elected were Setonji Kosheodo as Deputy National Secretary; Ndubisi David as Deputy National Treasurer; Ibrahim Abdullahi as Deputy National Publicity Secretary and Ighoyota Amori as Deputy National Organising Secretary. In the same vein, Adamu Kamale was elected the Deputy National Financial Secretary; Hajara Wanka as Deputy National Woman Leader; Timothy Osadolor, as Deputy National Youth Leader, Okechukwu Osuoha as Deputy National Legal Adviser and Abdulrahman Mohammed as Deputy National Auditor.
The 2023 Campaigners
Aside from the election of the new 21 members of the NWC, the Convention was also used by some chieftains of the party with eyes on the 2023 presidency and their supporters to give hints of their ambitions.
Various shapes of Atiku for Presidency in 2023 posters, announcing the aspiration of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari were pasted in and around Eagle Square.
Supporters of the Vice President’s yet to be declared presidential ambition also carried the posters around the venue of the event.
Supporters of former governor of Kano state, Rabiu Kwankwaso also stormed the convention adorning their red Kwankwasiyya caps as they drummed and danced round the venue singing, “2023, sai Kwankwaso.”
Former Senate President Bukola Saraki added style to his campaign with the deployment of some 80-seater Mercedes Benz luxury buses bearing his portrait with ‘Sarakiyya Movement of Nigeria’ boldly written on the bodies of the vehicles.
Bala Mohammed, Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Doyin Okupe were other chieftains of the party with posters and supporters indicating that they may contest for the presidency in 2023 at the convention.
APC Must Go!
Chieftains of the party whose posters for the 2023 presidency circulated at the convention did not speak directly about their ambition when called to address the delegates.
They, however, gave enough indication of their readiness to be part of the PDP team that will ‘rescue’ Nigeria from the ruling APC.
For instance, Atiku who was accompanied to the podium by a crowd of dancing and drumming supporters bearing posters with inscriptions such as: “2023 Atiku is the answer”, “I stand with Atiku”; and “2023 Support Atiku” among others, lamented the state of the nation under the ruling party.
He said there is a need for an urgent rescue: “I am 70 years plus but I have never seen Nigeria in such a bad shape; disunited, insecure with the economy in tatters. We have a chance to unite this country for greatness and we are going to make use of that opportunity come 2023.”
On his part, Tambuwal, who is the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, said Nigeria is going through a very tough time. He, therefore, noted that what Nigeria needs now are strong and capable persons that would help it to surmount the myriad challenges in the areas of insecurity, economic development and provision of jobs to the youths among others.
Related Posts
Indeed, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, the Chairman of the National Convention Committee had also in his message to the delegates called on all Nigerians to support PDP’s bid to return to power in 2023.
While giving his welcome address to the delegates and party officials, Fintiri said the convention was the starting point for ‘rescue Nigeria mission’ embarked upon by the party.
“We can push the people who do not know the true definition of good governance and national coexistence out of power. This is a Nigeria rescue mission. This is the role PDP was invented to play. The 2021 national convention presents a starting point for the Nigeria rescue mission,’’ he said.
Ayu’s Quit Notice To APC
Ayu, the new chairman of PDP chairman-elect, in his inaugural speech, promised that he will lead the party to take over power in 2023.
He noted that PDP has gone through some ‘rough times’ after being kicked out of power in 2015 after 16 years by APC.
Ayu also noted that those who think that the Convention will lead to the breakup of PDP have been disappointed.
The former Senate President added that the PDP will take over power and begin the job of uniting the country. “Those who have lost hope should know that Nigeria is not a divided country. A small group of people decided to divide Nigeria. PDP will come back to unite our people, put them together, north and south, east and west.
“We will move ahead to develop this country. We did it before. We are going to do it again. I want to thank the governors,” Ayu said.
Challenges Ahead
Analysts and members of the party said the strong demonstration of unity by members of the opposition party at the convention is a big push for PDP ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
But still, there are few housekeeping tasks, which they believe the party must undertake if it wants to return to the Aso Rock presidential villa in 2023.
For one, there is the challenge of Uche Secondus, the suspended national chairman of the party whose suit over his suspension created an atmosphere of uncertainty over the convention until last Thursday.
A court of appeal sitting in Port Harcourt had dismissed the bid by Secondus who was contesting his suspension by a court in Rivers in an action filed by members of the party in the state. The embattled Secondus who stepped aside following the court ruling had approached the appellate court to stop his removal from office before December 2021 when his tenure is due to expire through the convention. He had also asked the court to direct PDP to allow him to preside over the Convention. The court refused to grant him the prayers.
But the embattled PDP national chairman has vowed to continue his legal battle up to the Supreme Court.
The revelation by the PDP National Convention Committee that the Ayu-led NWC will not take over power until 19 December was a plot to knock the bottom out of the claim of Secondus that the party wanted him from office ahead of the expiration of his tenure. Nevertheless, Secondus is unlikely to return to the office until the expiration of his tenure.
Governor Nyesom Wike who has never hidden the fact that he was behind the ordeal of his former ally described the embattled Secondus as an ‘enemy’ who wanted to frustrate the rescue agenda with the court case last Friday.
However, analysts warned that such gloating by Wike and other new power brokers in PDP may not do the party any good.
Also, the fact that the governors find it difficult to convince aspirants for the position of the deputy national chairman, especially for the South indicated that the crisis in the Southwest zone of the party where the position was zoned to is not over.
However, the biggest challenge for PDP as Ayu is to assume office will be the zoning arrangement of the party, especially regarding its 2023 presidential ticket.
Some members of the party from the party had celebrated when Ayu was chosen as the consensus candidate of the North.
This followed the zoning of the position to the region by the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led zoning committee set up in response to agitations for rotation of the presidency to the South in 2023.
Ayu, an associate of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is from Benue which falls in the North-central part of the country.
His emergence, according to sources within the party, has had the imprimatur of the vice president who gearing up to run for Presidency again. This was after Atiku, other Northern presidential aspirants had resisted zoning of the position to their side of the country so that their ambitions will not be jeopardized.
Southerners who rejoiced following the endorsement of Ayu as the consensus candidate of the North had their minds on the zoning arrangement of PDP with an indication that once the chairman of the party is from a part of the country, the presidential candidate of the party will be from the other part.
Therefore, the emergence of Ayu should brighten the chances of Southerners who are desirous of grabbing the 2023 presidential ticket of PDP.
But the Ugwuanyi Committee had from the outset said the zoning formula it came out with did not have anything to do with what zone of the country gets the presidential and other elective tickets of the party.
Therefore, any member of the party from any part of the country can contest for the presidential ticket.
Hence, it was not a surprise that most of those with 2023 campaign posters at the venue of the convention is from the Northern part of the country.
The only exception was Okupe whose chances of getting the presidential ticket of PDP, given his current status in the party, can be likened to the possibility of finding a giant whale in the desert.
Indeed, Osita Chidoka, a former minister and member of the party had lamented that while the supporters of Northern aspirants were flaunting 2023 posters of their principals, there was no poster from anybody indicating interest in the PDP presidential ticket from the South-east.
However, former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim later told reporters outside of the convention venue that he would contest the presidency, even if PDP zoned the position away from the Southern part of the country in its 2023 permutation.
Anyim from Ebonyi in the South-east is the first Igbo man to openly declare interest in contesting for the 2023 presidency despite vociferous clamours for the position by stakeholders in the region.
READ ALSO: Iyorcha Ayu is the new PDP National Chairman
But he is a Christian like Ayu and most other aspirants (if any other comes up) from the region are also likely to be of the same religion. “Knowing the desperation with which Nigerian politicians pursue their ambitions, with reckless use of sentiments, it may not be a surprise if claims such as you can’t have a Christian Chairman of PDP and a Christian presidential candidate begin to make the rounds ahead of the 2023 presidential election,” a member of the party told The Nigerian Xpress.
“In any way, there are chieftains of the party from the South who also believe that only a Nothern presidential candidate can defeat whoever the APC is going to put up in 2023,” he added
But some members of the party are already threatening that they will vote for the APC in 2023 if the ruling party meets their aspiration for a Southern candidate and their party decided to go the other way. How the PDP navigates the thorny issue of zoning may eventually decide its fate In 2023.
