Which way forward for PDP?

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be at a crossroads. On Thursday, a gang in the party announced the suspension of the acting national chairman, Umar Damagum.

His supporters said the move lacked justification, and that those who carried out the threat acted in error.

Yesterday, the gangsterism failed. An Abuja Federal High Court quashed the suspension and restrained the party chieftains from repeating the coup.

According to the court, Damagum should steer the affairs of the party as interim chairman until December next year when the party would be ready to hold its national convention.

In PDP, there have been suspension and counter-suspension. There is division in the National Working Committee (NWC).

A faction of the NWC aligned with Damagum had announced the suspension of the National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, and the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, for alleged disloyalty to the party.

In a new twist, Ologunagba also announced the suspension of Damagum and the National Secretary, Senator Anyanwu for disloyalty and insubordination The faction appointed Yayari Mohammed as acting national chairman.

Three issues emanated from the scenario. The agreed formula for change of party leadership was grossly violated by over-zealous foes of Damagum, who deliberately neglected the processes of electing and removing party officers as enshrined in Articles 42, 47 and 67 of the PDP constitution.

Also, those who hurriedly converged to sack the acting chairman attempted to disrupt the party’s internal balance of power between regions.

The anti-Damagum forces also acted before thinking. At a time the National Reconciliation Committee headed by Brig-General Oyinlola is going round the six geo-political zones with a message of peace to calm down nerves, the pro-suspension faction struck.

Their miscalculation made a nonsense of the reconciliation process.

The consequences are that the protracted crisis has escalated; mutual trust and confidence were destroyed, aptly replaced by distrust and suspicion.

It is a fallout of the glaring absence of leadership; not leadership as in an assemblage of party officers who pale into glorified errand boys, but elders of conscience held in esteem by all, and to who the majority can defer; a leadership that can restore order into a state of pandemonium.

What is clear is that the conflict between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate in last year’s election, and Nyesom Wike, former PDP governor of Rivers, has assumed a new dimension.

The two gladiators are locked in a battle of supremacy in the party.

Damagum, National Vice Chairman (Northeast), is perceived as a loyalist of Wike; those threatening to shove him aside seem to have sympathy for Atiku.

Indisputably, there is also a linkage between the protracted crisis in Rivers, as exemplified in Fubara/Wike tango, at the crisis at the national secretariat.

Ologunagba said Damagum and Anyanwu were suspended over their position on the 27pro-Wike House of Assembly members.

Since the rancorous PDP presidential primary, Atiku and Wike had parted ways.

The bone of contention was the lopsided or skewed distribution of top election slots and party offices between the North bloc and South bloc in a way that would have fostered equity.

Contrary to the recent pontification of rotational presidency by the Turaki Adamawa, zoning was downplayed.

Also, contrary to the PDP constitution and convention that no bloc zone should appropriate both the presidential ticket and the position of national chairman, the North took the two prime positions. Hell was let loose in the opposition party.

While Atiku, erstwhile presidential candidate, could not be asked to jettison his ticket at that stage, the only remedy was for Iyorchia Ayu to make a big sacrifice by stepping down as chairman.

Ayu later became the casualty of the plot by G-5 Governors hatched in Sam Ortom’s Benue State, where he was suspended by his native Igyorov Ward of Gboko Local Government Area.

In filling the vacancy, the party followed the due process outlined in its constitution, which stipulates that whenever a national chairman is removed, the National Deputy Chairman from his bloc region should fill the void

Thus, when Ayu from the North was sacked, Damagum from the North started acting as national chairman.

According to the PDP constitution and convention, when a national chairman fails to complete his tenure, his micro-zone (Northcentral) of the larger bloc zone (North) should produce a replacement.

Meetings of the National Executive Committee (NEC) ought to be summoned to clear the path for the selection of a replacement. Thrice it was called.

Yet, PDP could not make a headway. That is why chairmanship aspirants from Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Benue and Nasarawa are on the prowl.

To them, Damagum as acting chairman is an impediment. Thus, frantic campaigns have been on for his removal or suspension.

However, despite their vituperation, the acting chairman can only be replaced at the national convention or through a court order.

The road to that convention is bumpy. Amid the crisis, the activities of the factional NWC can only compound the controversy.

Neither of the two factions, as it now appears, can fully exist independently of the other.

Both factions have to return to the court, if they cannot embrace a truce. They are running from pillar to post to strengthen their positions.

Their activities create stress for the party. The timing is also wrong because the party is also warming up for a critical governorship poll in Ondo State.

PDP is in a difficult situation. It has embarked on another problematic journey.

Ahead of 2027, PDP wobbles into an uncertain future that may lead to doom, if the combatants refuse to return to the table of brotherhood and embrace genuine reconciliation.