Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, examines the pockets of grieviances within the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and wonders if the Governor Seriake Dickson-led National Reconciliation Committee can once again return the troubled party to the path of peace.
IT is no longer news that the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), through its National Reconciliation Committee led by Governor Seriake Dickson is making serious effort to combat a fresh intra party crisis occasioned by the dissatisfaction expressed by many chieftains of the troubled party over how a new national leadership was chosen at its last elective national convention.
The question on many lips weeks after the committee went to town with its message of peace and reconciliation is how far it can go in its quest to stop the PDP from sliding back into the infamy of the past. This followed indications that the task of reconciling some of the aggrieved party men with the opposition party may be failing. Party sources say it appears Dickson, though threading a familiar road, may be encountering unfamiliar challenges.
“The committee is trying but the situation is not as simple as you think. Some of the issues are such that unless something miraculous happens, it may be hard for the committee to resolve them. Imagine a situation where almost an entire zone of the party is considering dumping the PDP and moving to another party. Or a situation where a group of PDP founding fathers are convinced that the party has been hijacked by just two people.
“The committee never said it has resolved the issues. It announced that it met the people involved and discussion continues. So, if we are now seeing signs that some of these people are not ready to explore merely the internal mechanism of the party in their quest for justice, it simply means the PDP may have to do more than forming a committee to stop another round of crisis ahead of the 2019 general elections,” a chieftain of the party in Lagos state said.
It would be recalled that on December 9, 2017, at he Eagle Square in Abuja, the federal capital territory (FCT), leaders and members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sought to return the troubled party to its glorious ways when they held an elective national convention that many had predicted will usher in a new and acceptable leadership for the opposition party after years of protracted intra party squabbles that nearly ended the very existence of the PDP.
The convention held amidst uncertainties and controversies. Winners were declared even as nearly a half of the chairmanship contestants either boycotted the process or raised alarm midway into the convention. Worse still, leaders of the party in the southwest zone left the convention insisting that the party had not only marginalized the zone, but had also insulted its leaders in the manner the new leadership of the party was elected.
“Governor Wike must tender an unreserved apology to the Yoruba people for his unguarded utterances against the Yoruba race. I listened to my younger brother and I see it as an insult. I consider it as an insult. I entered the contest on the micro-zoning principle, which has been thrashed by little men who have compromised. It appears the PDP is bent on self-destruction. I can’t be part of this. ”
“The chairmanship position has been sold to the highest bidder,” Chief Bode George, a leading chairmanship aspirant from the southwest, stated while briefing newsmen at his campaign office in Abuja on his decision to pull out of the contest some hours to the start of the convention. His position was later echoed by many leaders and members of the party from the zone.
Nonetheless, Prince Uche Secondus, who had earlier been rumored to be the anointed candidate of the Governors elected on the platform of the PDP, and whose name featured prominently as chairmanship choice on the now controversial “unity list” circulated to delegates at the venue of the convention, was announced as the winner of the chairmanship election.
The conciliators return
Expectedly, the outcome of the convention was rejected by some of the party’s leading figures, especially from the southwest geo-political zone. Some prominent PDP chieftains from other geo-political zones also expressed dissatisfaction with the manner Secondus emerged as the national chairman of the party. Many alleged that the distribution of a unity list at the venue of the convention rendered the entire exercise a nullity.
“We reject the entire electoral process. The election has been grossly compromised to achieve a predetermined end. The illegal unity list is prepared by governors Wike and Ayodele Fayose to foist on the entire delegates,” Shehu Garba, Director General of the Tunde Adeniran Campaign Organization, had said shortly after the convention. Similarly, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, another chairmanship aspirant from the south-south, faulted the entire process and called on party members to reject it.
But the leadership of the troubled party, appearing to have foreseen the unfolding post convention scenario, wasted no time in assuring the world that it intends to reconcile the aggrieved party men with the PDP and avoid a return to the inglorious era of intra party crisis. “The PDP cannot afford to fight itself. The task ahead of us as we approach 2019 is such that we must have all hands on deck,” one of the newly elected national officers told The Nation during the week.
And selected for the job of ensuring that the grievances emanating from the convention are quickly managed to prevent any serious crisis was the same man who had earlier performed the same task following the Supreme Court judgement that ended the reign of Senator Modu Sherif as the national chairman of the party and confirmed Senator Ahmed Makarfi’s position as leader of the party, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa state.
Dickson, along with other members of his National Reconciliation Committee wasted no time. Within a week of its inauguration, the committee had toured several states of the country, talking to party members and aggrieved aspirants as well as urging PDP chieftains to refrain from inflammatory statements. And it appeared the reconciliation efforts were yielding fruits with many of those aggrieved talking about peace and solutions instead of crisis and fictionalization.
Bode George told Dickson he will not fight the PDP but will appreciate an apology from Governor Wike. Adeniran urged the committee to ensure that the issues being raised by the aggrieved party leaders are thoroughly looked into. He added that it was important to also reach out to as many members of the PDP who did not contest for any position but fought gallantly to ensure the preservation of the party.
Former Minister of Information and Orientation, Prof Jerry Gana, vowed he would never leave the PDP for whatever reason.
Can Dickson’s reconciliation committee save PDP?
