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PDP Chairmanship race showdown:
Our Assistant Editor, Paul UWADIMA writes that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, national chairman-ship contest at the party’s national convention would be a tag team fight between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the out-going national chairman of the party, Dr. Ahmadu Ali on one hand and the former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, and the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the party Chief Tony Anenih, on the other hand for the soul of the party.
The race for the national chairmanship position of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the forthcoming national convention of the party would not be merely to elect a new chairman and other officials of the party to pilot the affairs of the party, it is going to be a tag team challenge between two former Heads of state for the soul of self-styled Africa’s biggest political party.
It is also seen by many as the fight between those who are for the sustenance of status quo ante in the party and those who are demanding a change and a paradigm shift in the way that the party was being run over the past eight years. It is also going to be a battle between those who believe that the out-going administration led by Dr. Ahmadu Ali has done well and those who think otherwise.
To Ali’s supporters, if the essence of party politics is to get to power and sustain and retain that power once acquired, they argued Ali has done well. They also argue that Ali over the past few years sat atop the biggest party in Africa and ensured that the party is not just big for nothing. The party is controlling most of the state governments across the country even with the recent reversals of election victories of PDP state governors. Under Ali the PDP is controlling the senate and the House of Representatives, the highest law making bodies in the country. They further remind anybody who cares to listen that under the out-going chairman the party won the last April presidential election even though foreign observers had described the election as a sham and is subject of petition in the courts. In the group that felt that the party has done well under Ali, what the party needs is somebody who will not upturn the apple cart. The arrow head of this group is the former president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who single-handedly installed the Ahmadu Ali led administration.
The candidate of those who are for the status quo ante is the former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu. The former governor is a beloved of the former president because he is said to have shown uncanny support for Obasanjo during the former president’s failed bid to elongate his tenure through the amendment of the country’s constitution which limits the tenure of the office of the president to two-term tenure of four years each. The Abuja Inquirer findings indicate that at the time several state governors including those of the South-East zone where the chairmanship position was zoned would sneak into Aso Rock Villa professing their loyalty to Obasanjo extolling his qualities as a leader and reminding him that as the father of modern Nigeria, the country cannot move forward without him. When Obasanjo is not looking some of the governors stoke fire against the third term bid by surreptiously sponsoring anti-third term articles in the media as well as groups opposed to tenure elongation. The former president was soon availed of the gimmicks of some of the state governors and his disdain for many of them grew. However Sam Egwu’s report that came to the former president was that of a loyal party man who was ready to deploy his state resources for the “good” of the party and Obasanjo. Given that the position of the national chairman was zoned to the South-East, Chief Obasanjo had no trouble in picking Dr. Egwu to be the next chairman of the party. And the former president has taken the unusual step as the BOT chairman to campaign for Egwu, a move that have been critised by many. Those opposed to Obasanjo campaigning for Egwu or any other aspirant said the BOT chairman as the father of the party, may be called upon to settle a dispute that could arose in the course of the election of the national chairman and the BOT chairman would not be seen as an unbiased umpire in addressing such a problem.
Those in favour of the maintenance of the status quo ante seem to be in total control of things ahead of the national conventions and many observers say it would take a miracle for them not to prevail at this week convention. The strength of this group lies in the fact that Dr.Ahmadu Ali is the Head of Convention Committee; Chief Olabode George, National Vice Chairman South-West is the chairman of the Convention Planning Committee. George was among those who if it were left for them, Obasanjo should rule Nigeria in perpetuity and always seem ready to fight anybody who by any chance disagrees with Obasanjo on any issue. The group also have on board Mallam Adamu Ciroma, former Minister of Finance who was made chairman of the powerful Special National Convention Electoral Panel, which is made up of 41 members that are to screen the aspirants for the party’s positions. Mallam Ciroma is believed to be staunchly loyal to Obasanjo and the direction the former president want to take the party he may likely follow, although some would like to disagree.
When the chairman of Senators Forum, Senator Alex Kadiri spoke to this paper recently he dispelled the insinuation that Adamu Ciroma could be used by anybody. He said the former minister is a man of integrity and thus would execute his assignment with fairness and justice.”On a scale of one to ten, I will score Ciroma eight on integrity. The man has achieved most of the things he wanted in life, he don’t need anybody’s favour and cannot be compromised,” he said.
Despite the advice of people like Senator Kadiri that the chairmen of the various committees of the national convention should be given a chance to do their job many key figures in the party are opposed to the composition of the national convention committees with some threatening to go to court to seek redress. Those opposed to the convention committees as presently constituted include the G21 group in which the former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, and the former Speaker, House of Representatives, Mallam Aminu Bello Masari, are members; the Integrity group in the National Assembly that spearheaded the resignation of the former speaker of the House of Representatives Mrs. Patricia Etteh over allegations of corruption has also raised their voice against the manner the convention committees was put together. Their spokesman Hon. Faruk Lawan has not ruled out the possibility of using the court to stop the convention if their grievances are not addressed.
The other more formidable group in which the G21 and Integrity Group are encapsulated by the nature of their leader Gen. Babangida are not making noises over their desire to take over the party.This papers findings indicates that they have perfected the strategy to pool the rug off the feet of Obasanjo and Ali. This group also has Chief Tony Anenih, the former BOT Chairman are working behind the scene to take over the party. The two men have some axe to grind with Obasanjo. Gen.Babangida was one of those instrumental to the release of Obasanjo from prison where he was languishing following his conviction over allegation of coup plot against the late Head of State Gen.Sani Abacha. Besides facilitating Obasanjo’s release from prison IBB was said to have used his personal resources and those of his friends to make way for Obasanjo to be the PDP candidate in the presidential election for the Otah farmer’s first tenure. When this same Babangida wanted the top job as the civilian president in 2007, with all the goodwill the gap-toothed general had gathered for the race, Obasanjo de-mystified Babangida who until then had a larger-than-life image and literally stopped Babangida from seeking the position by making clear to him and others with similar ambition that he has “annionted” the reclusive governor of Katsina state Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua to be the next president of Nigeria. Chief Anenih was the PDP BOT Chairman until Obasanjo left office and decided to take it from him. Before Obasanjo left office he had ensured that the party’s constitution was changed to his favour. The constitutional amendment he could not get from the national assembly he got from his party. Recently the former Minister of Defence, Gen.T.Y.Danjuma said that Obasanjo is indeed enjoying a third term despite leaving office since last year. Danjuma was alluding to the fact that the former president still determines who gets what in the party and in the country.
Obasanjo’s present position was made possible and strengthened because the amended constitution of the party states that only a former elected president under the platform of the PDP can be the BOT chairman and where such a person does not exist, then a former national chairman of the party could be elected to the position. Even those who are desirous of removing Obasanjo as BOT chairman have hit a cul de sac unless that aspect of the amended PDP is reviewed or expunged all together. That is why the G21 and the Integrity group are demanding for a constitutional review which was rejected. Chief Anenih is therefore a victim of the amended constitution and he is said to be even more embittered over the manner he was shoved aside and Obasanjo took over. Sources close to him said he is bent on revenge. The IBB/Anenih candidate for the national chairman of the party is the former senate president Anyim Pius Anyim. But the big question is, can they dislodge the Obasanjo camp whom every thing seem to be going their way? To do that they must ensure that the convention is conducted in a transparent manner. Can there really be transparency when pro-Obasanjo people are in charge?.That is the big hurdle for IBB/Anenih to climb.
In the end unless a dark horse is backed by president Yar’Adua there may not be change in the way the party would be run even after the convention. This belief is reinforced by the fact that the IBB/Anenih camp cannot be said to be true agents of change either in PDP or in the country. They are seen by many as the chip of the old block who are part of the country’s problems in leadership. Anenih is a political godfather does not tolerate any opposition to any aspirant that in his wisdom he choose to “anoint” for any position. He does not believe in the politics of concensus his desire for change is viewed largely as selfish and not altruistic.
Babangida similarly like the politics of imposition and cronyism. He is widely believed to have abandoned his presidential ambition in 2007 because he was not “anointed” by Obasanjo for the position. He is said to be aware that without the approval of the establishment and its endorsement a presidential aspirant may well be wasting his resources running for the office. The real change in PDP would emerge if President Yar’Adua would put his foot down and insist on due process and the party members seek a shift from the old ways of doing business but that seem unlikely given that Yar’Adua has said at several occasions that Obasanjo is his leader which could be interpreted to mean, where Obasanjo goes, Yar’Adua is likely to follow.
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