By Henry Umoru

Those without work should stay away from the PDP secretariat. I am here to work, there is no doubt that all has not been well with our party. I will restore the lost glory of the PDP, with your total support.”

Those were the words of Alhaji Adamu Muazu when he took over from his predecessor, Ambassador Bamanga Tukur, January 20, 2014 as National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

To achieve his goal of restoring the lost glory of the PDP, Muazu, on September 12, inaugurated what he called PDP National Integration Committee for the six geo- political zones of the country.

The committee was saddled with the task of reconciling estranged members with the party.

The North East zone has former Senate President Ken Nnamani as Chairman; North Central, former Acting National Chairman and former Minister of Defence, Dr. Mohammed Haliru Bello as Chairman; North West has the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih as Chairman; South South, Senator Iya Abubakar; South East, former PDP National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali as Chairman and South West, Senate President David Mark as Chairman.

Inaugurating the committee, Mu’azu said : “We should, therefore, go beyond being a reformed party to a reform-minded institution that is pro-actively committed to mid-wifing the accelerated transformation of our dear country.

“You have been assembled as great party leaders with great party spirit; men and women of high strength of character who, by your wealth of experience, are well-equipped and disposed to create value, add value and protect values within the PDP family.”

A peep into the past

Before the National Integration Committee inaugurated by Muazu, his predecessors had tried to find ways to resolve political quagmires that reared their heads. After the 1999 presidential election which brought in former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Chairman of the party and former governor of Plateau State, Chief Solomon Lar, set up a reconciliation committee headed by former Vice President Alex Ekwueme.

The committee had a former Kano State governor, the late Abubakar Rimi; a former governor of Old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo; Chief Richard Akinjide; a former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, among others, as members.

It had become imperative for Lar to unite all in the party, following issues before the 1999 election that saw Ekwueme stepping down for Obasanjo because it was clear then that the colleagues of the latter in the military were backing him to win the PDP’s ticket. Ekwueme was pressurised to settle for the Senate where he would be the Senate President, but he refused.

There was also, in 2002, a PDP reconciliation committee on the executive/legislature impasse.

Still on the moves to bring back members who were forced out of the party, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua raised a committee also with Ekwueme as Chairman.

The Ekwueme committee, at the end of the exercise, discovered to its chagrin that only six of the 34 founding members were still in the party. The committee recommended that those who left be allowed to come back while there must be rule of law, internal democracy, among others.

Rather than implement the recommendations of the the committee’s report, soon after he came in as the PDP National Chairman in 2008, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor set up another 18-member committee to review the report with his then deputy and former Minister of Defence, Mohammed Haliru Bello as Chairman.

Soon after Bamanga Tukur came in and with the determination to implement his 3R agenda of Reconciliation, Reformation and Re- building the party, he set up an eight–man committee with Chief Alabo Graham Douglas as Chairman to reconcile members in Kano State.

He also set a committee headed by Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun to reconcile aggrieved members of the PDP in Benue State, just as there was that of Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State to resolve the issues in the South West.

There was also a 30-member Reconciliation Panel headed by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, just as former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State was in the wake of crisis in the state appointed to chair the PDP Elders Forum to reconcile all.

Tukur, while inaugurating the Dickson’s committee, asked members to pay special attention to non-PDP controlled states, especially the six states in the South West; Anambra and Imo in the South East; Edo in South South; Nasarawa in North Central; Borno and Yobe in the North East; and Zamfara in the North West. The former PDP boss also told the committee that the party was determined, more than ever, to reclaim the the South West, even as PDP, between 2003 and 2007, controlled five of the six states in the zone. He asked the committee to evaluate the trend in the National Assembly in relation to the party’s interest and progress.

But the problems continued in all the zones even after the committees. The last one before Muazu came into office was that which was set up by President Goodluck Jonathan in the wake of the logjam in the party during Tukur’s tenure where five governors and members of the National Assembly supporting them left. The president’s committee was chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, which recommended that Tukur should resign. Tukur did. Muazu stepped in.

Muazu’s National Zonal Integration Committee saddled with the assignment of returning unity to party immediately took off. While other chapters held their meetings in the zones, that of South South met at PDP campaign office, Legacy House, Maitama, Abuja. For three days, the South South chapter with the Zonal National Chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojuogboh, as the rallying point, received petitions from the states, except Bayelsa where there was no single petition.

At the venue, tempers rose, especially from Akwa Ibom with former Governor Victor Attah leading others against alleged imposition and claims that the membership register was hijacked and taken to Government House, warning that if the committee did not do a good job, it would have grave consequence on the party in 2015, but Governor, Godswill Akpabio immediately denied the claims, promising a level playing field for aspirants.

Akpabio said, “That is falsehood, there is nothing like that. All the wards and chapters have their membership registers. The state party chairman also has his own copies. The allegation is baseless and you have to understand that this is political time and people are doing their best to blackmail one another, bring about falsehood in an attempt to win elections, primaries or gain political power.

“I focus on good governance in my state and the PDP is out to ensure electoral independence. I have a lot of respect for elders and the fathers of the party and the president found it expedient to make me a member of the party`s inner caucus.

“I am a strong party man. I identify with the Working Committee in my state, the people and the founding fathers. The problem in my state is that we have one or two founding fathers who lost primaries in 2016 and, from that period, they lost interest in the PDP.”

Strong indications also emerged, at the South-South Committee hearing that all is not well with PDP in Rivers State, especially as the immediate past Minister of State, Education, Nyesom Wike, will engage in battle with any who opposes him for the party’s ticket ahead of the 2015 gubernatorial poll, ,even as the other groups will not fold their arms, especially the Ogonis.

When it came to the turn of Cross River State, the battle was not as fierce as that of Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, just as Edo was equally calm.

In South West, Senator Mark appears to have won some estranged members for the PDP with former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and Governor Olusegun Mimiko, returning to the party.

In the case of Delta State, there are issues as some aspirants from northern part of the state are insisting that perimaries preparatory to 2015 must be open to all aspirants. They do not want imposition by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. Contenders like former Speaker Victor Ochei, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa; Professor Sylvester Monye, among others as well as party members who have been around want credible primaries.

To give credence to open primaries, Delta State PDP, in an advertisement, said the race for the House of Assembly, National Assembly and governorship, is for all with the setting up of a five-member committee headed by Evangelist Solomon Ogba to handle the exercise.

The South-East chapter of the PDP reconciliation committee, did not find things easy in Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu States. In Enugu, it is no longer a secret that there is cold war between the camp of Governor Sullivan Chime and Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu over the PDP gubernatorial ticket ahead of the 2015 polls.

In Abia, Governor Theodore Orji is blocking all moves to ensure that his predecessor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu returns to PDP. It is on record that Orji marched to the National Secretariat of the party during Tukur’s tenure with stakeholders warning against the party having the former governor back to the party.

Orji, who is the Chairman of South-East Governors’ Forum, also led a similar delegation to Abuja to caution Mu’azu against romancing with Kalu because, according to him, his predecessor was not a PDP member.

Also in Plateau State in North Central, it may be a difficult task for the committee owing to the fact that Governor Jonah Jang was already closing the doors against those who want to return to the PDP, just like he did in 2012 when he stormed the PDP National Secretariat and appealed to Tukur, the then National Chairman, not to welcome those he claimed were not after genuine reconciliation. He was apparently referring to former Governor Joshua Dariye and a former deputy governor, Pauline Tallen.

In fact, Jang told the integration committee that Tallen; and a former FCT Minister, Jeremiah Useni; would only be reabsorbed into the party after the primaries for the 2015 general elections.

As the truce committee submits its report, one issue the PDP governors are contending with is that of cancellation of endorsement of candidates, saying that since President Goodluck Jonathan was endorsed as the sole presidential candidate of the party, they should be allowed to pick their successors.

It will be recalled that rising from its weekly meeting, Thursday, the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP had warned the governors, Zonal and state Chairmen to jettison the party’s anointed candidate ahead of the November 29 primaries where gubernatorial candidates ahead of the 2015 race would emerge.

A statement by the PDP National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, read, “The National Working Committee (NWC) at its meeting today, Thursday, October 9, 2014 noted that some elected officers of our great Party at the state level have continued to engage in processes aimed at endorsing candidates for the 2015 general elections despite warnings from the national leadership that they, as unbiased umpires should not involved in such.

“The NWC strongly frowns at this development and issues this as a final warning to all elected party officials and chapters at all levels, and shall not hesitate to sanction such erring officers or chapters.

“The sanctity of our nomination processes must be protected at all times. We therefore wish to assure all party members that there shall be a level playing ground for all aspirants intending to participate in the nomination processes.

“Consequently, the NWC will not hesitate to protect any of our members who in any way stands to be shortchanged, cheated or victimized by such endorsements.

“The NWC charges all our members and supporters therefore to disregard all such endorsements as the PDP will conduct primaries to duly elect our flag bearers in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act and the constitution of our great party.”

The statement was preceded y a rash of endorsements by some PDP governors. Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State announced the endorsement of Senate President David Mark for a fifth time in the Senate, just as Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma- Egba, representing Cross River Central, was at a rally in Ikom, endorsed to return to the Senate for a fourth time.

Of the 19 PDP governors, those who want to come back for second term are Murktar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State; Acting Governor of Taraba State, Garba Umar; Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe; Henry Seriake-Dickson of Bayelsa; Idris Wada of Kogi and Adamawa State governor, Bala James Ngilari, among others.

Besides Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa; Jonah Jang of Plateau and Babangida Aliyu of Niger, some outgoing governors of PDP have got the machinery of the party and some persons in their states to anoint them for the Senate. They are Governors Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom; Gabriel Suswam of Benue; Saidu Dakingari of Kebbi; Theodore Orji of Abia; Sullivan Chime of Enugu; Ibrahim Shema of Katsina and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi.

As the governors plan to move from their various government Houses to the Senate, they have anointed sons to take over from them. In Enugu State, member representing Udenu/ Igboeze- North in the House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Marine Transport, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has been endorsed by Chime as his possible successor.

In Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio is said to have settled for the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, while Martins Elechi of Ebonyi State has endorsed the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu.

Immediate past Minister of State, Education, Nyesom Wike, is being looked at by the Rivers State chapter of PDP as the prospective gubernatorial candidate while in Bauchi Governor Yuguda may not have made up his mind on who should be his successor between the former PDP Acting National Secretary and Chairman, Governing Board of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Dr. Musa Babayo, and a former Minister of State, Health, Dr. Muhammed Ali Pate.

As Muazu receives the report of the PDP National Zonal Integration Committee from their Chairmen, stakeholders hope the recommendations would be implemented and not to go same way of those in the past.