BY VINCENT UJUMADU
THE sudden resignation of the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo following his problem within the party hierarchy is likely to cause more confusion in the already highly bruised PDP in Anambra State. Though factions existed in the party before Nwodo’s emergence as the national chairman last year, the crisis escalated such that at the last count, most notable members of the party had got disenchanted and left.

Last outing as PDP chairman .... Nwodo addressing delegates at the PDP National Convention, Abuja, last Thursday

Among those that left in the wake of the uncertainty pervading in the party were Senator Joy Emodi, Senator Ikechukwu Obiora, Professor Dora Akunyili, former deputy governor, Dr Okey Ude, former deputy governor Chinedu Emeka, House of Representatives members Uche Ekwunife, Gozie Agbakoba, Charles Odedo, Ralph Okeke, Vitalis Okafor, Cyril Maduabum, Chuma Nzeribe, as well as many members of the state House of Assembly and other notable politicians in the state. They defected into either APGA or the ACN where most of them have already picked tickets to contest the April elections.

Perhaps one family that may be regarding Nwodo’s exit as a good riddance is the Uba family. Unarguably one of the most vociferous political families in the state at present, the Uba family at a stage felt that Nwodo’s main task for accepting the office of the national chairman was to undermine it. For instance, shortly after he assumed office, he announced measures to reposition the party in the state, one of which was to organize congresses at all levels which the Uba family was opposed to.

That decision ran counter to the interest of the Uba family which was already in control of the state executive through one of its cronies, Chief Benji Udeozor following a court order secured in their favour. But before the court order, Nwodo had started the process of democratizing the party in the state with the appointment of Chief Emma Nweze as the chairman of the caretaker committee of the party.

For the first time since the 2007 general elections, all the leaders of the various factions, though some of them were not physically present, sent representatives to the meeting conveyed by the chairman of the caretaker committee, Chief Emma Nweze to find a way forward for the party that had remained in disarray as a result of leadership crisis.

Nweze said then that the meeting was aimed at giving the members the opportunity to suggest ways of correcting the imbalances that had existed over the years.

In an emotion –laden address to them, Nweze said: “Before now, every member of our great party was aware that there were various factions in our party, with numerous litigations instituted by members under the aegis of various past state executive committees. All these have created tension, bad blood and division among party loyalists.

“It is painful that a state like Anambra with great potentials and which has produced great Nigerians in various fields of human endeavour, can get embroiled in such an intractable internal crisis that had portrayed us as incapable of governing ourselves. This is most unacceptable. We need to quickly put all these ugly experience behind us and move forward for the sake of the people of Anambra State , our party and Nigeria .

“With the emergence of Dr. Okwesiliweze Nwodo as the new national chairman, the party has begun to sing a new song in Nigeria . Hope is being rekindled and the ugly practices of marginalization, exclusion and lack of internal democracy are being squarely addressed. The story cannot be different in Anambra.”

Nweze said further that although his emergence as the state chairman may not have gone down well with some highly respected leaders of PDP in the state, those who feel aggrieved one way or the other should sheath their swords and support the dialogue, peace and the clear vision he has brought.

Some of the stakeholders who spoke expressed their preparedness to cooperate with the chairman, adding that what caused the problem in the past was the deceit by those who were appointed to superintend over the affairs of the party, but had personal agenda which led to the unending crisis. According to them, no genuine politician would oppose peace, adding that as long as the committee met the aspirations of majority of PDP members in the state, it would receive maximum support from the members

Among those that attended another stakeholders meeting convened by Nweze after he emerged chairman following a congress were the former governor, Dr. Andy Uba, his brother, Chris Uba, Senator Annie Okonkwo, Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu and Chief Kenneth Emeakayi.

But there were disagreements at the meeting. Not satisfied with  the direction the Nweze executive was going, Chief Chris Uba and members of the state executive of the party loyal to him led by Chief Benji Udeozo staged a walkout. Reason for his action was that the harmonization agreed upon earlier appeared not to favour him considerably.

The animosity continued and climaxed at Owerri Airport where Chris Uba reportedly had a physical clash with the South East zonal chairman of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh in the presence of onlookers at the airport at the time because he (Metuh) was thought by the Ubas as working with Nwodo to make the family irrelevant politically.

Metuh had vowed after the incident that he would not succumb to intimidation in the quest to reposition PDP in the zone in readiness for the 2011 elections, adding that allowing undemocratic behaviour to continue was what made the party to lose its number one position in the state. He said that the era of one person arrogating to himself the powers of determining what goes on in the party was over.

In fact, when the PDP leadership under Nwodo decided to restructure the party in many states, including Anambra with the decision to organize fresh congresses that would lead to the emergence of democratically elected officials at the ward, local government and state levels, Uba felt that it was an attempt by Metuh and Nwodo to remove the party structure from him.

Similarly, the group loyal to Dr. Andy Uba, the former presidential aide and elder brother to Chris, whose own executive was led by Mr. Bright Nnebedum also opposed Nwodo’s decision to hold another congress. That group continued to function until it decided to join the Benji Udeozor group to form as a common front in the opposition to Nwodo and Metuh. Before dissolving itself, the Nebedum group had argued that it was the authentic exco because it participated in the convention that produced other national leaders of the party.

According to the group “The National Secretariat of the PDP issued a Certificate of Return to that effect and the result of subsequent congresses held at the zonal and national levels in which officers of the same state EXCO participated as delegates were accepted and the winners at those levels are today functionaries of the party.

“It is therefore clear that the intimidation and limitations placed on the State EXCO by the former National Chairman of PDP arose out of serious ulterior motives and were a clear expression of vendetta against few people he branded political enemies.

“The said limitations came in the form of a purported and wrongful dissolution of the State EXCO, an action which has since been challenged in the Law Court. Obviously, such an action cannot enjoy the support of the law and the EXCO insists that since rule of law is the bedrock of our democracy of today, it cannot be intimidated by the illegal actions of the former National Chairman which were initiated for private reasons and sustained for selfish motives as his activities only succeeded in standing the PDP on its head in Anambra State during his tenure.

“Our attention was also drawn to the several attempts to the legitimization of the illegalities which gave birth to the aberration called ‘Caretaker Committees’ which were appointed from time to time. The EXCO decided not to join issues with such illegal bodies because they are not known to the constitution of the PDP,” the group said.

Now that Nwodo has resigned, indications are that PDP is likely to experience more crises, especially as the Uba’s appear to have lost grip of the structure of the party, going by the result of the recent primaries in which Andy Uba lost to Nicholas Ukachukwu and most aspirants loyal to the family failed in their bid to pick the PDP tickets.

Unless something drastic happens, PDP is not likely to make any appreciable impact in the forthcoming election in the state as APGA and ACN appear to have taken upper hand.

From the result of the primaries, it is going to be old PDP members versus new generation of PDP members who are yet to be well grounded in Anambra politics.