By Tonnie Iredia

My former hall mate and compatriot, Adeseye Ogunlewe, was clearly seen by all as a fiery student in our days at the nation’s premier university at Ibadan. It is indeed difficult to forget how he radiated confidence at all times and easily passed for those generally regarded as serious students. Seye, as we fondly called him was in the same elements a few days ago when on national television, he espoused the essence of party supremacy.

A strong member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he had served with excellence as Minister of Works during President Obasanjo’s administration. Seye suggests that a political party is virtually unquestionable and as such any of its members who is unable to abide by a decision of his party should be shown the way out.

Whereas the viewpoint is strong, it is important to add that party supremacy presupposes that a political party would neither be frivolous nor perverse in its decision making. Where it does and thereby creates conflict, it must give way to a superior decision on the subject made by the Judiciary which is the body legally recognized by the highest law of the land to settle disputes. In other words, if the judiciary rejects a point canvassed by a political party, neither the party nor any of its members can on the grounds of adhering to party supremacy, stick to the overruled issue.

Sometimes some overzealous party officials argue even openly that party matters are internal issues of the party which should not be brought before a court thereby unilaterally ousting the jurisdiction of a court on such matters. Interestingly, even when a rule seeks to oust the jurisdiction of a court, the same court is still empowered to examine the validity of the purported ouster clause.

Therefore, although the judiciary does not have such a term as judicial supremacy, the term ought to be in the sub consciousness of anyone who appreciates that party supremacy must operate within the rule of law. Here, the case of Citizen Ifeanyi Araruame is germane. In 2007, Araruame, then a serving senator of the Federal Republic aspired to govern his state (Imo) and applied to his party – the PDP – to sponsor him for the election. He was enlisted among party members for a governorship primary election to enable the party choose the best candidate.

At the end of the exercise, the party declared him as the winner of the contest after certifying that he scored the highest number of votes. On the basis of what no one understands till date, his victory was later swapped by the party. He went to court and his plea was upheld but his party in order to show party supremacy worked against him and he lost the election suggesting that the party believes in the rule of law minus some court judgments!

A unique convention of the PDP is its expectation that its members would operate by consensus. Anyone who breaches it can be in jeopardy. On this score, political analysts who follow the party’s activities must have been taken aback the week before when it was revealed that some PDP Governors failed to vote for Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State – the party’s anointed candidate for the post of Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF).

It is in earnest strange that the signatories to the consensus agreement turned out to be more than those that obeyed the party decision. If the party punishes some and not all the transgressors, the envisaged strong walls of party supremacy would inevitably become weakened by the lack of uniformity in handling members. Thus, for party supremacy to be credible, it cannot be used as a tool for discrimination.

Again for party supremacy to thrive, no one should be bigger than the party. PDP was thus in order when not long ago, it compelled its Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur to drop his Chief of Staff because the party constitution did not provide for such a post. Yet again, a purely advisory body led by a distinguished second republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, to help the chairman  generate ideas and strategies on how to move the party forward was similarly opposed by the members because such a committee was unknown to their party’s constitution. Along this line of thought, it is not uncharitable to expect the PDP to do away with other illegal structures like the Governor Akpabio led PDP Governors’ Forum which is reportedly not recognized by the party’s constitution

One way of upholding party supremacy is to ensure that members elected into public office like Governors are subordinated to the party. Luckily for the PDP, its Rivers State branch is already actively doing this. Unlike other branches that are obviously timid, the branch has come of age and no longer panders to the whims and caprices of the State Governor.  For example, there is the story that the party recently gave a directive to Governor Rotimi Amaechi which he allegedly disobeyed.

Consequently, the party remitted the matter above to its national headquarters to have the Governor disciplined. We hear that it was for this reason that Governor Amaechi was suspended from the party last week. There are rumours however that the State Executive Committee of the party has never met. If so, how was the directive to the Governor which allegedly was not complied with arrived at? Second, where, when and how was the resolution passed to send the subject to higher authorities for treatment?

Although the decision of the national body to suspend the Governor may have been premised on party supremacy, the Governor has cried out that it was not given a chance to defend himself before he was penalized. If this is so, the decision of the party may be seen by some critics as perverse leaving her with a burden to prove to the society at large that it is not perpetuating illegality under the guise of party supremacy. Put differently, if, the PDP did not meet the elementary requirements of the principles of natural justice on the subject; it carries a burden which party supremacy cannot discharge.