The PDP Musical Chair

The position of National Chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is indeed an original illustration of the fabled “Musical Chair”. In a little over twelve years of existence of the Party, no less than seven National Chairmen have presided over its affairs. After the founding and interim chairman, Dr Alex Ekwueme, the post was zoned to the North Central when General Olusegun Obasanjo emerged as the presidential candidate of the party in February 1999.

Within the space of eight years, Chief Solomon Lar, Engineer Barnabas Gemade, Chief Audu Ogbeh and retired Colonel Ahmadu Ali had taken turns to lead the party on behalf of their zone. In 2007 the post was zoned to the South East. In keeping with the tempestuous culture of the party, within nearly four years, two chairmen – Dr Vincent Ogbulafor and Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo – have taken their shots at the job. It is interesting to note that of all the people who have occupied that position, only Dr Ekwueme vacated the post voluntarily to contest for the presidential ticket of the party towards the end of 1998.

Others were courted and dumped, mainly in line with the political needs and aspirations of the sitting presidents. Therefore, it is an idle analysis to say that two national chairmen of the party from the South East zone in four years is evidence of disunity among the political elite of the zone in the PDP. Besides, if President Yar’ Adua had not died, who was going to remove Ogbulafor from office, given the fact that he was loyal to Yar’ Adua unto death, which, along with his commitment to the zoning principle, actually accounted for his removal when President Goodluck Jonathan ascended to power.

*Nwodo

 Who would have removed Nwodo from office if he had not burnt his own fingers in the ways he conducted the congresses and primaries of the party, especially the presidential primaries, which created ripples in the camp of the president and powerful governors?

Nwodo plotted his own downfall

Nwodo was actually the architect of his own downfall. He embarked on the reform programmes of re_democratising the processes of the party without carrying most of the leaders along. Some accused him of not walking his talk, as he was seen to have spruced up his own preferred candidates in his state and some parts of the country in contravention of his campaign for credible elections.

He was chiefly responsible for the protracted crises in the Enugu chapter of the PDP, where he sponsored candidates with a view to supplanting Governor Sullivan Chime and his political camp. President Jonathan intervened in the crisis, asking the opposing camps to share power equally and ensure that the governor was given a second term ticket. Nwodo reportedly fouled this directive and got the president livid.

By far the greatest undoing of Dr Nwodo was his mishandling of the court order restraining him from parading himself as the National Chairman of the Party on the eve of the presidential primaries which took place on Thursday, 13th January 2011 at the Eagle Square, Abuja. Barely twenty four hours to the convention, an Enugu High Court presided over by Justice Reuben Onuorah, granted a request brought before it by one Mr Collins Amalu, praying the court to restrain Nwodo from parading himself as the chairman of the party as his appointment did not follow due process. The court granted the request pending the determination of the substantive suit.

Nwodo, while claiming not to have received a copy of the order, dashed to an Abuja High Court to vacate the order. Meanwhile, in order to avoid complications that could arise from disobedience of the court order, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Party, at the prodding of the National Legal Adviser, Chief Olusola Oke, authorised the Deputy National Chairman of the Party, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, to take charge of proceedings at the presidential convention. The party was keenly aware that the camp of former Vice Atiku Abubakar and co_contender with President Jonathan for the coveted ticket, was watching every move to spot loopholes with which to challenge the outcome in court unless it favoured their candidate.

By his rather queer conduct, Nwodo gave reasons for many of the party leaders, including the president, to doubt his motives. He not only appeared at the convention, he also forcefully interfered with the proceedings parading himself as the National Chairman in disobedience of the orders of the court. When asked what was going on, he said he had vacated the order, but it turned out that this was not so.

Nwodo thus played into the hands of his enemies, because all four governors of the PDP in the South East who had had one rough brush with him or the other, quickly met after the primaries and passed a vote of no confidence on him, thus giving the president the express permit to ask him to step down or risk being expelled at the meeting held on Tuesday, 18th January 2011 at Wadata Plaza, Abuja.

It was widely suspected that Nwodo, by his conduct, showed he was deliberately working for the Atiku camp, though the campaign organisation of the former vice president swiftly issued a statement denying this. The statement added that Atiku was a “victim” of Nwodo’s pro_Jonathan “plots”. However, Atiku, whose polling agents refused to sign the results of the presidential primaries, may be headed to court to try and undo the ticket given to Jonathan, just in the same manner that he used the courts to scuttle former President Obasanjo’s plots to stop him from running for president in 2007.

Who gets the chair?

Following Nwodo’s stormy exit, the natural thing that would follow is a tussle for the seat he vacated. The hottest debate in town now is posing two questions at once. The first one is: where does the post go to in line with the zoning arrangement of the party? The second is: who should take over?

There are those who argue that now that the presidential candidate of the PDP has emerged from the south it automatically means that north should produce the next National Chairman. In fact, some leaders of the Party are pushing for the retention of Mohammed as the Acting National Chairman especially now that the campaign season is around the corner, as the search for a new chairman could distract the party.

Those pushing this argument are of the view that a brand new national chairman would need time to adjust, and time is in very short supply. They suggest that Mohammed, being an insider for over three years, should conduct the party through the challenging campaigns, after which the post would be filled with a substantive National Chairman. Some are even of the view that Mohammed should simply be confirmed as the new National Chairman.

There are other views, however, that argue that Nwodo’s conduct or misconduct should not lead to the denial of the South East geopolitical zone its privilege of replacing him with one of their own. In the first place, they point out that despite the complicated conditions in granting waivers to Nwodo it did not take much for the hurdles to be cleared for him to emerge when the going was good. In the same vein, the party leaders should summon the political will to replace Nwodo with someone from the zone in which the post is currently vested.

Secondly, the Acting Chairman is from the North West, where four out of the seven states gave the majority of their delegates’ votes to Atiku. Besides, by the zoning arrangement of the Party, they cannot produce both the Vice President and National Chairman. Thirdly, the argument further contends that since the current zoning arrangement appears to retain the status quo (keeping the President in the South-South, Vice President in the North West, Senate President in the North Central, Deputy Senate President in the South East, Speaker of the House of Reps in the South West and Deputy Speaker in the North East) it is only fair for the South East to be equally allowed to retain the national chairmanship post.

Those in the race

Perhaps, in line with the expectation that a South Easterner would soon replace Nwodo, already, a number of names have been thrown up as the likely candidates. These include: Chief Ojo Maduekwe (Abia), Nze Fidelis Ozichukwu Chukwu (Imo), Chief Olisa Metu (Anambra), Dr Sam Egwu and Chief Pius Anyim (Ebonyi).

Although Maduekwe is a seasoned party administrator who was once the National Secretary, the fact that Ogbulafor was from Abia State could block his chances. Already, Abia and Enugu States would appear to be out of contention, leaving Anambra, Imo and Ebonyi. Jonathan might not be too comfortable with Anambra due to its fractious nature and the existence of many Atiku loyalists as shown in the result of the primaries where Anambra gave Atiku the highest votes among the 17 southern states.

Ozichukwu is also an experienced party leader from Imo State and a great loyalist of former President Obasanjo. However, it was during his tenure as the Chairman in charge of the South East that the party engaged in many acts of impunity in Anambra State, which saw the abduction of Governor Ngige and the burning down of government establishments allegedly at the behest of the Uba political clan. It was also during that period that PDP lost Abia, Anambra and (later on Imo before Governor Ikedi Ohakim brought it back to the Party).

Ebonyi seems to be the most highly favoured state, since it does not have any major, visible national post being handled by someone from there. Dr Sam Egwu’s chances are now very slim, as he has been seen around the campaign group of Atiku as a campaigner for the presidency to be removed from Jonathan and zoned to the North. He may not have his former godfather, President Obasanjo’s support as before. For now, the coast appears to have cleared for a former President of the Senate, Chief Pius Anyim, who has been eyeing that position since the race opened in 2007.

In Anyim’s favour includes the fact that he has openly and unbendingly supported Jonathan’s presidential ambition. He does not have a lot of negative “baggage”, and as a young man of Jonathan’s age bracket, will be in tune with the vision of a new Nigeria being peddled by the president.

However, there are speculations that none of the governors of the South East would want the National Chairman to hail from his state, given the raw deal that Chime went through at Nwodo’s hands, which nearly saw his losing the party’s ticket and contemplating dumping the PDP. If old man Governor Martin Elechi does not want the post for his state, even Anyim way find it rough going.