By Henry Umoru

The owners of the party are yet to decide. And the choice would be made inside Aso Rock Presidential Villa. That is, who becomes the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP! It would not be the first time. In fact, the body language or the choice of President Goodluck Jonathan would create a gridlock of its own before other leaders of the party fall in line. For the PDP, there are owners, leaders, members, followers, hangers own and parastatals.

The party has become a behemoth of sorts and it was described by Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State as a rigging machine.  Because it is PDP, it does not only rig against other political parties, it tests the waters even from within.
Which is why the issue of internal democracy remains a very key challenge for the party!

And whereas President Jonathan has admonished party leaders to cease further imposition of candidates, the latest imposition to happen in the party can be traced to the self_same President Jonathan – it happened in his state of Bayelsa.
Come Saturday, March 24, 2012, the nation’s capital city, Abuja would literarily become a beehive of activities as it hosts members of the PDP

The over 4,500 delegates from the ward, local governments and the states would converge on Eagle Square, venue of the long awaited Special National Convention of the self acclaimed largest party in Africa where the four year tenure of the present National Working Committee, NWC will round off.

The present NWC came on board March 8, 2008 (and had had four chairmen) with Prince Vincent Ogbulafor from Abia State, South East to Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo from Enugu State; then the minister of Defence, Dr. Haliru Bello from Kebbi who was the Deputy National Chairman to both Ogbulafor and Nwodo; and after him, the former National Secretary, Abubakar Kawu Baraje from Kwara, who became the acting National Chairman.

In the next two weeks, the PDP is expected to take a decision that would either make or mar the future of the party.

Delegates will ‘cast’ their votes to elect 41 new national executive members that will be saddled with the responsibility of running the party.

Flashback
As expected and if things had moved smoothly without distortions following the manoeuvring that led to the exit of Ogbulafor, this National Convention ordinarily should be shopping for the sixth national chairman since the inception of the party in 1998.

Whatever the intrigues, politicking, character assassination and scheming that will take place, one of the states in the North East must produce the National Chairman. The States are Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe.

For the record, Chief Solomon Lar was the founding chairman of the PDP, a position he held till the party held its convention in 1999. At the party’s first convention in 1999, the fight to clinch the position was between the late Chairman, Arewa Consultative forum {ACF} and the Aro of Mopa, late Chief Sunday Mobolorunduro Awoniyi and Chief Barnabas Gemade.

File photo: From right: PDP BoT Chairman, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; D.G. Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida; President Goodluck Jonathan; Vice President Namadi Sambo and others

Then Late Awoniyi had the support of the G18 and G34, but powers and intrigues reared their heads and he was denied the opportunity for the exalted position because Obasanjo did not want him. Gemade had his way and became the chairman of the party.

In 2001 when it was time to choose yet another chairman for the party, the old war between the party chieftains and various camps especially that of Chief Obasanjo resurfaced, this time, Audu Ogbeh, now a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, had his way when the honeymoon between Obasanjo and Gemade was over.

Three years later, that was in 2004, another crisis came up and Ogbeh, who was the newest bride in 2001 fell out with Obasanjo, leader of the party and Dr Amadu Ali was brought in and ratified at the party’s convention in 2005, though there was no election.
Ali entered the PDP’s Guinness book of record as the only National Chairman that was not elected.

After Ali, came the March 8, 2008, Special National Convention where it became the turn of the South East with big names like now Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, former Ebonyi State governor; Sam Egwu; Dan Ikechukwu Ulasi of Anambra State, Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu; Nze Ozichukwu Fidelis Chukwu; Rochas Okorocha, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; Ambassador Frank Ogbuewu; Vincent Ogbulafor; former Ambassador to Bostwana, Aja Nwachukwu, and Chief Ikeobasi Mokelu, among others in the race, but Ogbulafor with the support of the PDP governors led by former Kwara State governor and now the Senator representing Kwara Central, Bukola Saraki, emerged.

North East as the Battle field for National Chairman
With the zoning of the position of National Chairman to North East, the race has been hot in the zone. The former governor of Old Gongola State, Bamanga Tukur from Adamawa State; present Acting National Secretary, Dr. Musa Babayo from Bauchi state; the present National Publicity Secretary, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali from Gombe state; former Minister of Interior, Dr. Shettima Mustapha from Borno state and former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adamu Bello from Adamawa State; former Minister of Commerce, Ambassador Idris Waziri from Taraba State; former Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Abba Aji; former Minister of the FCT, Architect Ibrahim Bunu from Borno state; Barrister Ibrahim Shehu Birma also from Borno State and former National Chairman of Defunct Grassroots Democratic Movement, Alhaji Gambo Lawan from Borno State have so far collected forms for the position.

Abuja agog as Bill boards, posters fight for space
Though there are speculations that there may be a compromise of trimming the number to a manageable size before the convention proper, the aspirants have not relented as they are out to outsmart the other. They have been engaged in serious campaigns especially in the nation’s capital city.

At the National Secretariat of the party, posters of aspirants are metaphorically fighting for space as there is no single space left on the walls, trees and even the poles and in fact the two roads by Wadata plaza.

Like in Abuja, professor Alkali had a world press conference and a rally at the Shehu Yar’adua centre Thursday to formally tell the world after engaging in very wide consultations with party members across the country. Musa Babayo, Abba Aji, Babamga Tukur have since opened their campaign offices in Abuja with their Bill boards in strategic areas of the nation’s capital city.

South West, the wrestling ground for National Secretary.
As it is with the North East that is to produce the National Chairman, the South West zone has in the last few months become a wrestling ground.  In Oyo, Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, the fight is fierce for the post of the National Secretary of the Party.

Former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope; the present national legal Adviser, Chief Olusola Oke; former minister of education, Professor Tunde Adeniran; former minister of Sports, Taoheed Adedoja; former Deputy governor of Lagos State, Femi Pedro; Oladimeji Fabiyi; and Ise-oluwa Abiodun-Johnson have collected their forms. They have also flooded the National Secretariat with their posters, politicking and drawing support from the leaders of the party in the zone.

Though, Obasanjo is a national figure in the party, but this time, he will go local as he has a major role to play in determining who gets the position from the South West, just as it is gathered that the fight is majorly between Babatope and Oke from Osun and Ondo states, respectively; Ekiti State’s Segun Oni is being penciled for the National Vice Chairmanship.

OTHER POSITIONS FOR CONTEST
Other positions to be contested for at the National Convention include the Deputy National Chairman; the Deputy National Secretary; the National Treasurer; the Deputy National Treasurer; the National Financial Secretary; the Deputy National Financial Secretary; the National Organizing Secretary and the Deputy National Organizing Secretary.

Others include the National Publicity Secretary, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary; the National legal Adviser; the Deputy National Legal Adviser; the National Auditor; the Deputy National Auditor; the National Women Leader; the Deputy National Women Leader; the National Youth Leader and the deputy National Youth Leader.

It will be recalled that the National Executive Committee, NEC of the party last week ratified the zoning of party offices to the six geo_political zones of the country with the National chairmanship position to the North East of the country while the South West gets the National Secretary.

The zoning formula of offices according to the party at the end of last week’s National Executive Committee, NEC meeting are as follows, ‘’North East Zone, National Chairman; South South Zone, i. Deputy National Chairman, ii. National Financial Secretary; South West Zone, i. National Secretary ii. National Auditor; South East Zone = i. National Publicity Secretary, ii. Deputy National Secretary, iii. National Woman Leader; North West Zone, i. National Organizing Secretary, ii. National Treasurer; North Central Zone, i.National Legal Adviser, ii. National Youth Leader.

Besides the offices of National Chairman and Secretary, three other positions that are very sensitive are that of the Deputy National Chairman, National Organising Secretary and National Publicity Secretary.