Posted by By Chioma Anyagafu, Assistant Editor on
AMIDST internal wranglings, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, today goes for ward/local government elective congresses in the thirty-six states of the federation and Abuja.
AMIDST internal wranglings, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, today goes for ward/local government elective congresses in the thirty-six states of the federation and Abuja. Hitherto, the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party had planned non-elective congresses and conventions to take place from October 3 to December 10, for wards, local governments, states,, zonal and national congresses, purposing an elective national convention during the second half of 2006 to elect its presidential candidates for 2007 general elections.
However, an Abuja High Court recently voided this proposal and left the party leadership with no other option than to subscribe to the democratic way of selecting its officials.
Today's wards and local government congresses had as its prelude, the re-registration exercise of the party which started some weeks back and which has torn the party into two factions: The Obasanjo and Atiku factions. As it is, this has become one crisis too many for a party that has handled the affairs of this nation since May 29, 1999. The re-validation exercise, the prelude to today's wards and local government congresses was seen by some chieftains of the party as a way of scheming out those who have not shown support for the proposed plot by President Obasanjo to earn a third-term in office.
In the event of the recent re-registration, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, seen as the arch-rival of President Obasanjo's third term bid was publicly humiliated in his Kojobi area of Adamawa State where he had gone for re-validation of his membership of PDP. He was allegedly kept waiting for hours after paying his N10 membership fee and later told that materials were not available to register him. Atiku Abubakar had left the venue without registering but two days later, the party's national chairman Ahmadu Alli took his membership card to his Aso Rock residence and explained that the embarrassment he suffered was not deliberate as logistic problems stalled the re-validation exercise in so many states in the federation. Earlier, Professor Jubril Aminu who was in-charge of re-registration in that area had apologised explaining that what happened was not deliberate as he had no previous knowledge that the vice-president would be coming that day to register.
But Atiku loyalists thought otherwise. They thought the on-going re-registration exercise was a calculated ploy to scheme out those who pose formidable opposition to President Obasanjo's third term bid and Vice President Atiku Abubakar is a notable opposition to proposal. It was a truth of the matter that even though the vice president was eventually registered, many of his loyalists have not succeeded in re-registering due to non-availability of registration materials.
In Kano State, the former civilian governor, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi could not register due to the same logistic problems. The PDP chieftain did not even see any sense in the re-validation exercise as according to him, the registration he did in 1998 is still valid. He also queried the wisdom in his being re-registered when materials were not available for over three million nomads who are PDP faithfuls in the state to re-register.
The story was the same in many states all around the federation and even as registration officials blamed logistics for lack of materials, opposition was vehement that registration officials were discriminatory as those who are opposed to President Obasanjo's third term bid were deliberately schemed out. And the implication is that in the on-going congresses and conventions, non card-carrying members of the party would not be eligible to vote or be voted for.
So, how would the re-registration exercise and the crisis in the party affect today's wards and local governments congresses? Saturday Vanguard spoke with notable chieftains of the party across the federation and they shared their views:
Emordi: There will be no problem
SENATOR Joy Emordi in this encounter reacts to the ward/local government congresses and the re-registration exercise of the PDP:
Actually, I'm not into politicking now. I'd done it for two years that I was denied my position at the senate and I'm more interested in trying to attract democracy dividends to my zone. You know I came in late. So, I have been going from one agency to ministry or the other to see what I can attract for the good of my people.. But I have re-registered in Anambra. They were even nice enough to give me the honour of registering me in my constituency office. I didn't have any problem with re-registration. But like I said, I'm not into politicking now. I used it as an instrument to serve my people and I'm serving them now. I don't want to be distracted by all these political wranglings. That will still come though but if I get into it now, I won't be able to achieve anything in the senate. So, I'm serving my people now and I'm happy most of the things I promised them during my campaigns are being fulfilled, like my widows welfare programme, rehabilitation of some roads. I have politicked for too long, going to court and all that. Now, I'm serving my people and I don't want to be distracted by these wranglings. Politics is a means to an end, not an end itself. So, there is a limit to what one can do.
I do not see any problem in the ward/local government congresses. I'm rooted in the grassroots and I'm at home at both ward and local government levels. I don't see any problem. I'm a mother in my local government and ward and I don't see any problem in these congresses.
We have no crisis in PDP - Aminu
PROFESSOR Jubril Aminu is a serving PDP senator from Adamawa State who was also mentioned in the delay in the re-registering Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He had earlier explained what happened and ensured that the registration card was taken to the Vice President in his home. Now, he says of the conflicts in the party and the congresses:
I don't really see any crisis within the PDP. We don't have any crisis.
What we had during the re-registration exercise was logistic problems and it could have happened in any situation where a similar thing was being done. So, there is no crisis. We has problems with distribution of cards. I explained it earlier that what happened to the vice president was not deliberate. The cards were not available at the time he came and all the time he waited, we were looking for cards. After he left, we had to go to his house to register him, when the cards became available. It was not deliberate. It was not done to spite him and we made it up to him by taking the card to his house. So, everything went well with the re-registration exercise.
Now, we are having ward and local government elective congresses on Saturday. That is the triumph of the rule of law and we are law abiding Nigerians. So, we are having elective congresses this Saturday o wards and local government congresses. The election will take place at wards level in the morning and local government level in the afternoon of the same day. The party's national secretary has explained all that and there will be no conflicts during the elections. All is well within PDP. Everything is under control.
We can handle our conflicts, says Babatope
CHIEF Ebenezer Babatope, a former communications minister was a confab delegate and chieftain of PDP from Osun State. He says of the conflicts in the party:
There is no party in this country that is not having one conflict or the other. Conflicts are not exclusive to PDP and even what is happening in PDP is minimal compared to what is happening in other parties.
The vice president was not deliberately kept standing. Jubril Aminu explained that if they had known he was coming there at the time he did, they would have made an arrangement for him.
We are going to have wards and local government congresses today. I cannot explain why they wanted non-elective congresses initially but those who planned it must have a good reason. But we are law abiding citizens and we are going to follow the rulings of the court. So, there is no problem really because we have been able to resolve all these issues. We are focused now and planning for 2007elections.
Everything is well. Every political party has one problem or the other from time to time but we are going to get over it. PDP is not under any threat. These conflicts are normal in every political party anywhere in the world but you manage them and get over them. The crisis in PDP is not more serious than what is going on in other parties. So, we shall handle them as we always do.
Rimi: They are destroying PDP
EX-GOVERNOR of Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi in this encounter reacts to the re-registration exercise of the PDP and the ward/LG congresses taking place today:
Everybody knows my position on the state of affairs and the crisis in PDP. It has been ruled by the court that the initially planned non-elective convention and congresses are illegal and unconstitutional. They don't exist in our party constitution. The court only confirmed what we have been saying all along.
The initial plan to hold non-elective convention and congresses was a plot to continue to have Obasanjo in office forever. That's all. There is no secret about the fact that President Obasanjo wants to continue to be president forever.
Why did we have to do re-registration? It was all part of the plot to do what they are doing and to scheme those against the proposed third term bid of Mr. President out of the way. It was so obvious. You know all PDP congresses start from the ward level. That is the rule of the party and if people cannot go t o the ward congresses because they have no party cards, it means they have already been schemed out. And it is the same thing in local government, state and federal levels. If you want to contest any of these levels of elections, you must have a party card and if you don't have, you are not eligible to contest. So, the plan is to make people ineligible to contest by denying them membership cards.
And that also means those cannot vote for anybody. It's a simple trick and it is deliberate weapon to scheme out some people from voting and contesting. Did you listen to Ojo Maduekwe? He said they are abiding by the court ruling and he also said they are appealing. How can you be abiding by the court ruling and be appealing against it at the same time. And they have lumped the ward and local government congresses at the same day. That is not possible. You cannot conduct two elections at wards and local governments on the same day. It is not possible and they have already written the names of the delegates even beforehand. That means they would just call out some names as the names of the people who were elected at the congresses.
So, they have already started manipulating. It's travesty of democracy. It's not fair. Look at a place like Kano, the names of the delegates came out about two months ago. Some people just sat down and made up those names because they did not plan any election at the wards level. All they have planned to do was just declare names written down about two months ago as winners of the elections.
This thing did not start now. It started a long time ago and it can only lead us to confusion. If care is not taken, there will be a big division in PDP. The party can even die as a political party.
Re-registration is never done. You don't have to renew your membership. When you are a party member, you are a party member.
And registration is supposed to be a continuous thing. Anybody can decide at anytime to join PDP. At the age of 18, you can go and register because you are qualified to vote. Registration is not something to be deferred to a particular date, in a particular way. The cards should be there anytime for anybody who cares to join the party to pay N10 and join the party but because they have a sinister motive, they organised it with so much drama and they know what they are doing. And that is the only reason they planned two congresses on the same day when delegates from wards should be at the local government congress.
I have not registered uptill this moment because I protested against the way re-registration was going on, they didn't bring enough cards to Kano. In Kano we are more than three or four million nomads in PDP and the wards have only four to five hundred thousand cards. So many party members who want to register have not because the cards were not available and they are discriminating in their re-registration. If you are known not to be supporting a clique of people who want to remain in power, they will discriminate against you re-registering.
In Kano, the party officials who are doing re-registration discriminate. Anybody who is not supporting their clique, they don't register him. So, they denied some people re-registration. What is the point in Abubakar Rimi registering when over three million others in Kano are not registered? My registering means nothing and I will not be a party to a motor-park kind of ward and local government congresses.
But I'm still a member of PDP. This idea of asking people to re-register is fraudulent. Why do you have to re-register after you have registered before? I am registered in the PDP since 1998. Why do I have to re-register in the year 2005? If it is an oath of loyalty, I have done it since 1998 and I'm still loyal to the party. Anybody who is sincerely loyal to PDP will not be doing all these things they are doing now because they are destroying the party. That is not loyalty. If you are loyal to the party, you do things that will enhance the popularity of the party and not destroy or divide it.
All is well in PDP, by Omilani
SENATOR Yinka Omilani is the national vice-chairman of PDP South-West. He says of the crisis in the party and the congresses taking place today:
When you have a big party or a big family, you have to be prepared to manage crisis. We did not fight or quarrel. All that was going on is politicking. It's just a war of words. And that is not out of place for a big party like the PDP. We are a big family and we argue sometimes but there has never been any crisis in the PPD was beyond resolution.
The re-registration exercise going on is also in order. Registration is a continuous exercise. Anybody can join a political party any time and the way to do so is to register at the ward's level. So, there is nothing wrong with re-registration. All the internal wranglings you see in the PDP could also be seen in other parties. The re-registration exercise was going on very well but there were problems of logistics in many places. That is the distribution of cards and registers in so many areas because of the teeming number of party members. You know that people have illusions that the card would be used as the voters' cards where as, it is not. So, you discover in some states, the cards were being withheld not knowing that it would be useless to them, particularly when they are told that they will attach their passport photographs. So, withholding the cards is useless because it is not voters' cards.
Then, on the issue of non-elective congresses, the party has given heed to the ruling of the court. So, there will be no non-elective congress. Those who went to court to seek redress followed the proper channel which is better than taking the law into their own hands.
The party elders met and said okay, we are going to abide by the rule of law and that is fine. So, we are going to the wards and local governments to do the elections. today.That is all.
The report that Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was denied registration in his ward was not true. He was never denied. The re-registration has started before he went to his ward to register and at that time, they had exhausted the cards. So, there was nothing they could do. But you know the single honour they accorded him by going to his house to register him. There was nothing to be blamed on the leadership of the party on that issue because it was a purely logistics matter. They reported that he was kept waiting for two hours but it was not to spite him. They were looking for cards to use but it was exhausted. It was 1,150 cards to a ward and you know in a large ward, that could be exhausted within three days.
So, as far as I know, all is well within the PDP and the elective congresses would go ahead as planned. There is no cause for alarm in the PDP. We are capable of managing our crisis. We have resolved all the issues and we are starting our elective congresses today