Posted by By Jide Ajani, Political Editor on
IN what has become a winner takes all affair, loyalists of President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo, are today carrying out the last leg of a complete takeover of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
IN what has become a winner takes all affair, loyalists of President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo, are today carrying out the last leg of a complete takeover of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. And it is simply because the party (or, specifically, those who own the party) had long decided on the direction and path the party's national convention, the seventh in its history will go. Today's event will be unique both in form and in conduct. This report outlines how the conduct of today's national convention would be.
FOR the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, it is a familiar pattern. Since inception in 1999, the party has become conversant with a modus which defies the odds in political configuration just as its peculiar way of doing things continues to confound critics.
Today, the party goes in for its seventh National Convention to elect a new national chairman that would serve a four-year tenure. But the four-year tenure may not be completely served depending on other further re-alignment and re-configuration as the leadership of the party deems fit. Since inauguration in1998, the PDP has proved that it is the only party in the land that can contrive a crisis or inflict same on self and come out of it seemingly waxing stronger.
The situation today is, however, dicey even as the party leadership confronts a burgeoning opposition, drawn largely from its cadre, which is intent on pulling it down. But even in the face of this opposition, the party leadership is going ahead with its agenda of affirming the chairmanship of Colonel Ahmadu Ali for another term of four years.
This convention is set to enjoy the presence of almost all state governors on its platform at the Eagle Square, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, venue of the event. It is one event that is expected to stamp the authority of President Obasanjo and his band of loyalists on the party. It would be an imprimatur that would appear and indeed could be unassailable. For instance, Saturday Vanguard has been reliably informed that there is no other nomination form at the national headquarters of the party indicating an opposition to the choice of Ali as national chairman. The same goes for the about two dozen offices of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party.
How the Convention is to be conducted
Saturday Vanguard was reliably informed that today's national convention 'will be peaceful." The paper was also informed that almost all the governors on the platform of the party would be in attendance, including Vice President Abubakar Atiku. Except something new happens, the party leadership is set to return the Ahmadu Ali-led exco for another term of four years.
This is because the constitution of the PDP, which was amended during the tenure of Barnabas Gemade's National Executive Committee, NEC, in the year 2001, has a four-year tenure for NEC members. Ali would be completing the tenure of the deposed national chairman, Audu Ogbeh, who is, at the moment, an arrow-head in the emerging Movement for the Defence of Democracy, MDD.
This paper learnt that at today's convention, Ahmadu Ali would make opening remarks to delegates who emerged from the ward, local government and state congresses of the party. His statement, this reporter was told, would dwell on the reforms presently going on in the party and for which he, as national chairman, is a coincidental beneficiary. He would also be thanking members of his NEC, as well as members of the party's National Working Committee, NWC, for their co-operation while his out-going tenure lasted.
It is after this session of platitudes that the Ali-led NEC would be dissolved. After this dissolution, the names of those who have already purchased the nomination forms will be read out. And who are these people? Saturday Vanguard learnt that because of the consensus nature of the preparations leading up to the convention, the only nomination form purchased and returned is that of Ahamdu Ali, national chairman. No other form was said to have been purchased as all members of the NEC as well as the NCWC would be returned unopposed.
President Olusegun Obasanjo is equally billed to address the delegates to the convention. His address is to dwell on the need for members of the party to stand strong and stand firm even in the face of the MDD and Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, MRD, challenge. He would admonish members to be very vigilant and watchful of what a disgruntled group of politicians may be up to. It is after this address that the nominees for the offices would be called . Voting would be done by voice.
Choice of Ali
The choice of Ali as the national chairman of the PDP, even in the face of grave insinuation that his election to that post would only solidify the feeling that President Obasanjo would not leave in 2007, is viewed by the characters that run the party as 'the best within the circumstance." The argument is that the tenure of Ogbeh, the immediate past national chairman, was what Ali came to complete.
Information available further indicated that it was in the considered opinion of the leadership of the PDP, having worked with Ali as national chairman, that he should be voted in at this national convention. In fact, Weekend Vanguard was informed that there are strong indications that Ali may not complete the four year tenure as stipulated in the party's constitution.
This is because some party leaders preach that once the party zones the office of the president to whichever part of the country it decides, and in the event that it is zoned to the north, the convention of the party from where the presidential candidate would be elected would also be the convention where a new national chairman would be elected.
Corroborating this view in Abuja on Thursday was the one-time national chairman of the party, Chief Barnabas Gemade. In an exclusive interview, he made it clear that those publicising the third term agenda issue and putting it on the 'front burner are those who are bent on becoming president at all cost".
According to him, 'there is nowhere in the country where the chairmanship of a party has been used to zone the office of the president. That is not how it happens and it does not and will not happen like that. It is not logical.
'What would normally happen and which had happened before in this country is the fact that it is the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that determines where other offices are zoned. And this is not going to be the first time that such would be happening. It is unfortunate that Nigerians are falling for the antics that it is their birthright to become president of Nigeria."
However, those who see the return of Ali as a confirmation of the suspicion that Obasanjo wants to continue in power beyond 2007 would not be convinced by such explanations as given by Gemade and other people in the corridors of power. To these people, there can be no better sign of the third term plots than having a Northerner to occupy the chairmanship seat.
Said one of them: 'They (PDP leaders) will come up with all manners of excuses to hoodwink the populace. But if they are sincere, what is the difficulty in getting someone from another zone, especially South-West to become the national chairman since that is the only zone that will be excluded from contesting the presidency if Obasanjo is sure he's leaving?"
The build-up
It had been generally thought that the Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, was in full control of the PDP. However, in the light of new wisdom, one major impediment in the way of the PDM now is the bifurcation of its power structure into two with a critical part now anchoring the interest of President Obasanjo and the new PDP. That very critical operational leg of the PDM is epitomised by the person of Chief Anthony Anenih. He it is who has been saddled with the responsibility of putting to bed that new PDP to which President Obasanjo is sworn to create.
In fact, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, the national secretary of the party, has mouthed this mantra of this new PDP. According to Maduekwe, the new leadership of the PDP wants to ensure that the party is reformed along the general transparency stance of President Obasanjo and as such would carry out incisive reforms in its operations and conduct. Indeed, it was the reform-minded policy of the NWC members that informed the new membership registration exercise, conducted in September. The exercise, though contested by loyalists of the Atiku group as being one exercise meant to short-change the PDM, was, nonetheless, hailed and understandably too, by the leadership as highly successful.