The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not enjoying the best of times. But has it really been at peace with itself since its formation in 1998? The answer cannot be far-fetched. When it was formed by a rainbow coalition of forces- an admixture of self-acclaimed progressives, conservative and centrist politicians- it carried in its belly the ““Marxian”” seed of its own destruction.
At least, that was the fear then. However, as time went on, pockets of crises here and there stared it in the face, but it has so far forged ahead. One of the founding fathers of the mega party contended, and he still does, that the party cannot disintegrate as long as the platform is relevant to the sustenance in power/office of those who have taken it over; to that extent, everything would be done to protect it (party). And, so far, the party has trudged on with its burden of indiscipline and crises at all levels.
Mutual suspicion and distrust have denominated political interactions and relationship within the party’s fold. Having held together after the 1999 and 2003 elections, which have seen President Olusegun Obasanjo firmly rooted on the path of tucking an eight-year tenure in his kitty on behalf of the Southern part of Nigeria, the movement of presidential power to the North in 2007 is bound to test the cohesiveness and unity of the party, as would be determined by that part of the country, which is why Sunday Vanguard gathered that Chief Tony Anenih is trying to use the instrumentality of the Board of Trustees to quickly reposition the party ahead of 2007 elections: the idea is that once there is a strong and disciplined party, it would be easy to take a collective and consensual decision on the direction to go, of course with the incumbent President (the godfather) showing the way, without the party going through the throes of acrimonious nomination.
PARTY INDISCIPLINE AND ANENIH’S PARADIGMATIC RESPONSE
Chief Anenih, former Works and Housing Minister, is both glamourised and demonized: he is at once the Leader that everybody praises whether genuinely or otherwise; yet at another time, he is the Fixer and the Enforcer who is seen as Machiavellian in his approach.
Many of his associates may not like his guts and his characteristic frankness but mark his words when he speaks for, as far as politics and intrigues are concerned, especially in the current political space, his word is law. In the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he is currently Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Anenih’s persona is revered; he has become almost a myth, a folkloric phenomenon. Towards the end of the first term of the President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, when the polity was steeped in the frenzy of electioneering, the retired Police Commissioner who is well entrenched in the current power politics, had declared that there was no vacancy yet in Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
Even though, not many people were amused by such perceptibly impudent declaration, it turned out that Anenih was right.
He had extended that act of profound, grandiloquent intervention to the governorship arena, when he declared in one of the South-South States that there was no vacancy in the Government Houses in the zone; even though that ruffled some feathers, again it came to pass. Such is Anenih’s sharp reading and understanding of the political barometer that his prognoses are always dead right.
Sometimes last year, he made a statement on the presidency, which many must have forgotten: that the presidency would go to the North in 2007; if those who are now engaged in the theatrics of power shift or otherwise of it know full well who Anenih is and the deep insight he has into matters political and presidential, they would not have engaged themselves in the fruitless exercise of even debating whether or not power should shift to the North. The “oracle” of Uromi had spoken long time ago. Besides, Sunday Vanguard has very authoritatively gathered from other sources in the Presidency and the PDP that the matter of 2007 presidency had been settled long time ago in favour of the North.
The passion of Anenih for issues of party discipline and unity is very strong so much that he is always misunderstood: because of his serious-mindedness, which he has brought to bear on the discharge of his duties as chairman of the Board of Trustees, there have been fears that he might be positioning himself for the seat of the party’s National Chairman, which will expectedly be zoned to the South in 2007 once the Presidency goes to the North. Are these fears founded? Perhaps or perhaps not. But feelers from the party indicate that from the way Anenih has carried on with his objective of instilling discipline into party leaders and members alike, as well building a strong party ahead of 2007, the issue of his becoming the party’s National Chairman is neither here nor there.
As Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the supposed conscience of the party, he has carved a niche for himself, rightly or wrongly as a prodigy of sort, with a modus operandi that has left many guessing and sent the jitters down the spines of his colleagues on the Board and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) under Chief Audu Ogbeh. This explained why, for instance, the NWC panicked when Anenih’s leadership unfolded plans to embark on zonal tours for the purpose of reconciling feuding members of the party with a view to strengthening the party ahead of 2007 elections.
His move was seen as an opportunity to take over the role of the NWC, dig in his feet and expand his territorial influence.
The concerns by the NWC stalled the zonal tours for some weeks until there was a supposed harmonization of team lists. The NWC at its regular meeting of May 5, 2004 deliberated on the issue of the zonal tours proposed by Anenih and arrived at a decision, which it said was in the best interest of the party.
According to a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Ventius Ikem: “After extensive consultation at the highest level of the party leadership, the NWC decided to broaden the proposed national tour by the PDP Board of Trustees to involve other national structures of the party. Consequently, the National Chairman of the party, Chief Audu Ogbeh, will now flag off the first tour already billed for Akwa-Ibom State while a revised programme and harmonized team list comprising members of National Executive Committee (NEC) and Board of Trustees will be announced later.
The decision is meant to achieve the best result from the tour and eliminate any impression of division within the rank of the party. The tour is to enable the leadership assess the state of the party in all the zones with a view to re-invigorating it”.
The team stormed Uyo, the Akwa-Ibom State capital on May 7-8, this year and Anenih did not renovate anybody’s ego when he went to town: he blasted Governor Attah for practicing the parliamentary system of government at the Local Government level contrary to the provisions of the Nigeria Constitution and asked him to reverse the situation immediately.
The party is now on top of that with an investigation already in the works. He had also hit at Governors James Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion for failing to attend the South-South zonal tour and for not considering it necessary to send in their apologies, an action he said reeked with indiscipline. Although, the governors later explained themselves, Anenih, the godfather, had made his point.
* OGBEH: PACIFIST OR TOOTHLESS BULLDOG?
The Anenih paradigm has provided a basis to judge Chief Audu Innocent Ogbeh who came in, supposedly, as a replacement to Chief Barnabas Andyer Gemade, who was party Chairman from 1999 to 2001.
Ogbeh’s campaign was hinged on providing credible leadership to the party and building a disciplined party in which every member would subscribe or be subjected to the ideal of party supremacy. But, in a brazen intimidation, Ogbeh was told point blank by President Obasanjo on the day he was installed by the Presidency at the Eagle Square that there was nothing like party supremacy: the Executive, he said unambiguously, would not be responsible to the party; he drew a dividing line. So, that Ogbeh today speaks from both sides of the mouth on issues on which the party is expected to take a firm stand follows from the shocker he received at the Eagle Square in December 2001.
The serial drama that confirmed the ineffectiveness of his leadership began about the time of the primaries in 2003. Ogbeh’s leadership was tested on matters of principle and it could not hold steadfastly to the virtue upon which he hinged his electioneering in 2001. Consider how virtually all the incumbent Governors were rail-roaded for a second term when it was apparent that not all of them deserved it.
Consider the manner in which it applied double standard in qualifying twenty of its twenty-one Governors and disqualifying Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju on the ground of non-payment of workers’ salaries as if it was only in Anambra that workers’ salaries were not paid. Consider the way lists of candidates forwarded to INEC under the cover of letters signed by Ogbeh and the National Secretary, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor were substituted at the behest of powerful forces from the Presidential Villa in a manner that made the process look ridiculous and vulnerable to litigation.
Consider the manner in which Iyiola Omisore and Olagunsoye Oyinlola’’s nominations were swapped in the eleventh hours at the National Secretariat. Consider the ineffectual pronouncement of Ogbeh on Chief Chris Uba (another godfather) that he was expelled from the party, having been ascertained that he masterminded the ill-fated July 10, 2003 abduction of Governor Chris Ngige.
Today, Uba is still as strong as he was from the time he happened on the political scene in Anambra, calling the shot in PDP and allegedly being encouraged from the Presidency to be Ngige’s albatross. In fact, the Anambra debacle has exposed the underbelly of Ogbeh’s leadership, defining, as it were, its weakness and inability to rediscover itself from the manipulation by the Presidency as well as the embarrassment of the blanket nominations given to the incumbent Governors in 2003, in a manner suggestive that the process might have been heavily induced.
The Governors were dressed in the robes of the party and the guidelines for the primaries favoured ab-initio the incumbent Governors, giving the fresh aspirants no chance at all, which was why some of them had to decamp to other parties to be able to contest the governorship elections. But, perhaps, unknown to Ogbeh’s leadership, it had lost the moral high ground to whip these Governors into line, which was why the ship of the party has been adrift.
The situation in the party has gone beyond sweet talks or oratorical prowess, the kind for which Ogbeh is reputed; it requires frontal, surgical operations, which the totality of the NWC, as learnt, cannot handle as it has been hit by partisanship, polarizing it as it were in support of feuding groups for pecuniary interest. Sunday Vanguard gathered that it was quietly agreeable within the leadership of the party, even though painfully, that latest developments in the party have shown that such surgical operation could only be inspired and carried out by Anenih, a man who obviously does what he sets out to achieve not caring whose ox is gored.
* THE ABIA SAGA/KALU’S ANTICS
Like the Anambra crisis that pitched the godfather (Uba) against his godson (Governor Ngige), the problem in Abia State has its roots in the face-off between the State Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, the godfather of Dr. Chima Nwafor (his Deputy) and Chief Anenih. Kalu had, purportedly based on the information made available to his by Dr. Nwafor, alleged that Anenih was planning to kill him.
Although, Kalu and Anenih had resolved their differences, the Deputy Governor is now under fire by the State House of Assembly, which accused him of constituting a threat to the security of the State. Sunday Vanguard gathered from various sources in Abuja and Umuahia that unless Ogbeh leadership bares it fangs, the Abia Legislature, acting as learnt, in secret concert with Governor Kalu, would rubbish it (Ogbeh’s leadership) by impeaching Dr. Nwafor, contrary to the party directive.
Ogbeh led a delegation of the party to Umuahia last Tuesday to intervene in the on-going impeachment plot. It was learnt that the meeting was stalemated in that the State Legislature insisted that it would go ahead with the impeachment process while the NWC warned against it. It was, however, learnt that a threat was issued to the effect that members of the House would be suspended if they go ahead to impeach the Deputy Governor. The likely implication of that, is that if it is followed up with an expulsion, they will cease to be members of the PDP in the House.
The Ogbeh-led delegation returned to Abuja last Wednesday without any assurance that the ice had been thawed in Abia. There were reports that Governor Kalu is the mastermind of the impeachment plot, even though he publicly pleaded with the Legislators not to impeach his deputy. Dr. Nwafor is, as learnt, being made a scape-goat in the resolved face-off between Kalu and Anenih for failing to be steadfast: he had confirmed in Umuahia the alleged death threat by Anenih and in Abuja, when he granted an interview to reporters at the Presidential Villa, he had denied that Anenih threatened that he was going to kill Kalu.
He had further maintained that position when he appeared before the NWC of the party. Gov. Kalu is believed to have an ally in the suspended State Chairman of the party, Chief Uzodinma Okpara, who is facing the Disciplinary Committee of the party headed by the Deputy National Chairman (North) Senator Iro Safana. He is facing a series of allegations that bother on anti-party activities during the presidential and the Local Government elections.
But if Kalu thinks that the National Secretariat of the party is deceived by his antics, then he is making a big mistake. Feelers that reached Sunday Vanguard last week in Abuja indicated that the entire leadership guard was aware that Kalu is the brain behind the impeachment plot, inducing, as it were, the members, many of whom he was said to have installed and sponsored to the House.
The prayer, as learnt, however, is that he would soon give himself away; then the party would swiftly descend on him. But, which party? Which leadership? Is it the Ogbeh leadership that is largely believed to have sympathy for forces that are linked with interests with which Kalu is also inextricably linked? But while a member of the party’’s Board of Trustees from the State, Prince Benjamin Apugo faulted the intervention of the National Secretariat of the party in the planned impeachment of the Deputy Governor, describing it as a misplacement of priority attention, pioneer State Chairman of the party, Chief Tony Ukasanya pointed finger of guilt at Governor Kalu as the mastermind of the plot and admonished members of the State Assembly against being used to destabilise the State.
For Ukasanya, who accused Governor Kalu of being the mastermind of the impeachment plot, his admonition is this: do not impeach the Deputy Governor because he has not committed any offence. Ukasanya said in a statement in Abuja: “Members of the Abia State House of Assembly are bent on impeaching the Deputy Governor, Dr. Chima Nwafor and this is influenced by the Abia State Governor, Chief Orji Kalu.
I want the legislators to realize that no less than ninety percent (90%) of them are starters in politics and therefore should not allow themselves to be used for selfish reasons by anybody. What they are trying to do now is self-destruct, because the current impeachment move against the Deputy Governor is capable of destroying their political life in Abia State. I am saying this as the Pioneer Chairman of the Party that got most of them elected into the State House of Assembly in the first place, and it is my wish that most of my political sons succeed in their political endeavours.
“My advice to the legislators is that they should ignore all the juicy promises being thrown at them to induce the impeachment of the Deputy Governor. They should think mainly of the future. You should realize that the Deputy Governor has not committed any offence and that he is just being framed up by some of you who have hidden agenda, which is not known to most other members of the Assembly.
The whole nation is watching the politics of Abia State, and the State cannot be in crisis. If the House goes ahead to impeach Dr. Chima Nwafor, as the Deputy Governor of Abia State, it will be on record that Abia State has consistently remained in the throes of impeachment imbroglio in the last five years. Information at my disposal indicate that members of the Assembly plan to defy the pleas of the National Working Committee (NWC) and later turn around to apologise to the party. Defying the party will amount to gross indiscipline and insubordination.
It will not work out this time round. Rather than concentrate efforts on the impeachment move, what is needed now is for the legislators to dissipate energy on ways of bringing the much sought after democracy dividends to our teeming people. Today, Abia State is the poorest in the country and this is the time for all hands to be on deck to reverse the ugly trend. Let us all play true-to-type of the name of our State: God’s Own State””. National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Venatius Ikem also said that the party was not attuned to the plot in Abia State chapter of the party to impeach the Deputy Governor.
He stated that the party saw the constant impeachment of Deputy Governors by the State Legislature as retrogressive and destabilizing, adding, “the party maintains that the impeachment of the Dr. Nwafor will lead to the destabilization of the party”. Watchers of the political development are waiting to see whether Abia State chapter of the party as typified by Governor Kalu will defeat the National Secretariat in this battle of wit and grit.
A royal link is being established in the matter to save the Deputy Governor. Chairman of Forum of South-East Traditional Rulers, Eze Dr. Ezo Ukandu (Enyi-na-Obiangwu of Imenyi Kingdom) who played a leading role in the resolution of the face-off between Kalu and Anenih, said last week in Abuja that the Forum would do its best to save the seat of the Deputy Governor.
He spoke in Abuja after leading a delegation of eleven traditional rulers on a thank-you visit to Chief Anenih at his Asokoro private residence, declaring on the occasion that, having succeeded in making peace between Anenih and Kalu, “the traditional rulers forum will do everything within its powers to make sure that the on-going impeachment proceeding against Abia Deputy Governor, who was central to the resolved face-off, is withdrawn”. Perhaps, the Forum would come to the rescue of the Ogbeh leadership if it can pull this through like it did when it resolved the face- off between Anenih and Kalu.
* OYO: LADOJA/ADEDIBU/ADEOJO’S DANCE MACRABRE
Last week, there were reports from Ibadan that the battle for supremacy between the strong man of Ibadan politics and political godfather of the Governor, Chief Raheed Ladoja degenerated into bloodletting as machete wound was reportedly inflicted on an aide of the Governor. But before the violence broke out, Sunday Vanguard learnt that the party leadership had intervened at a meeting in Abuja where certain terms of agreement were reached. Ogbeh, as learnt, was to have reinforced those terms last Monday at the Ibadan peace parley, but sources close to the meeting said that he bungled it by trying to be diplomatic about the matter.
A party source told Sunday Vanguard that at the Abuja meeting, Governor Ladoja was asked to do some soul-searching and reflection to see if the party leaders who were with him when he came into power in 2003 are still with him.
Although, it was learnt that Adedibu parted ways with Ladoja because the Governor could not meet his (Adedibu’s) alleged excessive demands, there were suggestions that the Governor could still have fashioned out ways of managing the relationship.
The Abuja peace parley held at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers. Sources close to the meeting hinted that it was agreed that since Adedibu complained, for instance, that the State Chairman of the party, whom he nominated had sold out to the Executive arm and could no longer be trusted, he should be allowed to nominate another person to take over while Chief Yekini Adeojo who is angling for the governorship seat in 2007 and who nominated the Secretary should also be allowed to nominate another person since his nominee has also compromised.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that the party was working towards this arrangement in the belief that it is the only option that can stabilize the party in the State from now up until the December 2005 congresses and not suspension or expulsion of Adedibu and Adeojo from the party as was reportedly done last Thursday by the expanded State Caucus of the party, working of course in tandem with the Governor, who has the state machinery to his advantage. But the National Chairman was said to have slept on the arrangements agreed to in Abuja, thereby allowing passions to be inflamed less than twenty-four hours after his team left Ibadan. Feelers from the party secretariat in Abuja indicate that the party leadership is so worried with the situation in Oyo State that a serious surgical operation, as learnt, is being considered as a matter of urgency, otherwise the situation would become messier by the day.
The party, as learnt, is not disposed to wielding the big stick, but rather, it is said to be considering how to bring about the accommodation of strategic interests in the State as well as reconcile the feuding groups for a stronger and more united PDP. This is why, as learnt last week, the action of the Oyo State expanded caucus in sacking Adedibu and Adeojo (the godfathers) would amount to an exercise in futility just like the decision by the NWC to sack Uba in 2003 has ended in a futile venture. But, in the interim, the National Secretariat of the party has condemned the use of violent method by the Adedibu group, describing it as crude. It also said that the development in the State was unacceptable to it.
The question is: what is Ogbeh’’s leadership doing in concrete terms to resolve the crisis in Abia State? What is being done to clear the logjam in Oyo State? Will it be another talk show, motion without movement until the aggravation consumes the States? There are reports that because of Ogbeh’’s perceived sympathy for the political aspiration of Vice President Atiku Abubakar, he has been treating the Governors Kalu and Ladoja, who are said to be loyalists of the Vice President with kids gloves.
Is it true? What can Ogbeh do to contain the rage, the plot and the counter-plots by the godfathers? Can his mediation lead to the sheathing of swords in the testy battle for supremacy by the godfathers and their godsons? Only time can tell.
