WEEKS before the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) convention was held in Port Harcourt last Saturday, few party members and analysts were sure who would win. There was talk of an Aminu Tambuwal victory, and there were also feelings victory could swing in the direction of either Rabiu Kwankwaso or Bukola Saraki. But some key party leaders and critical stakeholders who knew a thing or two about political permutations and the dynamics of presidential nominations believed former vice president Atiku Abubakar would be best placed to win and not let the victory go to waste. In the end, the former vice president took the nomination and is set to run with it. But, beyond the nomination, something else quaked through the convention and attracted the attention of party elders and members, something that had to do with the influence peddling of Nyesom Wike and Ayo Fayose, governors of Rivers and Ekiti States.
Both governors had for some years exercised what some long-suffering members describe as overbearing influence on the party. That influence, it turned out, had not always borne good fruits, but the two governors nevertheless wielded it relentlessly and remorselessly. They backed the Sokoto State governor, Mallam Tambuwal, for the nomination, but he lost. They have not taken the loss tamely; instead they seem even set on fomenting terrible distractions in the oncoming presidential contest between their party’s candidate and the ruling party’s candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari. All the PDP contestants have congratulated the winner, but the two disconsolate governors have continued to sulk and cry more than the bereaved.
Shortly before the convention was held, there was talk of holding it elsewhere other than Port Harcourt, the initial choice of a cash-strapped party looking for a state with enough financial muscle to underwrite the expenses. Those campaigning for a new venue were thought to be worried that Mr Wike was bent on foisting a candidate on the party, preferably Mallam Tambuwal. To that end, Mr Wike apparently secured the support of Mr Fayose, but party elders were uncomfortable with the thought of embracing an oligarchy within the party whose ideas and yokes they would find difficult to throw off. However, suspecting their agenda and describing party leaders as ungrateful, an incensed Mr Wike threatened to torpedo the party’s plans should the venue be changed.
His statement bristled with venom. According to him, “Nobody should dare Rivers State any longer. Enough is enough. PDP should know that we are not a punching bag. We are not a people you can use and push. We are not harlots — whenever you want, you come, when you finish, you push us aside.” This was emotional bilge, but it seemed to work. Not only did party leaders frightened about fracturing the party shortly before the convention reverse themselves, they also chose to be sanguine about the whole convention. Perhaps they had a joker in their hands, a joker they intended to unleash with all elegance and indescribable sang-froid. In the end, the convention went on far better and calmer than party elders dared hope; but Mallam Tambuwal, the candidate of Governors Wike and Fayose, was beaten fair and square, by a galling margin properly described as provocative and humourless.
Numbed by the rejection their candidate suffered, and perhaps unaware they were exuding unbearable arrogance, Mr Fayose, speaking the mind of Mr Wike, chafed in muted criticism at the victory of the former vice president. Said he: “We have no regret aligning with Governor (Nyesom) Wike to support Governor Tambuwal for the presidential ticket, and no apologies either. We kept the party alive and strong when most men became ladies. We never compromised. If any group feels it can do it alone, we will see how far they can go. I may renounce my membership of the party if the need arises. In the meantime, myself and others will continue with our consultations while watching the turn of events. We cannot but appreciate leaders that have intervened so far, but this release became necessary to avoid fresh crisis or misrepresentation.”
Both Messrs Wike and Fayose could clearly not hide their disenchantment, if not resentment. By insisting the convention be held in Port Harcourt, it was obvious Mr Wike felt a sense of entitlement as he expected to be rewarded for, as he and Mr Fayose put it, saving the party in its hour of need. In any case, the Ekiti governor did not mince word. He directly indicated that he and Mr Wike ought to be rewarded for holding the party erect after the 2015 electoral loss that threatened to obliterate it and castrate its leadership. It became clear to party elders that, given the manoeuvres of the two governors, their objective was not as a matter of fact altruistic. They saved the party, it has turned out, because they wished to hold it in thrall to their political calculations and goals. But did they really save the party?
It is true that after the 2015 electoral debacle party leaders were dispirited and inconsolable, and their anguished national chairman at the time, citing extenuating reasons, had to step aside. At a time few party elders were willing to carry the burden of the shell-shocked party, Messrs Wike and Fayose grandly but a little grossly stepped in. But rather than being saviours, some party elders alleged, the two governors acted as opportunists eager to claim a seemingly forlorn party they could remould according to their amorphous and obnoxious worldview. But in their eagerness and feistiness, instead of joining hands with others and viewing with dispassion the whole exercise of resuscitating and remaking the party scientifically, they foisted the itinerant opportunist, former Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, on the PDP. The pugnacious Mallam Sheriff wasted no time in wreaking havoc on the party and riding roughshod over its principles and traditions. The Borno politician, a redoubtable political nomad himself, is now back in the APC after crisscrossing about two or three more parties. It took many lawsuits to extricate the party from the stranglehold of the ambitious and imposing Mallam Sheriff.
While the PDP convention was still in progress in Port Harcourt on Sunday morning, and sensing that his candidate had lost, Mr Wike abruptly left the stadium venue with his aides. His absolute lack of sportsmanship and respect for democratic values were matched in some ways only by the whining of Mr Fayose who threatened to defect from the party he claimed he and Mr Wike laboured to free from slavery and restore to life. It is evident now to the PDP that neither of the two governors who appointed themselves as saviours to the party is a democrat. Their candidate lost unequivocally, but they seem unmindful of the implications of destabilising a party they claim to love, or of openly demonstrating their lack of respect for democratic values, or of indicating to the whole world the puerility of their politics.
Mr Wike will of course have no choice but to reconcile with his party and party leaders. He will in addition work assiduously to bring about PDP victory at the presidential poll. If that victory is procured, it will make it far easier for him to keep Rivers in the ambit of the PDP. Moreover, his future and peace of mind against persecution and investigation rest on procuring that victory. Mr Fayose throws a tantrum; but even he will come round to rekindling his faith in the PDP. He will be leaving office in a few days. He is certain to be assailed by the ruling APC who have an axe to grind with him. They have not forgotten nor forgiven his vituperations against their leaders, and they are eager to exact their pound of flesh from him. Indeed, as the handover date draws near, they revel in that vengeful thought. Mr Fayose will, therefore, need a strong party to come to his aid, to champion his cause, to keep his tribulations in the public eye, and to give him the succour he will badly need in the months ahead. No, neither Mr Wike nor Mr Fayose has anywhere to go. They will stand pat in the PDP, and in addition work and pray for the victory of their candidate in 2019.