Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, takes a look at the near-zero progress so far made by the Chairman of People’s Democratic Party’s Board of Trustee, Chief Tony Anenih, in his ongoing attempt at reconciling warring PDP factions and wonders if his present assignment is a mission impossible
When it became obvious earlier in the year that Alhaji Bamanga Tukur- led National Executive Committee of People’s Democratic Party had failed in its bid to reconcile warring factions within the party, especially the aggrieved state governors who demanded Tukur’s removal as National Chairman, the Presidency decided to go for Chief Tony Anenih, declaring him as the man that will do the work.
Better known as ‘Mr Fix it,’ within the top leadership of PDP, Anenih was considered capable of appeasing aggrieved members of the party, both the high and the lowly and so, by early April 2013, after his dramatic return as the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, he had commenced work.
At the onset, the task seemed easy, given his experience and unorthodox style whenever he set out to handle difficult political problems.
However, over a month after he took over this special task, observers said he seems to have made no spectacular breakthrough in the reconciliation assignment, a fact that has been described by Presidency sources as worrisome.
Aware of the feelings of stakeholders, Anenih has remained on his toes, approaching all the political godfathers and institutions that he believes could help him resolve the PDP riddle. Unfortunately, the result of his efforts are yet to manifest as the party’s crisis continues to deepen, ahead of the coming Nigeria Governors Forum election and the 2015 General Election.
Earlier this week, Anenih was at the National Assembly, where he met separately with the leadership of the upper and lower chambers, as part of the ongoing reconciliation moves. Asides meeting with the lawmakers on the need to smoothen executive and legislative relationship, Anenih, accompanied by former Information Minister, Professor Jerry Gana, former governor of Nasasarawa State, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Chief Shuaibu Oyedokun, Senator Barnabas Gemade and Senator Hope Uzodinma, had special meetings with Senate President David Mark and Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, primarily on the lingering crisis in PDP.
Offering what he considered as part of the solutions to the party’s problem, Mark had urged the PDP leadership to include federal lawmakers in the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC). He also pleaded with the warring groups within the party to sheath their swords, pledging the loyalty of the National Assembly, even as he promised to continue to work for the peace, unity and progress of the nation.
Tambuwal on his part had told the Anenih-led group: “We have been working closely with the party and the executive arm of government to do exactly what we have campaigned for on the platform of our party.
“We will continue to give Nigeria the best as an arm of government, and as representatives of the people.”
These official statements notwithstanding, The Nation learnt that the majority of the PDP federal lawmakers, especially members of House of Representatives, whose loyalty to their governors has remained unshaken, were not impressed by the latest visit or the previous meetings. One of them, a lawmaker from the South-South, said off records that “any viable reconciliation will only begin from genuine reconciliation with the aggrieved governors.”
According to the lawmaker, a member of the House of Representatives, “you cannot achieve long lasting peace as long as you continue to cover up basic injustice. The politics of Nigerian Governors Forum has further worsened the situation because it has further exposed institutionalised injustice in our polity,” he said.
The genesis of the crisis
The current crisis in the ruling party, especially the face- off between some governors and the National Working Committee on one hand and the governors and the Presidency on the other, could be partly traced to the disagreement between the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and his state governor, Alhaji Murtala Nyako, over the control of the state chapter of the party. In a nutshell, the disagreement is because both Tukur and Nyako have openly expressed desire to instal their sons as the next governor of Adamawa State.
When it became obvious that Nyako would not cave in to Tukur’s demands, Tukur- led National Working Committee reacted by dissolving the state party executive in a bid to hijack power from the grips of the governor.
Nyako has resisted this move effectively, mainly because of the support given to him by some other PDP governors, who are afraid that if Tukur is allowed to carry out the political coup in his Adamawa State, he may repeat the feat in any other state, using the same formula. Such governors, led by Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, the Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, have since been labelled ‘rebel governors.’
The matter came to a head, earlier in the year, when the so-called rebel governors called for Tukur’s removal as the National Chairman of the party as the major condition for peace in PDP.
Since then, the battle line has been drawn and the presidency, aware of the fact that the opposition political parties could take advantage of the crisis to further discredit the ruling party, has been desperate to reconcile warring factions and save the party.
First, Tukur was empowered to make a national tour in order to address the aggrieved members properly. When it became obvious that his efforts were not yielding the required results, Anenih, a former BoT Chairman, who had been recalled, was given the task.
But the problem in the party predates the Tukur-Nyako face-off. The party has, over the years, been threatened by crisis within several state chapters mainly arising from “flawed congresses, marginalisation, godfatherism and imposition of candidates, politics of exclusion, zero patronage and high handedness.” So, the Adamawa disagreement, which almost led to an implosion was only a continuation of an unfortunate trend.
The problem was further complicated by a palace coup against Bamanga Tukur, allegedly carried out by some National Working Committee members led by the Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, who was singlehandedly nominated into the NWC by Governor Rotimi Amechi.
Insiders had claimed then that the governors, who hatched the ‘coup’, also threatened to sack the entire NWC over the Adamawa saga. When this crisis was added to the insistence of northern political leaders within the PDP to produce the presidential candidate in 2015 against Jonathan’s reelection bid, the Presidency accepted that it must do something fast.
With the coming of All Progressives Congress and plans by many aggrieved PDP governors and their supporters to join the mega party, the PDP crisis became even more complicated.
It was in the light of these obvious threats to the survival of PDP before and ahead of 2015 elections that Anenih was drafted by President Goodluck Jonathan to ‘fix’ the political riddle.
How far can he go?
His intimidating records notwithstanding, many insiders and close observers are afraid ‘Mr Fix It’ may not go far in this present assignment.
Explaining the lull, a legal practitioner and former PDP House of Representatives aspirant in Abia State, Mark Okorie, said; “The development is understandable because Chief Anenih belongs to the old order and most of the people concerned today are young. Besides, it appears the umbrella has torn to shreds already, making it difficult even for ‘Mr Fix It,’ to do a fast job.”
