It is difficult to brush aside the conflicting interpretations by sections of the media of recent Supreme Court judgment on the rightful occupant of the office of the National Secretary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). The reportage of that ruling left many seemingly confused regarding the proper meaning of the apex court’s judgment.
It might be helpful to take a brief review of a few headlines of some national dailies and online newspapers on the judgment to appreciate the extent such reports left the public confused. Conflicting claims to victory by constants to that office after the ruling did not help matters. Rather, they further bloated the air of ambiguity regarding the proper reading of the apex court’s verdict.
But was the ruling by the Supreme Court actually ambiguous? Answers to this question will come clearer after a perusal of some newspaper headlines and other opinions on the issue. One of the leading national dailies had as its lead headline, “Supreme Court restores Samuel Anyanwu as PDP’s national secretary”. Its introductory paragraph amplified this further: ‘The Supreme Court has pronounced Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the authentic national secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, putting an end to the legal contest over the post’.
Another popular online newspaper wrote, “Supreme Court declares Wike’s loyalist, Anyanwu, as the PDP national secretary amid party crisis”. It went on: ‘In a fresh twist to the deepening crisis in the Peoples’ Democratic Party, the Supreme Court has declared Samuel Anyanwu, an ally of Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, as the party’s national secretary.
Yet, a mainstream national daily deviated from this pattern of headline when it wrote, “Supreme Court asks PDP to decide its national secretary”. It pushed this angle further in the first paragraph… ‘The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that no court has the powers to decide who become officers of a political party. It also set aside the concurrent judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court and declined Anyanwu’s prayer to be declared the party’s national secretary.
This national daily got an ally in a national television report with the headline, “Supreme Court declares PDP national secretary an internal party matter, both factions claim victory”. The same pattern of varying interpretations of the apex court’s ruling was reflected in the headlines of some other publications.
True to this pattern of mixed interpretations, the parties to the contest were quick to lay separate claims to victory. Anyanwu saw the ruling as victory for him especially with the setting aside by the apex court of the concurrent judgments of the Appeal Court and the Federal High Court challenging his claims to that office.
He may have reasoned that with the setting aside of the case challenging his claim to that office, the ruling automatically translates to his affirmation as the authentic national secretary of the PDP. Thus his claim to victory.
But the PDP holds a different opinion on the issue. In a statement by its national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the party said the judgment of the Supreme Court affirmed Sunday Udeh Okoye as the national secretary. The party based its position on the ruling of the apex court that party leadership positions including that of the national secretary fall within the internal affair of the party requiring only internal party mechanisms for resolution to which the courts have no jurisdiction.
According to Ologunagba, the ruling affirms the standing position of the party and emphatically settles the emergence of Udeh Okoye as the substantive national secretary of the PDP having been duly nominated, endorsed and ratified through the internal mechanisms of the PDP’s statutory organs and bodies in line with its constitution (as amended in 2017).
The party further cited its NWC’s decision at its 576th meeting of October 11, 2023 which directed the Southeast Zonal Executive Committee to nominate a replacement for Anyanwu upon his nomination as the governorship candidate of the PDP for the November 2023 election in Imo State. Following that directive, it said the Southeast Zonal Executive Committee at its meeting on October 20, 2023 passed a resolution nominating and forwarding the name of Udeh Okoye to the NWC as the national secretary of the party.
And at its 577th meeting of November, 2023, the NWC received, deliberated upon, accepted and approved the emergence of Udeh Okoye as the national secretary of the party. That appointment has since been endorsed by the relevant organs of the party and bodies including the Board of Trustees BOT, Southeast zonal caucus, the PDP governors’ forum and officially communicated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the publicity secretary clarified.
What was the actual judgment of the apex court? We shall rely on reports which in our estimation captured the proper meaning of the Supreme Court’s judgment. This will entail an abridgment of two reports taken from different media publications.
The report will be reproduced without necessarily quoting the contents. Here it goes: The Supreme Court has nullified the judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court which had earlier, sacked Samuel Anyanwu as the national secretary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party PDP.
A five-member panel of the court headed by Jamilu Tukur held that matters relating to the leadership or membership of a political party fall strictly within the internal affairs of the party and should not be the business of the court to adjudicate. Justice Tukur said the exceptional circumstances that would have given jurisdiction for the court to decide on the internal affairs of a political party were ‘missing’.
Such exceptional circumstances according to the court, include if the Nigerian constitution grants the judiciary jurisdiction over the matter, if a crime has been committed, or if there is a violation of contractual rights.
The court also held that the plaintiff, Aniagu Emmanuel who initiated the suit at the trial court lacked the necessary legal backing to do so since he did not show how he was affected by who is the national secretary of the PDP. That is the summary of the Supreme Court ruling.
As can be seen from the above, the apex court set aside the concurrent judgments of the Appeal Court and the Federal High Court on two grounds. The first is that both courts lacked the powers to entertain the suit in the first place because it borders on the internal leadership affairs of the political party which the apex court said are not justiciable.
The second reason for which the case was thrown out was that Aniagu Emmanuel who originated the case at the trial court did not have the necessary legal rights to do so because he failed to demonstrate how he would be affected by who the national secretary of the PDP is. In other words, he was an interloper. These were the basis on which the Supreme Court set aside the concurrent judgments of the Appeal Court and the Federal High Court.
There is nowhere in the entire judgment the apex court reinstated Samuel Anyanwu as the substantive national secretary of the PDP. There was nothing like that. Neither did the apex court explicitly affirm Udeh Okoye as the substantive national secretary of the party. No!
One is therefore at a loss on how and from where some media organisations generated such misleading headlines as: “Supreme Court restores Samuel Anyanwu as PDP’s national secretary’ or ‘Supreme Court declares Wike’s loyalist, Anyanwu, as the PDP national secretary amid party crisis’. There is no evidence of such restoration or declaration of Samuel Anyanwu as the national secretary of the PDP in the ruling of the Supreme Court. Nothing like that.
The newspapers may have been misled by the setting aside of the concurrent judgments of the Appeal Court and the Federal High Court on grounds of lack of jurisdiction as victory for Anyanwu. But that is far from it given the further ruling that matters relating to political party positions are internal affairs of the parties for which the courts cannot adjudicate.
This is more so as the apex court even demonstrated the grounds on which it can intervene but declared them missing in the instant case. The case was set aside for lack of jurisdiction. It did not give explicit victory to any of the parties.
That brings us to the headlines that are closer to the real meaning of the ruling: ‘Supreme Court declares PDP national secretary an internal party affair’ and ‘Supreme Court asks PDP to decide its national secretary’. There was no explicit order on the PDP to decide its national secretary but that is the proper reading of the ruling that political party leadership positions are internal affairs of the parties for which the courts lack jurisdiction to entertain.
Between Anyanwu and Udeh Okoye, who is supported by the party’s constitutional provisions as the national secretary? Ologunagba said Udeh Okoye is the person and has shown evidence of compliance with the PDP constitutional requirements for the selection of the national secretary. So, the battle now is within the PDP as the apex court did not explicitly give that post either to Anyanwu or Udeh Okoye.
If the evidence of compliance with the PDP constitution in the selection of Udeh Okoye and the surrounding circumstance are anything to go by, then the coast is clear for Udeh Okoye. How the PDP resolves the matter in the days ahead will make an interesting watch.
