The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is getting worried by the increasing popularity of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa, the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan, reports Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan
There is palpable fear within the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State. If feelers from the state are anything to go by, the government and the PDP leadership in the state may have come to the realisation that they cannot afford to fold their arms and watch the activities of the opposition party across the state.
Following last year’s registration of the mega opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) by the Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its reverberation across Nigeria’s political landscape, leading figures of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state, Bayelsa, came out to say the new party is no threat to their dominance of the power equation in the state.
To Governor Seriake Dickson and his party men back then, the fusion of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria’s People Party (ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) into the APC was nothing to be troubled about. This is because, according to them, the opposition parties of ACN, ANPP and CPC had hardly pulled a political string in the state before now.
Investigation showed that except the ACN, whose former chairman, Ebikibina Miriki, turned into a paper tiger through consistent criticism of policies and programmes of the ruling PDP in the state, the other opposition parties simply kept sealed lips. The three merged parties do not have structures in the state. They do not have state executive committees to pilot their affairs.
Speaking at a public function shortly after the emergence of the new party, Dickson said APC will have no where to stay in his state. He boasted that the merging political parties are unattractive to the people of Bayelsa State because they have, over the years, been mere platforms used by some aggrieved members of the PDP to push for their personal interest and political relevance in the polity.
“They only function during elections and cease to exist after elections. Check their rank and file, you will hardly find any known name in the politics of our state among them. APC is nothing to be worried about for us in Bayelsa State. Our people know where to go and where not to go,” he reportedly said.
But observers of the politics of the state say the governor may be feeling very differently now. According to reports from the state, the government and the leadership of the PDP now have reasons to be worried over the activities of the new party contrary to the earlier position of Dickson and his allies.
“The situation in Bayelsa currently is that of measured anxiety. The government of the state as well as the leadership of the PDP in Bayelsa are bothered about the activities of the APC in the state,” Comrade Toremeyi Bernard, leader of the Preremabiri Community Youth Association (PCYA) told The Nation.
Toremeyi, who is also the state secretary of the National Council of Nigerian Youths (NCNY), said the uneasiness in the PDP over APC started when prominent politicians from the state started joining the new party. He said the decision of former Governor Timipre Sylva and his loyalists in the New Peoples Democratic Party, to finally dump the party for the APC last November jolted the government of the state out of its levity over the APC incursion.
“You will recall that Sylva, who was denied a second term ticket by the PDP, took the decision as a last resort to return to political relevance. Also, you remember that PDP dumped Sylva and denied him despite all the sacrifices he made for the party, including his contributions to the election of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Before Sylva joined APC, the governor’s position that there are no relevant people in the new party may have been correct, but when the former governor moved into the party with former commissioners, special advisers and council bosses, it became wrong to say their are no big names in the Bayelsa State chapter of the APC.
“Naturally, the people of the state started taking the merger party serious after Sylva and others moved in. Th party became attractive to a section of the people, especially those seeking change and a new lease of political leadership in our state. Note that since the return to democracy in 1999, PDP has been ruling this state.
‘So, a good number of the people are now hoping that APC will help bring about the much sought after change,” Toremeyi said.
The Nation also gathered that the former governor’s defection caused more ripples in the state chapter of the PDP when few weeks after the development, an intelligence report made it clear to the party that some known political office holders in the state could defect to APC with Sylva.
“It didn’t take long before the prediction of the report came calling as some aides of Governor Seriake Dickson joined some loyalists of Sylva to dump the PDP and move into the APC.
“The development led to a restructuring of the APC in the state. At the end of the process, a former Security Adviser to Sylva, Chief Richard Kpodo, former Chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Government, Timipa Orunemigha, alias Tiway and former Youth Leader of PDP in the South-South, Mr. Godwin Sidi, emerged as leading chieftains of the party.”
Apart from Kpodo, Sidi and scores of special advisers and commissioners, other defectors included former Chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Government, Mr. Timipa Orunemigha, alias Tiway. A week later, the APC was inaugurated in Yenagoa, the state capital.
This run of events set the PDP hierarchy in the state and beyond thinking about what has now become the APC scar in President Jonathan’s home state.
And when it appeared that the influx of new members into the APC in the state was threatening the peace of the new party, the national leadership of the party moved in to nip in the bud what PDP chieftains has vowed would consume the opposition in no time.
Rivers State governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and former Minister of External Affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi, were quickly nominated by the national leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC, to resolve the matter. Also on the peace committee are the South-South members of the interim committee of the party, including the former National Youth Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, Ebikibina Miriki.
The decision of the national leadership of the party to set up the committee, it was learnt, was to avoid imposition of party structure and ensure formidable team of party executive in the state which is a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, strong hold.
The choice of Amaechi, according to a party source, was based on his supervisory role as the leader in charge of Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, in terms of support and logistics.
The committee was told to, among others, meet with the warring factions in Port-Harcourt over the crisis rocking the party in Bayelsa and also intervene in the party crisis in Akwa Ibom State, between the supporters of the 2011 flag bearer of the defunct ACN and other APC leaders in the state.
As if to add to the worry of Dickson and his allies, there was palpable tension in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, early in February as words went round that eleven members of the State House of Assembly may have defected to the All Progressives Party (APC).
Although the news later turned out to be speculative, indications that there may be some truth to it remained till date. The development, according to sources within the party, forced the leadership of the PDP to hold series of meetings with the lawmakers and other public office holders afterwards.
“The PDP was jolted by the rumor. The silence of the leadership of the state assembly on the matter contributed to the party’s worry. Several meetings were held, where lawmakers and other public office holders were urged to pledge their loyalty to the party and government.
But a chieftain of the opposition party who spoke on condition of anonymity said the lawmakers were secretly negotiating with the party , adding that these legislators were also involved in the just concluded membership registration exercise in their various constituencies.
“The truth of the matter is that the governor and his party know those who are leaving them very soon. They have their intelligence reports to tell them that. They are doing everything possible to dissuade the defectors from leaving but that is too late,” the chieftain said.
Signs that the APC in Bayelsa will not have it easy were soon to emerge as the new secretariat of the party in Yenagoa was burgled by unknown persons barely 24 hours after it was opened.
And while the people were still pondering over who could have burgled the new party office, the building, which also houses a transport company owned by Mr. Kpodo, was marked for demolition.
Undettered by the obvious challenge from the powers that be, the new party went further to announce its readiness to confront the ruling party when it mobilized a large cache of supporters to become its registered members during the last party registration exercise in the state.
Interim chairman of the APC in Bayelsa state, Timipa Tiwei, told party faithfuls at the party secretariat in Yenegoa that the success recorded by the large turnout of Bayelsans at various works to register for the party is a proof that APC is the new ride.
“This party will give you privilege in politics to contest in councillorship, to contest for chairmanship, to contest for assembly, and to contest anything you want’, he declared.
Declaring the readiness of the party to unseat Dickson in 2015, Kpodo said the poor performance of the governor and the people’s desire for change are the main factors that will propel APC into power in 2015.
“Dickson is not performing. He is a man who feels he has got to power through the back door; a man who feels he has the President by his side and that nobody can challenge him. Look at Bayelsa where he superintends today, what do you see? Let me tell you, since 1999, over N2tn accrued to the state. I can provide the evidence. There is nothing to justify that huge amount. As I speak to you today, Bayelsa State is still a slum – no water, no electricity, no road and the people are hungry. There is nothing different from slavery,” he said.
For now, it is safe to simply say a political battle line has been drawn between the ruling PDP and the opposition APC in President Jonathan’s own backyard.
