What must the PDP do for it to actualise its desire of returning to the presidency after the 2019 General Election? Given the vastly divided opinions of its leading chieftains and members over how to procure the party’s next presidential candidate, Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, writes on the options before the opposition party ahead of the forthcoming elections.
PROMINENT chieftains of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some other notable politicians, who are currently members of other political parties, were locked in a marathon meeting penultimate Wednesday night in Lagos. This is even as the party announced its plan to put in place a process that could see youths taking over the leadership of the party and the country in 2019.
National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, had said the party was coming up with “Generation Next” programme for repositioning youths to take over leadership in 2019. He said that the programme was designed to prepare the youths to take over political leadership in the country. According to him, with the programme, age barrier will be removed and a 25-year old that is popular and intelligent can be voted into power as governor.
The Lagos meeting, sources told The Nation, was convened by concerned party chieftains from the various zones of the country to deliberate on the lingering uncertainty over how the party will choose its 2019 presidential flag-bearer. Worried that less than a year to the much anticipated election, there is so much confusion and anxiety over the process, chieftains at the marathon meeting, held in the private residence of a prominent member of the party, in the highbrow Ikoyi area of the state, looked at the options before the party with a view to advising its leadership accordingly.
It was gathered that at the meeting, the group resolved to meet and consult with more party chieftains and stakeholders within and outside the PDP. Issues the parley discussed at the meeting included how to ensure that the process that will produce the party’s presidential candidate is crisis-free as well as how to douse the growing discontent among PDP members in the Southwest which has been resulting in unending defections.
“We are still discussing. I can tell you this is just the first of such meetings. There is need to look at the many options before our great party and decide on how best to approach 2019 as a political party, especially one in the opposition. Many people have said PDP has what it takes to return to power immediately. We feel so too but there is great need to ensure that we get it right before and during the election.
“What we are gathered here to do is largely to intervene in good time to ward off some things that are militating against a peaceful primary process as we approach the 2019 presidential election. We know that there are already varying opinions and interests within the ranks of our party leaders and chieftains. This is expected. Even beyond the party, people are interested in how we will choose our flag-bearer. This is because Nigerians know we are the one with the best alternative plans for Nigeria,” a source at the meeting told our correspondent.
The Nation was reliably informed that the group has decided to expand its membership and meet again in Abuja next month. It was also gathered that committees were formed to discuss with other stakeholders, including aspirants, party leaders, governors as well as other opposition political parties as part of consultations aimed at helping the PDP make the best decision concerning its 2019 presidential ticket.
Beyond the Lagos meeting, there are several other indications that the PDP will have to promptly choose from a number of options as it struggles to reposition itself in time for the next general election. Party sources say there are already pockets of underground scheming and rivalries among party leaders over many of the issues that have to do with 2019 and the elections.
“Things are not alright within the party. There seems to be no agreement among our leaders on a number of things and this is affecting the party’s preparation for the next presidential election. While it is the desire of many of us to see PDP win the presidency again, the inability of many chieftains to submit to the desire of others is making decision making difficult. In PDP today, there are not less than five camps as far as the presidential ticket is concerned,” our source claimed.
PDP governors, will they bow?
To start with, many stakeholders within the party today are unhappy with alleged plans by governors elected on the platform of the party to foist a presidential candidate on PDP just as they allegedly did last December when against all odds, their preferred candidate, Uche Secondus, emerged as the National Chairman of the opposition party from a highly disputed convention.
“Today, some of our governors carry on as if they own the party. It was not only the governors who fought to rescue PDP from the impostors that almost crippled it. We all did. So, it is unacceptable for the governors to be insisting on determining who will be the candidate of the party. Other stakeholders must be allowed to participate in a free and fair selection process.
“A situation where some governors, who see themselves as the alpha and the omega of the party, are openly telling some aspirants to forget the race as they will not support them is undemocratic. Unless the governors allow for a level playing ground, PDP may not make the best use of the opportunity provided by the next presidential election for it to redeem itself as a political party,” a PDP federal legislator from Ogun State said.
But the governors on the other hand, are said to believe that for PDP to get it right this time around, they must ensure that control of the party lies with them as the main financiers of its activities. The Nation gathered that the issue of how to choose the presidential candidate of the party is already tearing the Governor’s Forum apart following the alleged opposition of the majority of the governors to the presidential aspiration of one of them, Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State.
Aside Dankwambo, other PDP presidential aspirants include a former governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, the immediate past Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, who is kicking against the party’s decision to zone the ticket to the north.
The alleged overbearing attitude of the governors, according to reports, has angered some prominent chieftains of the party from the north who argued that since the party has zoned the slot to them, they should be allowed to drive the process that will eventually produce the candidate in 2019. Determined to ensure they are not sidelined in the process, northern PDP leaders instituted a number of committees to fashion out modalities on how the party should produce its candidate, but it appears the move is generating ripples within the party.
But in a statement that underscored the determination of party leaders from the north to ensure a process beyond the dictate of the governors, Sen. Walid Jibrin, the Chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT), recently urged the party to support the north to give PDP a credible candidate from the zone. He said the party’s leadership in the North had already put in place machinery to ensure the emergence of the best presidential candidate from the area in 2019.
“All of us as a party have agreed that the President of Nigeria should come from the North in 2019. I enjoin you to support the North to bring and give us capable presidential candidate. We are all doing what we can in the North with all the leaders to identify who is the best candidate to rule this country. The best person that will take power from the ruling party in 2019 is our own, 2019 is for the PDP,” he said.
For the PDP to do well in the 2019 presidential election, it is important that the choice of who flies the party’s banner does not pitch prominent chieftains of the party from the north against the governors. Both divides need one another to do well in the election. It is now left to be seen whether PDP governors, who, according to reports, are unwilling to leave anything to chance this time around, will allow for a process beyond their influence.
Merger, alliance as options
Also being seriously discussed within the PDP are the issues of either merging with other parties to prosecute the 2019 general election or forming loose alliances in the quest to defeat the ruling APC. Still, for many, including some governors and other prominent chieftains and camps, the option of going it alone in 2019 is still preferable. And as the debate rages, some developments ahead of the election are daily forcing the hands of PDP to promptly take a decision.
While nearly all party leaders are conscious of the fact that the PDP may not be able to confront the APC without the help of some other political parties and groups, they have been unable to agree on the best way to enlist such support as the election draws closer. While some are calling for merger as being demanded by some political parties under the auspice of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), some are advising loose alliances that can be dismantled after the election, while many are insisting the PDP stay on its own.
Last Wednesday, Secondus said the PDP is now ready to work with other political parties and is consulting with a number of groups. Recent consultations, he said, were useful, and that in the coming days, a broader platform would be raised to wrestle power from the APC. He said that PDP had taken it upon itself as the leading opposition party to broaden its scope, open its doors and allow ideas to flow in for a more robust democratic process.
“Our consultations have taken us to meet with various interest groups, who are willing to do business with us. I can report to you that it has been very fruitful. We expect in the coming days to have a broader political family, working hard to rescue this democracy and our beloved country from the hands of APC.” He hinted that all former presidents and former leaders of Nigeria were in unison to make sure that in 2019 a fresh and new government was formed in the interest of the nation.
The PDP boss called on members of the party and other political parties to join forces to rescue power from the APC. “We, therefore, invite our brothers, sisters, youths and women from other political parties in this platform to join us to rescue our country that is in distress, socially, politically, economically and security-wise,” the party chairman appealed.
Rather than douse the uncertainty over the party’s political journey to 2019, Secondus’ statement, according to party sources, may have ignited fresh anxiety as many party leaders, especially those opposed to merger, are making frantic efforts to find out what the party chairman meant by being ready to ‘work with other political parties’. “Many of them have been meeting to discuss the statement with a view to opposing any merger plan.
“But the truth of the matter is that the PDP, if we are serious of defeating the APC next year, must seriously consider working in tandem with many like-minds. APC saw this need and did the needful in 2014. They are better off for it today. Why shouldn’t PDP do same? The party has a decision to make about this and it is a decision that must be made as soon as possible,” a party chieftain said.
Vice Presidency
While zoning its 2019 presidential ticket to the north, the opposition party also decided that the vice presidential ticket will be given to the southern part of the country. But the zoning arrangement was silent on which of the three zones in the south will get the ticket. This has been interpreted correctly to mean that any of the three zones can aspire and produce the running mate to PDP’s presidential candidate in 2019.
The Nation however learnt that leaders of the party in the south, sometimes last year, prior to the national convention in December, micro-zoned the position to the Southeast, just as the national chairmanship of the party was ceded to the Southwest. But with the inability of the Southwest to produce the national chairman, which eventually went to the South-south, contrary to the agreement, a fresh tussle for the vice presidential ticket has ensued between the Southeast and the Southwest.
‘The ticket is zoned to the south by the party. It was not agreed which part of the south it should go but I think the southerners met and reached some agreements. Perhaps developments have altered that agreement and now the party must carefully decide on the matter. It is something that calls for serious consideration. It can make or mar the PDP during the presidential election,’ a party leader from the Northcentral said.
The Nation learnt that the issue is one of the things currently being considered by a committee put in place by the BoT of the party to advise the leadership on the 2019 presidential election. “Both the Southwest and the Southeast are crucial to our winning the election. Of a fact, the PDP must strive to win the Southwest if it is to defeat APC. What with the huge population of Lagos State alone? Should we allow that to fall into the hand of our opponents? I don’t think so.
“But the Southeast is our stronghold. We must not lose that to the opposition too. But they also desire to be on the ballot for them to have a sense of belonging. Since 1999, the Southeast is yet to produce a President or Vice President in this country. So, the Southeast is looking forward to having the chance this time and it will not be easy to convince them to forget the idea and still vote for PDP,” our source said.
To further complicate the matter, leaders of the PDP in the Southwest are insisting that the only way to appease the zone for being denied the national chairmanship position last December is to cede the vice presidency to it. It was learnt that a leading presidential candidate from the zone (Southwest) is strongly supporting this agitation from which he is currently seen as the most likely beneficiary.
It is now left to be seen how the PDP will resolve this tussle between the two zones without losing support in either ahead of the 2019 presidential election. Already, there are talks about the need for the party to give Governor Fayose the vice presidential ticket once the presidential ticket is given to a candidate from the north as a way of pacifying him and keeping him in the party beyond 2019.
“Governor Fayose is a smart politician. He declared presidential ambition, knowing fully well that his party has zoned the ticket to the north. It is nothing but a gimmick meant to announce his interest in the vice presidential slot. Now that he has done that and he is always winning his state for the PDP, will it be easy for the PDP to ignore him and give the presidential ticket to the Southeast? I don’t think so,” a source added.