Tag: PDP

The Southwest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in a fix. For almost two years, it has failed to hold a congress for the election of a new leadership. The absence of a zonal leadership has hampered effective coordination of the six troubled chapters in the zone. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN reports.

There seems to be no end in sight to the crisis rocking the Southwest Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Owing to the internal strife and rancour, the party has not been able to hold a congress to elect zonal leaders as stipulated by its constitution. Thus, for two years, a caretaker committee with limited powers has been steering the party’s affairs.

Last week, there was a new twist to the leadership tussle in the zonal chapter. A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos reinstated the members of the Caretaker Committee led by Chief Ishola Filani, a chieftain from Ekiti State. Justice Okon Abang ruled that the committee should remain in office, until a valid congress is held.

Filani and members of his team had prayed the court to restrain the party leadership from tampering with the interim structure, pending the emergence of an elected zonal executive committee in a democratic congress.The judge said the Filani-led committee was tricked into resigning under the guise of conducting a zonal congress, which did not hold,

For more than two years, the Southwest PDP has been battling with a war of attrition. The party is factionalised in the six states. Analysts contented that the crisis had escallated, following the exclusion of chieftains loyal to former President Olusegun Obasanjo from party activities. In fact, when the zonal leadership was sacked by the court, the Obasanjo camp recorded a heavy casuality.

The crisis started at Osogbo, the Osun State capital. Party chieftains from the six chapter had converged on the ancient city for the zonal congress in 2012. Aggrieved stalwarts were bent on whittling down Obasanjo’s influence on the party.  A faction of the PDP from Ogun State led by multi-billionaire  Buruji Kashamu alleged exclusion from the exercise. The aggrieved members, who claimed that they were denied participation, went to court to challenge the validity of the congress. The court ruled that it was wrong to exclude the  Ogun State chapter. Therefore, it ruled that the congress  was null and void.  According to the court, a new congress should hold in the Southwest. The judgment provided a caveat for the Bamanga Tukur-led National Executive Committee to disband the Southwest executive and remove Obasanjo’s men from the National Executive Committee. The  victims were the National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, National Vice Chairman (Southwest) Mr Segun Oni, and National Auditor Gbenga Mustapha.

However, Oyinlola’s election was not voided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which voided the election of 16 national officers. Therefore, when he was asked to vacate his office, the Obasanjo camp perceived it as an orchestrated plan to eliminate the loyalists of the former President from the party. There were protests by pro-Oyinlola forces, who insisted that he should the reinstated in the spirit of fairness and justice. But, his critics, especially party chieftains from Ekiti State, who had an axe to grind with Oni, maintained that the zonal leadership was not properly constituted. Oyinlola is still in court battling to regain his lost position.

With the recent court ruling, the question is: when will the PDP National Secretariat conduct the Southwest zonal congress?

Analysts are of the view that the party has found a new excuse for indefinite postponement of the congress. A source close to the the PDP leadership told our correspondent that the congress was scheduled to hold before the end of this month. But,  there is nothing to suggest that it would.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary , Chief Olisa Metuh, has said the party  will respect the court judgment that restrained it from appointing a new caretaker committee. He blamed the delay in holding the congress on logistics, promising that it would hold  as soon as possible.

Metuh said the National Working Committee had met and reviewed the judgment. “We want to hasten the process  of holding the congress. The committee responsible for this is already working on it. Although no date has been fixed for the congress, I can assure you that the congress will hold very soon,” he said.

A chieftain, Chief Akintayo Akin-Deko, holds a different view. He said the zonal congress may not take place, until further notice. “This is not the time for a convention. This is the time for rebuilding the party. What we need to do is to put in place a caretaker committee that will reflect the wishes of the PDP leaders and the stakeholders in the zone. What is happening now in the Southwest PDP is that a faction of the national leadership at the national secretariat dissolved the zonal executive without  the consent of the zonal leaders.

“Therefore, what they have done is to transcribe their division into the Southwest, which is making the matter worse,” he said.

On the removal of Oyinlola as the national secretary, Akin-Deko said it was all politics. “He was endorsed by a national convention and until another convention does otherwise, he is the defacto national secretary”, he stressed. According to him, the fact that there is a court case to determine the genuiness of his position means that the position is not vacant and cannot be contested.

“First of all, he has to be removed properly before declaring the position vacant. It has to be through the established party system. Oyinlola was installed in office by a national convention. He can only be removed by his own resignation or a national convention,” he maintained.

A legal practitioner, Mr Kunle Odunayo, faulted the replacement of Oyinlola by Professor Wale Oladipo. He recalled that the  Southwest PDP held a special congress last year in Ibadan to nominate a replacement for Oyinlola, whose appointment was nullified by the court on the ground that the congress that produced him was illegal. “The delegates, in a communiqué released after the congress, claimed to have unanimouslyapproved the nomination of Prof. Oladipo as the acting national secretary,” he said.

Odunayo noted that 48 hours after the announcement, a group, the Osun PDP Concerned Forum, kicked against Oladipo’s nomination. In a petition, the forum stated that the mode of the selection did not conform with the PDP constitution, adding that it does not enjoy the support and goodwill of the majority. Thus, the appointment of   Oladipo has brought disunity, disenchantment and mutual suspicion.

Odunayo said that, if the appeal at the Supreme Court favours Oyinlola, the party would have taken a wrong step in asking him to vacate office illegally. “It will render all actions taken by the PDP and signed by the acting secretary illegal and of no effect”, he added.

But, the Chairman of the Ogun PDP, Chief Adebayo Dayo, defended the process that brought Oladipo to office. He recalled that he was present at the special convention that approved his nominatin. According to him, the selection of Oladipo was open and transparent, adding that there were two candidates. “The other candidate stepped down for Oladipo to emerge as the unanimous candidate,” he said.

Dayo explained that the position of the National Secretary was zoned to the Southwest. He said that a proper convention ratified Oladipo’s selection. “It is good that the national secretariat has said that we should have a new congress in the Southwest. We are looking towards the new date for the congress. In fact, the new PDP chairman has assured that the Southwest zonal congress would hold this month before the mini-national convention scheduled for the end of this month”, he said.

However, a party official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no serious commitment towards a fresh congress in the zone. “The thinking is that this is not the time for convention because there is too much rancour in the zone. Virtually all state chapters in the Southwest are in crisis,” he added.