PDP’s Conference of Conflicts
The recent conference held by the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party to review its situation turned out to be a misadventure, writes Adams Abonu
When the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party met in Abuja, penultimate Thursday at the THISDAY Dome for a one-day national party conference, it was not without much ado. Apart from the conspicuous absence of key party oligarchs and appatrickts, the controversies that trailed the preparations for the conference brought to fore the many woes of disharmony bedeviling the onceupon-a-time ruling party.
As the days to the conference drew near, Raymond Dokpesi, Conference Organising Committee Chairman and broadcast entrepreneur stirred the hornet’s nest when he declared rightly that the “largest opposition party in Africa’s” fell from power in Nigeria was the fallout of the party’s nomination of erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan as the presidential candidate for the 2015 elections.
Invariably, Dokpesi spoke the minds of many PDP supporters when he attributed the party’s dismal performance in the elections to the fielding of President Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate.
“The party in 2010 and 2011 made the first round of mistakes of not allowing the north to complete its term. That was when the party gave a special favour to the then president, who came to complete the term of Yar’adua, to be allowed one term to finish,” Dokpesi had to told journalists in a pre-conference chat.
But in a swift reaction to Dokpesi, National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh disowned the statement as “Dokpesi’s personal opinion.” Chief Metuh maintained that that the PDP stalwart could not speak for the party.
“That statement by Chief Raymond Dokpesi is his personal opinion and does not represent in any way, an official position of the PDP. In the first place, Dokpesi is not a member of the national executive of the PDP and he can only speak in his personal capacity and his opinion remains personal and does not represent that of the party.”
On the issue of Jonathan’s sole candidacy, which Dokpesi declared was the undoing of the party, the PDP spokesperson revealed that it was a collective decision of all organs of the party at the time.
“The decision to field former President Jonathan in the 2015 presidential race was approved by the National Working Committee (NWC), the National Executive Council (NEC) and the party’s national caucus. In addition, the constitution of the party allows a sitting president the chance to exercise his personal right to run for a second term if he so desires.
“What we should do is to join hands and reposition PDP based on the reports of the Senator Ike Ekweremadu committee to reclaim the part’s lost glory.
Prior to the controversies raised by Dokpesi’s declaration, the National Working Committee of the party led by Acting Chairman, Uche Secondus had expressed reservations with the purported conference and had gone ahead to put it on hold.
A member of the NWC told THISDAY in confidence at the time that “Our party cannot afford all these different conference (SIC) because we must work to retake power and not always have conferences that do not make any meaningful impact. What happened to the Ekweremadu Committee that we just set-up and empowered? Why the cross purposes? He asked.
At the National conference, the conflicts of interest were glaringly obvious as notable party chieftains either shunned the event or participated with adequate lukewarm.
Those who did not attend the national conference ostensibly put together to “rebrand” the party for subsequent electoral outing, included former President Jonathan; former Vice-President Namadi Sambo, former National Chairman Adamu Muazu, and other notables were more than the handful personalities of note like former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido and Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, who attended.
The party’s most ardent oligarch and apparent custodian of her political heritage, former Senate President David Mark did not attend and did not send a representative.
Earlier, former President Babangida turned down an invitation to attend the event as he was said to have quit partisan politics and was only interested in statesmanly interventions.
Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, PDP’s most vocal promoter of recent times, led other PDP Governors in non-attendance and no reason was given for their absence. While the conference resolved to field a candidate from the northern extraction in the 2019 presidential election, this does not resonate well with a cross-section of party supporters.
As the PDP seeks to find the way back from oblivion and reassert national political relevance, the way forward surely does not include conferences that would rather trigger controversies and conflicts of interests. The party must rely on the experience of elderly people like Senator Mark and blend with the innovations of young Nigerians who still believe in the viability of the party.
As the PDP seeks to find the way back from oblivion and reassert national political relevance, the way forward surely does not include conferences that would rather trigger controversies and conflicts of interests.The party must rely on the experience of elderly people like Senator Mark and blend with the innovations of young Nigerians who still believe in the viability of the party