The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South-West has been singing it everywhere that it is ready to reclaim the states in the zone from the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN (now fused into the newly registered All Progressives Congress, APC) come 2014/2015. But this dream seems to be still born with the avalanche of crises bedeviling the party in the zone. OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU writes on the implication of this situation for the party as the 2014 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states beckon.

The major question agitating the minds of stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and political analysts across the country is: Will the ruling party at the centre make any return to the South-West geo-political zone in the series of forthcoming elections, starting with the 2014 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states?

The reason for this agitation is not farfetched, as the PDP at the national level and the zone have been shouting it at the rooftops that it is poised to reclaim the South- West and return to the pinnacle of power in the zone.

At the advent of the present political dispensation in 1999, the Alliance for Democracy, AD, held sway in the South-West, courtesy of the political marriage between the party and the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, which actively was involved in the politics of the zone.

This was to change in 2003, when in an alliance with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in the bid for him to have a base in the South- West, the AD governors, except the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, agreed to back Obasanjo’s second term bid.

When the dust settled after the 2003 elections, only Lagos State stood as an AD state. The other five states of Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti fell to the superior firepower of the PDP.

This was to be repeated in 2007, but following series of legal fireworks, the PDP lost three states: Ondo, Ekiti and Osun in that order to the Labour Party, LP, and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. In 2011, the PDP lost its hold on the remaining two states of Ogun and Oyo to the rampaging ACN, largely due to internal wrangling within its fold.

It was also alleged that Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states were also lost at the tribunals due to internal crises that rocked the PDP in those states. But immediately after the elections, the PDP began what it called reconciliation moves to bring peace to an already fractured house and has since then been singing it to all who cared to listen that it is poised to reclaim the South-West.

But despite all the noise about reclaiming the South-West, political analysts are of the opinion that the bid would remain a pipe dream unless urgent steps are taken by the leadership of the PDP to resolve all the crises bedeviling the party in the states of the zone.

From Lagos to Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo states, the PDP has remained factionalised. It has been moving from one controversy to the other and this cost it the office of the National Secretary of the party, which was zoned to the South-West and which was after its March, 2012 National Convention occupied by the former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Oyinlola was sacked from office by the ruling of an Abuja Federal High Court, following a suit filed by members of the party from the zone.

Also affected in the sack gale that swept through the party was the entire zonal executive committee of the party in the South-West, headed by the former governor of Ekiti State, Engr. Segun Oni as the National Vice Chairman (South West).

At first, it was alleged that members of the zonal executive were allies of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and that their sack was to checkmate the former president by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, who was alleged to be having a running battle with the former President.

After the sack, an interim zonal executive committee was put in place, but the composition of that committee, rather than bring cohesion to the party has rather polarised it the more, as the appointment of the acting National Secretary, Dr. Remi Akintoye, has pitched the interim National Vice Chairman (South-West), Ishola Filani against many chieftains of the party in the zone, particularly the former Deputy National Chairman (South) and member of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT, Chief Bode George. Similarly, the adoption last month of Prof. Wale Oladipo to replace Oyinlola has thrown further spanners in the wheel of cohesion of the party in the South-West.

This development has also set some members of the party in Osun State against the acting zonal executive committee, even as the Lagos State chapter of the party, from where Akitoye came from had dissociated itself from the purported adoption.

The court which sacked Oyinlola from office had among others ruled that “an order is hereby granted directing the 3rd defendant (Independent National Electoral Commission) to rectify the records of the 2nd defendant (PDP) by deleting the name of the 1st defendant (Oyinlola) as the National Secretary of the 2nd defendant; aAnd replacing same in accordance with the provision of the constitution of the 1st defendant with candidate nominated at a valid congress of the South West zonal chapter of the 1st defendant to be held within 21 days of the order of the court.”

In justifying the affirmation of Oladipo, the interim zonal chairman of the PDP in the South-West, Filani berated George, for facilitating Akitoye’s appointment in the first place, questioning the rationale behind picking a Lagosian for an office already zoned to Osun State.

His words: “Bode George has been taking wrong steps. How he came about putting a Lagos man in the position belonging to Osun State in line with the court order was not known to us. We have no quarrel with Bode George, he is a member of the BoT, but he is not an officer of the party in the South West zone.”

In a recent interview, Filani said of George: “All I want to say about Bode is that he has a problem. He has personality problem. I sympathise with him. All we should do is to sympathise with him, pity him and pray to God to help him solve his problem and we are praying to God to help him solve the problem.”

In a swift reaction, a group within Lagos PDP, the Lagos Collectives fired back, carpeting Filani for his comments on George. In a statement signed by the chairman of the group, Prof. Tejumade Akitoye – Rhodes and made available to National Mirror, the Lagos Collectives said: “We read with consternation and even sadness the unprovoked and gratuitous attempt by Mr. Ishola Filani to denigrate the committed leaders of our party in the South-West with his false, reckless and outlandish utterances. “It appears Mr Filani is now living in cuckoo-land.

But how else does one describe a man who has raised one Buruji Kashamu to the level of a mentor and even idolisation? Mr Filani, who lives and dines in Kashamu’s hotel, at least knows where his bread is buttered.”

Accusing him of relocating the PDP South-West secretariat to Kashamu’s hotel room, the Lagos Collectives said that Filani has surrendered all ethical values and abandoned all tempering logic of integrity for transient base values.

The Lagos Collectives added that it could not fathom why Filani, “an unelected transient actor has chosen to pick on a great party stalwart like Chief Olabode George simply because he was pointedly told that the party’s constitution cannot be compromised for him to succeed himself.”The group said that Filani has not only succeeded in sowing discord in the PDP from Ekiti to Ogun states, he has also planted his “agent, who now is prowling aimlessly in desperate bid for relevance.”

Decrying that at various opportunities, Filani has poured “invectives on former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Chief Segun Oni, Otunba Gbenga Daniel and several other leading lights of our party,” the Lagos Collectives called on the national leadership of the PDP to “exercise exemplary contemplation and tactfulness whenever they consider people to occupy sensitive positions.”

As the battle of wits rages, the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, scheduled for early 2014 has further widened the gulf in the South-West PDP, following the plan by the party to pick its candidates from the two states through a consensus arrangement.

The consensus arrangement has continued to deepen the crises rocking the party, to the extent of leading to a bloody fracas in Ekiti State, where no fewer than 25 aspirants have picked nomination forms for a single ticket, with about 19 coming from Ekiti South senatorial district, which had been claiming that it was its turn to produce the next governor of the state, having not produced any governor since the creation of the state.

The zoning arrangement had polarised the party, before the Presidency was said to have advised the party to adopt a consensus arrangement in picking its candidate. Already, the PDP in Ekiti was already polarised into three factions loyal to former governor, Oni, former governor and a governorship aspirant, Ayodele Fayose and Police Affairs’ minister and an aspirant to the governorship seat, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd).

The bloody fracas, which left a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly in a pool of his own blood among other casualties, took place right at the party secretariat on a day the Consensus Screening Committee of the party to pick its candidate was to be inaugurated, was also said to have been masterminded by one of the gubernatorial aspirants.

While some aspirants like Fayose kicked against the consensus option vehemently, others like Senator Gbenga Aluko agreed that it was a right step in the right direc-tion. Fayose in a statement by his media aide, Idowu Adelusi, said that he believed that President Goodluck Jonathan’s aim was to reduce possible problems in the build up to the governorship election.

The statement said: “I am sure that in the mind of the President, he does not want a process shrouded in secrecy and compromised. It is obvious that some individuals are taking advantage of this advice to cause mischief and disaffection in the party for personal gains, which will be resisted.

It is clear by the composition of the committee that there is a clear agenda. I hereby reject the 11-man committee and I will not appear before it or have anything to do with whatever decision they reach because some of them are known supporters of some aspirants and a free and fair selection cannot be guaranteed under the committee.”

But in lending support to the arrangement, Senator Aluko said: “We should not be in this game for the sake of being the PDP candidate.

There are so many parties where you can go to if you are desirous of being a candidate. People like us are in this game to win election for the PDP and take it to the Government House in 2014. If all the aspirants are adopted by groups in the PDP won’t that create confusion and disunity in the party?

So, nobody should think he could play a fast game here. We have to respect the voices of our leaders and we should not portray ourselves in an undisciplined manner.”

The outcome was the suspension and counter suspension orders placed on some party stalwarts in the aftermath of the fracas. Last week, seven members of the executive, including the secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko, publicity secretary, Pastor Kola Oluwawole, women’s leader, Busola Oyebode, PDP vice chairman, Central, Femi Ogunleye, organising secretary, Lateef Agbaje, the treasurer, Aluko. A. O. and the Youth Leader, Hon Tayelolu Olatunji, at a press conference, announced the suspension of the state chairman, Makanjuola Ogundipe, over his roles in the consensus arrangement brouhaha, blaming him for setting up the committee without adequate consultation. Ogundipe was accused of collecting N5 million from one of the aspirants in order to favour him in the race to getting the party’s ticket.

They asked the deputy chairman, Femi Bamishile to take over as the acting chairman, but Bamishile declined, declaring his support for Ogundipe, saying that the purported suspension of Ogundipe was unconstitutional.

This was followed by the indefinite suspension of Fayose by the state Working Committee, SWC, last Tuesday. Also suspended were the secretary, Aluko, publicity secretary, Oluwawole and women leader, Oyebode for alleged anti-party activities and insurbodination to constituted authority.

But reacting to his suspension, Fayose said that Ogundipe lacked the power to suspend him, arguing that only members of his ward can suspend him.

His words: “You can only suspend from the ward. Suspending Fayose from the PDP is like suspending PDP from Ekiti. Ogundipe must learn from the past. Fayose is an institution in Ekiti politics and it will be funny for anybody to suspend him from party.”

Also the publicity secretary, Oluwawole said his and others’ suspension was an aberration, because, Ogundipe, having been suspended cannot suspend anyone, but should rather clear himself of all the allegations levied against him. While members in the state were wondering what has befallen their dear party in the “Fountain of Knowledge,” the interim zonal executive, led by Filani, who hails from the state waded in, last Wednesday, when it announced in Lagos that “all the spate of suspensions recently announced by various groups are hereby set aside and status quo ante maintained.”

Filani said that the zonal executive committee would not fold its hands and allow individual interests to destroy the party and set up a five-man committee to wade into the crises with the aim of resolving them.

While Fayose embraced the peace move by the zonal secretariat of the party, Ogundipe said he was not aware of the meeting and its resolution to lift the suspension of Fayose and others.

This means that an end to the crises in Ekiti State is not in any way near, as analysts are of the opinion that the battle may get messier as anti-consensus arrangement aspirants have returned to the trenches to strategise and brace up for fresh battle with the state executive committee.

As it was in Ekiti, so it is in Osun State where governorship election is expected to hold shortly after that Ekiti next year. Apart from the controversies trailing the adoption of Oladipo as Oyinlola’s replacement, which rather than thaw, has continued unabated, the race to pick the flag bearer of the PDP in Osun has also set the party against itself.

Already, there are disquiets among the aspirants over allegation that some party leaders have resolved to give the party ticket to a former deputy governor of the state, Senator Iyiola Omisore in the spirit of the consensus arrangement.

It was alleged by competent party sources that the Presidency has been lobbied to back Omisore because he is said to have the structure and the financial muscle to battle the opposition ACN, but other aspirants are already kicking against this, vowing to resist any form of imposition.

According to them, Omisore he is not the most appealing candidate amongst the lot.

This is just as the payment of N8.5 million by 12 of the aspirants jostling for the ticket, in 2011 has also created another round of intractable crisis. Some of the aspirants are asking for the refund of the money which they paid as intention and registration fees then.

They argued that in the alternative, they should be allowed to freely participate in the process to pick the flag bearer now at no further cost to them, “in the interest of justice and fair play.”

National Mirror findings revealed that about 12 aspirants paid N5.5 million to the national secretariat of the PDP in Abuja while another N3 million was also paid to the state chapter of the party and they include: Omisore, Fatai Akinade Akinbade, Peter Babalola, Akinrogun Tunde Odanye, Gbenga Onigbogi, Lateef Bakare, Segun Bamigbetan, Alafe Aluko, Gbenga Owolabi, Lere Oyewumi and Diran Odeyemi. One of the aspirants opined that he is still in the race since the money he paid in 2011 is still valid as the aspiration is yet to be actualized.

His words: “Those of us who aspired for the governorship position on the platform of the party before the Court of Appeal ruling of November 2010 which sacked Oyinlola’s government, as a result of which no governorship election was held in the state in 2011, are still much qualified for the 2014 governorship race.”

New entrants into the race have also said that the party leadership should allow all aspirants to go to the field to test their popularity instead of the consensus arrangement which they said would not augur well for the party. One of the party leaders in Osun said: “In the Southwest, the PDP want to avoid post-primary crisis, which often militates against the success of the party at the general election. The mood of the party favours consensus candidate.

The puzzle is who the candidate should be. In Osun, the aspirants are aware of the consensus option, but they feel that the Presidency wants to tilt the pendulum towards Omisore.

They believe that he has the experience, money and other credential to rub shoulders with the incumbent governor. Seriously speaking, other aspirants are not disposed to Omisore’s candidature.” Oyo, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos states are equally not free of crises as various groups continue to battle for the soul of the party in these states.

Internal wrangling, which was the bane of the party in 2011 has continued to fester without any solution in sight similar scenario is playing out. In Oyo State, former governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala is locked in a supremacy battle with leaders of the PDP in the state.

The root cause of the battle in the “Pacesetter State” is none other than the 2015 governorship election, a development which has made the former governor to seek an alliance with his former boss, Rashidi Ladoja, in the Accord Party, where he hopes to realise his senatorial ambition come 2015. In Ondo State, despite series of denials of polarisation and factionalisation, the party in the “Sunshine State” remains in disarray.

Apart from not having gotten over the October 2012 governorship election results, there was the general belief in the state PDP that there was deliberate sabotage by the party leaders, not only in the state, but at the federal level against the party’s candidate in the election, Olusola Oke.

Party leaders at the state and federal levels were alleged to have supported the incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who was allegedly favoured by the Presidency to win the election, as one of the strategies for the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

In Ogun State, the internal bickering has continued unabated without any solution in sight. The Buruji Kashamu faction of the party has held the party by the jugular, relegating former President Obasanjo to the background.

Also, the crises that bedeviled the party in the run up to the 2011 governorship election are yet to be resolved, leading the former governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel to now pitch his tent with the Labour Party. Daniel has founded the Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN, in 2011, on which platform his faction of the PDP had contested all the elections in 2011.

It would be recalled that the state chapter of the party was responsible for the suit which sacked Oyinlola from office as the National Secretary.

The party is yet to speak with one voice since aftermath of the 2011 crises, leading to many prominent members defecting to other parties as the crises remain intractable. Lagos State, popularly touted as the “Centre of Excellence” has not fared better.

The PDP is polarised into the George and former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe factions. Despite that early in the year, both George and Ogunlewe publicly admitted to a truce, there is yet to be true reconciliation in the state.

Also with the running battle between the Filani-led acting zonal executives and the George faction of the party on the one hand and George and various stakeholders and interest groups within the Lagos PDP on the other hand.

The Elders’ Council of the PDP and the zonal youth leadership of the party came down heavily on George over what they termed “Bode George’s attempt to bring down the roof over his inability to pocket the zonal leadership of the party.”

In a statement by the Chairman of the PDP Elders Council, Dr. Oluyemi Finnih, the council berated George for trying to undermine the authority of the Filaniled committee appointed by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party in February.”

Expressing disgust at “the incessant aggression being perpetrated by the Chief Bode George group of the Lagos PDP against the South West zonal committee,” Finnih said: “It is extremely unthinkable that a caretaker committee put in place by the NWC could be subjected to unguarded abuses and harassment” by George and his group.

In another statement, the zonal Youth Leader, Hon. Bolaji Jeje, said that insinuations by the George faction that members of the interim caretaker committee have been barred from contesting elections at the forthcoming zonal congress was “mischievous,” saying that the ban only affected members of the Interim Management Committee of the PDP at the national level who were appointed in acting capacities.

Jeje said: “First, from inception we were not told that if we took the appointments, we would be precluded from contesting future elections. Again, we were not appointed in acting capacities.

Although we were appointed into a caretaker committee, it was in substantive capacities. Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has lamented the continued domination of the South-West by the ACN and the Labour Party, vowing that the ruling party would reclaim the zone from the opposition.

Speaking at the inauguration of the 31- man Reconciliation Committee headed by the Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, Tukur said: “Painfully, the entire South West zone except Lagos was under PDP governments and there can be nothing more tragic than the present disturbing reality of losing that entire zone to the opposition.

“The birth of our problem in the South West and indeed other zones can be attributed to the inability of our people to manage our past successes. “The present leadership of the party is determined now more than ever, to reclaim the dominance of PDP in the South West. The people in the grassroots are nothing but PDP.”

This was just as the acting National Publicity Secretary of the All progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has described as the dream by the PDP to reclaim the South-West as nothing but what it is – “a pipe dream.”

He said this during a chat with National Mirror, saying that the people of the zone are already tired and would not want to return to the years of the locust under the PDP in the South-West. On the claim to reclaim the South-West come 2014/2015, the Director of Publicity of the ACN in Ekiti State, Mr. Segun Dipe, said: “The PDP has refused to jettison their colonial mentality.

They have failed to realise that you cannot reclaim a people that do not belong to you in the first place. “The people of the South-West have tasted both sides of the divide and they know which one pays them the more. The people of the South-West have come to identify the PDP for what it is – looters who would come and loot their commonwealth and run away. As they say, ‘once bitten, twice shy’, the people cannot fall prey to the antics of the PDP another time.

“Besides, the South-West geo-political zone has never thrive well whenever they align with the central government with conservative leaning.

When Lagos State was the only state not under the PDP, it thrived and became a model for other states in the country. “Let them continue in their day-dreaming.

The South-West is not a colony to be claimed and they cannot re-claim what does not belong to them anyway.” With array of crises bedeviling the PDP in the zone, it is yet to be seen according to political analysts, how it would uproot the ACN and reclaim the zone, especially on the backdrop of how the party shot itself in the foot during the 2011 election and is now on another path of selfdestruct as the march towards the 2014 elections in Ekiti and Osun states gathers momentum and the party is yet to put its house in order.

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: National Mirror Newspaper

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