Since the formation of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 1998, the party has passed through tumultuous times and in so doing, has also set up various reconciliation committees in efforts to achieving a peaceful party. OBIORA IFOH takes a look at some of the reconciliation committees and what have been their impacts so far.

On his assumption of office as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur unveiled his mission through a well articulated programmes tagged the 3Rs agenda of reconciliation, rebuilding and reforming the party.

The agenda was purely meant for the purpose of bringing back aggrieved members of the party, who either defected to other political parties or took a dignified distance from Wadata Plaza, the party’s national secretariat. Tukur has since then seized every opportunity to pontificate on the need for the party to return to its original goals. But the more he preaches his sermon, the more it is welcomed with mixed feelings by party faithful.

Their cynicisms towards Tukur’s mission was not misplaced, as there was the reconciliation committee led by former vice-president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, whose report submitted to the Prince Vincent Ogbulafor-led PDP National Working Committee, NWC, was consigned to the dust bin, the latest of the committees is the Seriake Dickson-led 30-man reconciliation committees inaugurated by Tukur last week.

Most party faithful are of the opinion that what the party needs more is the will power to act on reports of earlier reconciliation committees particularly, that of the former vice president rather than churning out new ones which may likely go the way of the rest.

The Ekwueme Committee

The party from inception till 2007 witnessed what pundits call teething problems that are associated with an organisation that has massive public appeal.

During this period, the leadership of the party hardly allowed for internal democracy to reign within the PDP. It was an era of arbitrariness and imposition of candidates, a period when members were either expelled without just cause or deliberately frustrated out of the party. That was how many founding fathers of the PDP were estranged from the party and forced to go to other parties.

Unfortunately, there were no serious and genuine efforts at reconciliation during that period. However, intrusive party leaders following the concern of late President Umaru Yar’Adua to bring back aggrieved members into the party, the Ogbulafor-led NWC constituted an 11- man reconciliation committee, with Ekwueme as chairman.

Other members of the Committee were Mallam Adamu Ciroma; former deputy national chairman, Bode George; Shuaib Oyedokun, Fidelis Tapgun, Ime Udum, Abubakar Magaji and Jerry Gana.

In spite of the comprehensive report submitted by the Ekwueme Committee, nothing concrete was done to implement the report and so the situation did not improve markedly before the demise of Yar’Adua and subsequent election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.

Part of the recommendations in the Ekwueme report was that the appellation of ‘leader’ accorded certain chieftains of the party be discarded, as there was no provision for it in the PDP constitution.

The committee noted that the position was intrusive, as it allowed party chieftains designated as such to compete with state and zonal chairmen of the party, statutorily recognised by the party constitution. It also frowned at the situation where excessive powers were deposited in the pockets of the governors and the party machinery tied unto their aprons, reason why internal democracy took flight as the governors now dispense powers at their whims.

Tukur only recently lamented that lack of internal democracy in the party was a threat to its existence and to address the problem, he inaugurated a 50-member panel led by Ekwueme to advise the party’s leadership on the way forward.

Tukur noted that the party lacks openness, inclusivity and fairness as well as proper balance between the principles of fusion and separation of powers, challenges, he said constitute stumbling blocks to the party. The chairman reiterated his resolve to turn around the party using his approach of reconciliation and rebuilding, stressing that PDP would use the outcome of the committee’s exercise “to address identified issues and problems that will assist the party take the correct, realistic, reasonable decisions, which would be necessary to sustain the primacy of our party.”

That committee refused to function as it believed that the solution to the problem of lack of internal democracy are already with the party leadership as contained in the Ekwueme famous report. Ekwueme lamented that the party, for several years, departed from the dream of its founding fathers and commended Tukur for embarking on the rebuilding process.

The Tukur-led NWC Committee

The recent reconciliation attempt embarked upon by the NWC of the PDP at the six geopolitical zones clearly exposed that all is not well with the party. Reconciliation became a top priority of the party after its national caucus identified the need for immediate reconciliation, especially ahead of the 2015 general elections. Following the advice of the national caucus, the NWC held an emergency meeting to commence a national reconciliation tour of the six geo-political zones of the country. The tour which was poorly attended clearly exposed the varying degrees of crisis among the stakeholders.

The South-West zone complained about marginalisation and absence of internal democracy in the affairs of the PDP and that the zone has been sidelined in the affairs of the party at the national level following the sacking of the National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola. They also asked for the organisation of congresses that would restore the South-West zonal executive of PDP, which is currently held by a caretaker committee.

In the South-East, complaints of imposition of candidates by some self-acclaimed godfathers during elections rented the air. Party elders and members also decried the increasing popularity of the opposition merger, All Progressives Congress, APC, in the zone. The stakeholders concluded that the only way to check the popularity of APC is to ensure fairness and justice for all and avoid unnecessary godfatherism.

In Port Harcourt, the venue of the South- South meeting, the seeming petty envy among the PDP governors manifested. Two governors from the zone, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, reportedly, walked out of the meeting that was supposed to work out modalities for peace.

The northern leg of the reconciliation started in Bauchi, for the North-East states. One noticeable feature of the peace tour was the absence of the PDP governors from the zone. Apart from the host governor, Isa Yuguda, other governors either sent their deputies or did not send any representation. The situation was so worrisome that Tukur threatened that in future, no minister would be appointed into the Federal Executive Council without being a member of the party.

The situation was almost the same in Makurdi, venue of the North-Central meeting, and even worse in the North-West, where three governors of the zone did not attend. In the North-Central, the Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, and others did not attend the reconciliatory meeting while many issues were swept under the carpet.

There are wide speculations that the absence of the governors from the reconciliation rallies was the consequence of unresolved grievances within the party. To make matters worse, the grand finale of the reconciliatory tours was a near disaster, as the PDP governors from the zones did not attend.

Only two governors – Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and Idris Wada of Kogi State – attended out of 23 PDP governors. Also, President Goodluck Jonathan, despite being in town, was absent. Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, were equally absent. Their absence elicited various interpretations.

One person whose absence was very noticeable was the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT, Chief Tony Anenih. Secretary of the board, Senator Walid Jibrin, represented Anenih whom he said was on a reconciliatory tour in the northern states. The zonal tour was largely unsuccessful as the party NWC could not state remarkable achievement of the whole exercise.

Attempt to start state tour by the NWC could not get desirable approval by the Presidency, who immediately commissioned Anenih to reconcile aggrieved party members, particularly the governors.

Anenih-led BoT reconciliation committee

The cardinal assignment of the Board of Trustees was a mediatory role. The party was in a bad shape and the tour embarked by Tukur was not achieving much and that was exactly the situation inherited by Chief Anenih when he was elected Chairman of the party’s BoT, on February 25, 2013.

As soon as Anenih assumed office, he pledged that his primary goal was to reconcile members of the party, especially the aggrieved ones who still remain, but only grudgingly, in the party, and to woo back those who have been frustrated out of it.

For this purpose, members of the BoT, such as Senator Barnabas Gemade, Col. Ahmadu Ali (rtd), Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, Prof. Jerry Gana, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Senator Jim Nwobodo and Alhaji Walid Jibrin, among others, immediately embarked on a reconciliation tour which took them to Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa Niger, Sokoto, Rivers and Benue states. And in one of the trips, the team met with former President Obasanjo who incidentally was the last chairman of the BoT.

The difference between the Anenih efforts and that of the Tukur was that unlike the National Chairman’s efforts, most stakeholders including Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso and Sule Lamido of Kano and Jigawa states respectively actually came out to meet with him and actually poured out their grievances.

It was gathered that with the fast approaching election period, President Goodluck Jonathan had mandated Anenih to embark on the reconciliatory mission to assuage any bitter feelings among the North- West governors who feel marginalised in the affairs of the party.

Months after the tour, the gains of the tour are yet to be felt, as at least, six northern governors have continued to work at cross purpose with the party and the Presidency over their conviction that the leadership of the party is yet to come clean with its plans to sanitise the party and open up the party for a free and fair contest in the 2015 general elections. It is therefore not safe to conclude that the Anenih reconciliation committee had gone the way of the rest committees.

Graham Douglas Committee

Tukur at various party gatherings had raised the alarm that the PDP would continue to experience depletion in its ranks unless something urgent was done to restore amity in the party. While inaugurating an eight-man committee, led by Chief Graham Douglas, to reconcile members of the party in Kano State, the PDP national chairman warned that if members of the party failed to resolve their differences in the state chapters across the country, it would lose to onslaught of the opposition parties in 2015.

He noted that the party lost the governorship election in Edo State because of the division within its ranks. “It is necessary to reconcile individual members of the party and factions, for us to have a united party, and reduce disagreement.

“Not only in Kano, in every state in the country, you find people who felt aggrieved and left our party. So, reconciliation is paramount and that’s why we want to use elders, who will look at issues, dispassionately.

We want to continue winning and we can only do that, if we build understanding. We have set up this committee to talk to our people and identify cause(s) of the crises,” Tukur had said. The crisis in Kano PDP still persists.

Shuaib Oyedokun committee

Similar to the task given the Graham Douglas-led Committee for Kano State, former national vice-chairman (South-West) of the party, Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun was saddled with the responsibility of appeasing party members in Benue State.

The committee has since submitted its report. Tukur after receiving the report of the committee directed former party chieftains who left PDP but willing to return to do so, within 30 days.

He also advised enthusiastic members willing to return but being impeded by state or zonal executives to lodge formal complaints at the party national secretariat. But how far can he go and what are the encumbrances?

Dickson reconciliation committee

Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, led a 30-member Reconciliation Committee inaugurated last week by the National Chairman with direct brief to resolve problems in non-PDP controlled states. Such states include the six South-West states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti. There is also two South-East states of Anambra and Imo states as well as Edo State which was taken over by Action Congress of Nigeria.

Other states in the North include Nasarawa, Borno, Zamfara and Yobe states. Governor Dickson was very optimistic about the success of the assignment as he declared that there was nothing untoward in a big political party like the PDP facing series of crisis.

He, however, noted that while his committee has a daunting assignment, ongoing reconciliation by Anenih as well as efforts of past committees like that of Ekwueme should be implemented. “A large platform like the PDP cannot be devoid of several tendencies, conflict of interests and all manner of crisis.

But as democrats, we must evolve ways of appreciating them and resolving crisis within the party without sniffing people. I think this is what you have done by setting up the reconciliation committee.

“But all players in the political and nonpolitical field must play by the rules of the game. We must play the game within the ambit of national interest and not denigrate or destroy our institutions whether it is the office of the President, judiciary, legislature, military and security services, professional bodies, media, traditional and religious instructions,” said the governor.

It remains to be seen what will be the outcome of the Dickson-led committee. Will it go the way of other committees before it? Does the committee have more capacity than that of Ekwueme, Anenih and Tukur committees which have failed to resolve the crisis in the PDP? Time will tell.

Way forward

If the story going round that the Presidency is pondering with the idea of implementing Ekwueme report on the party to save it from possible disintegration and electoral flop in the coming elections, is to go by, then the party may as well begin to celebrate.

A source said that the Presidency is concerned with the slow pace of peace process in the party, having in mind that the elections is fast approaching, hence the need to put the party in a healthy state so that it can face the opposition.

“The Ekwueme report is presently being studied by the relevant personnel at the Villa and I believe that the President may act on the report as it seems that it is the only panacea to peace in the party.

The President has nothing to lose. Tukur has nothing to lose. Only the party will benefit in the long run,” a source said. The question then is, if the party had all along knew that the implementation of the Ekwueme report was the panacea to peace in the party, why did it take the previous leadership of the party all these years to do the right thing? Is anybody benefiting from the near dismemberment of the party?

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: National Mirror Newspaper

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