The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has just concluded trouble-free national convention where 21 national officers were elected to drive the party’s mapped out strategies for wrestling power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general election. Who are the political gladiators for the presidential ticket of PDP?
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The national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took place on Saturday, October 30, 2021 at the Eagles Square in Abuja. The convention was to elect candidates for the party’s national working committee (NWC) that will serve a four-year term. The convention normally takes place in December, but it could not hold because of the internal crisis rocking the party and resulting in rancour and divisions within the Uche Secondus-led NWC. There were also clashes with other major interests that made the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) to intervene and a truce was achieved which led to bringing forward the date of the convention from December to October.
The build-up to the convention was not without some drama as the suspended national chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, made desperate attempts to gatecrash the convention by going to the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, and praying the court to stop the convention from holding based on an alleged abuse of the constitution of the party. The court, however, denied his application and gave its nod to the PDP to forge ahead with the application as planned. Secondus was berated by many party members for his anti-party behaviour and attempts to enmesh the party in another litigation crisis. He, however, insisted he was in the right and so threatened to take his grievances to the Supreme Court.
The convention was with the usual pomp and pageantry typical of a political gathering of such magnitude, the venue had canopies erected and brightly decorated in the red, green, white signature colours of the PDP. There were drummers, singers and traders bustling all around the place with security personnel having a hectic time coordinating the crowd to ensure orderliness. No fewer than 3500 delegates from all over the country attended the convention alongside many PDP bigwigs, including all sitting governors, deputy governors, many past and current national assembly members, former governors and deputies, party members, top chieftains, current and former political office holders among other dignitaries. Presidential posters and banners of former vice president Atiku Abubakar, former president of the senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, his Bauchi State counterpart, Bala Mohammed, former governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwambo; former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, former special assistant to former Presidents Jonathan and Obasanjo, Dr. Doyin Okupe, among others, were been displayed in and around the venue.
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A few weeks before the convention, major power brokers within the party had made frantic efforts to make the convention seamless by arranging a consensus list for all positions in the NWC; most importantly the chairman. It was therefore smooth sailing for most of those picked for different positions as they had no opposition to contend with. Before the convention, the PDP governors made it particularly clear they were not interested in a fierce political contest, but in a harmonious arrangement that would see them pick the 21-man national officers’ list to serve the party in the next four years. However, only 18 positions of the NWC could be decided by consensus as contests for three positions still occurred same day.
There was a contest for the office of the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the party which eventually resulted in the election of former Oyo State deputy governor, Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja. Arapaja, who defeated ex-Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola with a total of 2,004 votes while the latter polled 705 votes. The contest for the deputy National Chairman (North) also resulted in Umar Damagum polling 2,222 votes defeating Mrs. Inna Ciroma who got 365 votes. The third contest was between two contenders from Kaduna State for the position of National Youth Leader, Muhammed Kadade Suleiman who scored 3,072 votes to beat Usman Elkudan who polled 219.
Apart from those three candidates who won through contests, the new members of the NWC are Dr Iyorchia Ayu, Benue, National Chairman; Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Imo, National Secretary; Hon. Ahmed Yayari Mohammed, Gombe, National Treasurer; Hon. Umaru Bature, Sokoto, National Organising Secretary.
Others are Daniel Woyengikuro, Bayelsa, National Financial Secretary; Professor Stella Effa-Attoe, Cross River, National Women’s Leader; Kamaldeen Adeyemi Ajibade, SAN, Kwara, National Legal Adviser; Hon. Debo Ologunagba, Ondo, National Publicity Secretary; Okechukwu Obiechina Daniel, Anambra, National Auditor; Arch. Setoji Kosheodo, Lagos, Deputy National Secretary and Ndubuisi Eneh David, Enugu, Deputy National Treasurer. The new NWC members also included Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, Kebbi, Deputy National Publicity Secretary; Sen. Ighoyota Amori, Delta, Deputy National Organising Secretary; Hon. Adamu D.U Kamale, Adamawa, Deputy National Financial Secretary; Hajara Yakubu Wanka, Bauchi, Deputy National Women’s Leader; Timothy Osadolor, Edo, Deputy National Youth Leader; Barrister Okechukwu Osuoha, Abia, Deputy National Legal Adviser; and Hon. Abdulrahman Mohammed, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Deputy National Auditor. The Chairman of the Convention Organising Committee, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri revealed that the new NWC would assume duties on December 9 and which implied that the present national officers will remain in office till December 8 when their four-year tenure will expire.
In his remarks, the new chairman-elect, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, said the PDP remained the only democratic party in the country, describing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a contraption approaching imminent implosion. He expressed his resolve to implement a new form of internal democracy which would stabilise the party, and enthused that the PDP would receive mammoth defections in the coming days. He further derided the ruling party for its inability to conduct peaceful state congresses and hailed his own party for the smooth and hitch-free manner they conducted the national convention.
If there was any doubt about who the biggest force is among the northern leaders of the PDP, Saturday’s national convention helped erased any shade of doubt. Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar whose 2023 presidential campaign posters were the most prominent all over the Eagles Square, maintained a supremo disposition throughout the event, and had a battalion of supporters that accompanied him to the podium where he delivered his goodwill message amid applauses and chants of support. On his part, former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso demonstrated his grassroots appeal for the umpteenth time as hundreds of thousands supporters wearing the traditional Kwankwasiyya caps drummed and danced round the arena singing, “2023, said Kwankwaso.”
Using that chance to further accentuate his presidential ambition, Atiku in his address at the convention, slammed the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government for what he termed its poor management of the nation’s economy. He scored the APC government low on virtually all development indices, adding that President Buhari has failed to make the most of the opportunity Nigerians gave him when he was first elected in 2015 and again in 2019. He thereafter went on a passionate plea urging all politicians of patriotic will to close ranks and join hands with the PDP to ensure the party returns to power in 2023.
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With the successful completion of the convention, the party looks alive once again and appears set to put behind it the internal wrangling of the past few months as a new phase of leadership approaches. The party governors similarly laid a marker and established their growing influence over the party as they almost single-handedly orchestrated the consensus positions and installed their picks for the posts of the NWC.
In the same vein, the convention offered a brief glimpse of what to expect in the party as 2023 draws close. The Northern bigwigs appear to be in the driving seat to clinch the party’s presidential ticket as opposed to their Southern counterparts who are still hibernating in private and not making public moves. The party has declared that shortly after its October convention, it will convene another NEC meeting to take a second look at the Bala Mohammed-led PDP Committee on the Review of the 2019 elections, which amongst other propositions, recommended that the presidential race be thrown open to all the six geo-political zones in the country. All stakeholders will have to be patient to see which direction the PDP will eventually go in the adoption of its presidential candidates. Meanwhile, the party’s leadership has implored all members to focus on making the party victorious in the upcoming off-season state governorship elections that will hold before the 2023 general election which will start with the Anambra election holding on November 6, and the Ekiti and Osun elections holding next year on June 18 and July 16, respectively.
On the flip side, the smooth manner with which the PDP was able to carry out the convention, the high consensus rate, the triumph over attempts by Secondus to throw the party into litigation and the promising outlook of the party, will no doubt, be a source of concern to the ruling APC watching keenly from a distance. The ruling party is having a tough time putting together its state units towards the preparation for its own convention as its recent state congresses were marred with internal factions and cracks resulting in parallel executive members in some states. The party has been without a substantive national chairman since Adams Oshiomhole was ousted; and it has since then been depending on the sagacity and dedication of the caretaker committee led by Mai Mala Buni to steer party affairs. The new development and orderliness in PDP will likely jilt the APC from its slumber and enforce a sense of urgency on the need to put its house in order by addressing grievances and fallouts from the state congresses and intensify preparations to conduct its own national convention as an epic showdown looms in 2023 with the PDP which appears battle-ready to wrestle power and dislodge the ruling party.
