In the estimation of many, the crisis threatening the soul of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, appeared insurmountable. For a party intent on taking over power at the centre in 2023, the self-inflicted troubles couldn’t have come at a worse time for the PDP.
Although forces bent on shoving national chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus out of office have been at work for close to a year; internal squabbles reached frightening heights hit when a member of the party and former Commissioner of Information in Edo state, Prince Kassim Afegbua accused him (Secondus) of financial indiscretion, an allegation he denied, availing journalists the state of party finances with regards to accruals from sales of nomination forms.
A fortnight ago, the plot to ease Secondus out of office grew intense following the resignation of seven national officers who branded the national chairman a lone ranger, running the affairs of the party almost like a personal fiefdom.
To worsen an already bad situation, Sunday Udeh-Okoye, National Youth Leader of the party joined the anti-Secondus forces and claimed that in the event of the PDP boss’ failure to throw in the towel, some members of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party, including himself, would leave.
Almost simultaneously, more voices, including placards-carrying youths, joined the call for the sack of Secondus, and despite the attempt by highly-placed PDP stalwarts to resolve the crisis; it only festered and grew more intense with easy passing day.
Conscious of a possible implosion, the PDP Governors’ Forum, ably led by its chairman and governor of Sokoto State, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal swung into action and convened series of meetings in a bid to resolve the crisis. The governors, acting hand-in-glove in sync with party’s organs went to the heart of the matter by inviting warring parties to brainstorm on the way forward.
It is to the credited of the Tambuwal-led Governors’ Forum that both parties conceded grounds and accepted the resolution to bring forward the national elective convention of the party to October, two months before the expected expiration of the tenure of incumbent NWC. Although, the timeline now appears untenable with reports indicating that Secondus is pushing for an extension until the end of November.
It was not just the demonstration of sufficient leadership will that mattered but the manner Tambuwal, with the backing of his colleagues, seized the moment to drive home some salient points that arguably drove fears into the psyche of the All Progressives Congress, APC. According to the governor, Nigerians must learn to dismiss insinuations that some PDP governors were nursing intentions to defect to the APC, stressing that “if you want to go, go where?”
In an extempore speech, reminiscent of politicians of the First Republic famous for peerless oratory; Tambuwal jibed the ruling party, saying, “There is no party to defect to, no government to defect to,” even as he reminded anyone who cared to listen that all 13 governors elected on the platform of the PDP, including deputy governor of Zamfara state, Mohammed Mahdi Gusau attended the meeting.
The way out to salvage Nigeria from the clutches of backwardness, according to him, is for all Nigerians regardless of status or political affiliations to stay united and work assiduously to send APC packing in 2023. Perhaps, the biggest takeaway from that meeting with the possible exception of the resolution of the crisis was Tambuwal’s apt admonition to party chieftains to stop seeing governors as their financiers. In his words, governors remain the servants of the people, the ambassador of the electorate who defied obstacles to queue in sunny and rainy ambiance to elect them to power.
Given the resolution of the crisis, the governors are expected to go the whole distance to ensure party cohesion in their various states, preparatory to the 2023 general elections.
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