August 21, (THEWILL) – The popular political dictum that politicians think of the next election always appears to be clogging the wheel of progress in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ahead of preparations for the 2023 election. It is also proving to be a bitter pill for its leaders to swallow in the ongoing tiff between the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Governor Nyesom Wike of River State.
THEWILL can authoritatively reveal that just as preparations for next year’s general elections gets underway, considerations for the 2027 general election are already playing out in the crisis within the opposition party.
Reliable party sources say the raging issues, which had metamorphosed from that of the party to the group and then the personal, have continued to rear their heads and make reconciliation difficult.
The first issue had to do with the zoning of the presidential ticket to the South, following popular public clamour, as a way of addressing a perceived unfairness and inequity against the backdrop of clannish and nepotistic tendencies on the part of the current Federal Government.
Although the issue appears to have been ‘resolved’ on the grounds that rotating the presidential ticket between the North and South was for a sitting President and not a candidate in an election, it still boils within the party and it is ready to be whipped up during negotiation.
The second issue which is that of the group, deals with what is now commonly called the Wike Group (though there is also an Atiku group that does not flaunt its members publicly), which had maintained a hard stand in support of the Rivers governor after he was allegedly cheated out of the race for the VP slot.
Composed of many serving and ex-governors, ex-ministers and other party stakeholders, the group has been depleting against the backdrop of several moves at reconciliation within the party. Thus, vocal members of the group like Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State had since publicly declared his support for Atiku’s presidential aspiration. Another strong member is Governor Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State, with whom Wike and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State once dictated the tune in the party before and immediately after the former National Chairman, Uche Secondus, was booted out.
Faced with a second term election in his state, Fintiri has since fallen into the line with Atiku, his kith and kin and mentor. In Oyo, Makinde is still hanging on alongside new member Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, whose former Chief of Staff, Dr Cosmos Ndukwe and ex-Commissioner for Trade and Industry, recently sued the party and Atiku over the conduct and outcome of its May 28, 2022 presidential convention.
With the victory of the party in the Osun governorship election, which the Wike Group boycotted, Makinde’s claim to the leadership of the party in the South-West was called to question. Thus, while the Wike Group is lacking in cohesion, the personal issue kicks in.
According to sources, the personal issue that may become an impediment to proper reconciliation in the party is the matter of who owns or uses the platform for the 2027 election. “Atiku has promised to run for one-term only. Wike is waiting to see that promise cast in iron so that he can be sure to inherit the platform for his presidential ambition in 2027,” a party source said.
Nevertheless, these three issues are like shifting sands in the course of negotiations with fresh issues cropping up as some are giving way. One of the fresh issues that has created a wedge between the feuding camps is the one that insists the current National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, must resign because he comes from the same northern zone as the presidential candidate. The Atiku Abubakar group has rejected that demand on the ground that what the party said was that in the event the party wins the presidency in 2023, the National Chairman must quit. Even so, THEWILL learnt that using the party’s constitution to resolve this matter may yield nothing because if Ayu were to go, Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagun, Deputy National Chairman, North, will be the one to step in until a convention is held to properly constitute another exco, according to Section 45 (I and II) of the party’s constitution.
On the eve of the Friday meeting in Port Harcourt between the Rivers State Governor and the 14-member reconciliation committee constituted by Atiku Abubakar, Wike made a revealing statement.
Speaking during the flag-off of the 11th flyover project, which was performed by a former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, at the Rumuola- Ikwerre Road-Rumuokwuta Roundabout in the Obio Akpor Local Government Area of the state, Wike, who boasted that the state was too strategically important to the victory of Abubakar, considering the 3.6 million votes from the state, said: “If we were Father Christmas before, we won’t be Father Christmas again? You must tell me what is there for me if I should vote. So nobody should bother himself…”
Reacting to the Atiku/Wike debacle, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba,told THEWILL, “The crisis you talked about is a creation of the media. That is not to say you are not doing your work. But as far as we are concerned, what you call crises are parts of disagreements that occur in an organisation and we have internal mechanisms to deal with them as they arise. Is there any organisation, even a home, that does not have disagreements? What happens in the end is that any time such disagreements occur, there are mechanisms to resolve them.”
RECONCILIATION MEETING IN PORT HARCOURT
The reconciliation meeting, as demanded by Governor Wike, was held in Government House in Port Harcourt last Friday. Although the spokespersons of the two groups, Governor Fintiri for Atiku and former Ondo Governor, Segun Mimiko, said talks were fruitful and would continue, this newspaper learnt that Wike was mollified that the party agreed to his demand to hold the meeting in Port Harcourt, a move he considered a political masterstroke to show he still controls the party in the state in the face of disaffection among party elders over his perceived foot dragging on the crisis.
A source who was privy to discussions between the Atiku and Wike groups further told THEWILL that the Wike group is seeking a reconstitution of the entire National Working Committee (NWC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT) that will see a Southerner emerge as leader of both organs. “Is the PDP a Northern only party? The simple answer is no. As things presently stand, our presidential candidate, Atiku, national party chairman, Ayu and BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin are all from the North. This is not equitable and fair to us from the South. So we are demanding a reconstitution that will reflect a true balance of power in the party between the North and the South. This was the core issue of the discussion last Friday. The Atiku group has taken our demands to the party and Atiku.”
‘WIKE WILL NOT LEAVE PDP’
Following his repeated assurances that he will remain in the PDP, though he may not support the aspirations of its presidential candidate, Wike, like any seasoned politician, knows that even one vote in any election is an advantage over a rival and he is flaunting the huge numbers in Rivers in the face of the party. The party is taking him seriously, though it is uncertain how far its leaders would bear his stand-off, particularly with the official kick-off of the campaign on September 22, 2023.
“You can imagine that the election is around the corner and Wike continues to make these demands, which makes you ask whether he really cares about the party or not. At first, he said he was not interested in the post of VP. Now, he is clamouring for the National Chairman to go. Is his job now to make and unmake the Chairman? This makes us begin to wonder what he wants. The thinking now is that he does not care a hoot about 2023 and wants Atiku out so he can inherit the party’s structure,” a party leader said, asking not to be identified.
Senator Dino Melaye, PDP presidential campaign spokesperson, did not respond to multiple calls to his phone.
Meanwhile, the party, THEWILL has learnt, is considering a fall back option should the Wike/Atiku imbroglio continue into the electioneering period. Sensing moves by party leaders to create parallel party groups in the state, Wike alleged last week at the 74th birthday anniversary of former Governor Peter Odili that some elders of the party in the state, who had encouraged him to join the party’s presidential race, have become turncoats and now go to Abuja for meetings with the PDP National Executive Committee and Atiku. Some of these stakeholders, according to investigation, include serving and former senators and aggrieved party chieftains who lost out in the governorship primary in the state. They may turn out to be Atiku’s foot soldiers whose duty will be to rally the party in the state during the campaigns, if Wike continues to play hardball. It is this turn of events that has informed the plan by Atiku to give a major role to the grassroots in constituting his campaign council which would soon be unveiled publicly. Funding would be directly released to ward Chairmen, unlike in the past campaign plans when funding was released to henchmen and those considered leaders in the various zones and states.
Several attempts to reach Kelvin Ebiri, Media spokesperson to Wike, were unsuccessful as he did not answer calls to his phone nor respond to text messages sent to him. Chairman of the PDP in Rivers State, Ambassador Desmond Akawor also did not respond to phone calls.
However, after the reconciliation meeting, he issued a statement confirming what Governor Fintiri and ex-Governor Mimiko said that discussions had begun to ensure reconciliation.
A chieftain of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, expressed confidence in the ability of the party’s reconciliation committee to fulfil its mandate.
The one-time National Publicity Secretary, who spoke with this newspaper on Friday after the meeting in Port Harcourt, said: “What is important is for the party to go into the 2023 elections as one body. I think the committee will fulfil their mandate, from the outcome of the meeting on Friday.”
Former National Chairman of the party, Haliru Mohammed, agrees with Ologbondiyan. Mohammed who took over from Chief Nnia Nwodo as National Chairman at the party’s National Convention held in 2011 when the same argument about zoning came up because the National Chairman and President, Goodluck Jonathan, were from the South, said the Board of Trustees should have stepped in immediately to mediate in the VP candidacy crisis, following Wike’s grievance over Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa’s selection by Atiku, adding that he considers silence as his best contribution to the ongoing reconciliation efforts because speaking may be considered as an interference.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
