Secondus: Has ‘Father Christmas’ Extracted His Pound of Flesh?

BRIEFINGNOTES

With the decision of the governors and Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party to cut short the tenure of the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, by two months, Ejiofor Alike reports that a certain ‘Father Christmas,’ who was after his job, may have extracted his own pound of flesh

TThe National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has in the last few months faced the greatest battle of his political life.

Despite the spirited efforts made by him and his powerful backers to serve out his tenure, which will end with the party’s national convention on December 9, 2021, certain hawks in the main opposition party still succeeded in cutting it short by two months.

PDP has been battling over the last few months to survive as an opposition party and be able to face the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023 general election.

The fortunes of the party began to dwindle when the Governor of Ebonyi State, Chief David Umahi opened the floodgate of defections by governors and National Assembly members from the PDP to the APC.

However, despite these ominous signs, Secondus and his National Working Committee (NWC) had pretended that all was well with the party.

Even when the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Nyesom Wike, openly called Secondus a liar, the party chairman still restrained himself from joining issues with the governor, who was believed to have sponsored him to that position.

Wike had publicly called Secondus a liar in Abuja during the 60th birthday celebration of former governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke.

He reportedly said: “If he (Secondus) had shown leadership in Cross River, our party would not have had the problem we have today.

“The National Chairman said we need good leadership in the country, but if you don’t show good leadership, the party cannot produce good leaders. That is the truth of the matter.

“We talk about character. What is leadership? Leadership is about character, boldness, selflessness and audacity.

“As a leader, you must have character. Not to speak white in the morning and you speak black in the evening. Is that leadership? What are we telling our youths? We are talking about the future of this country.”

But in a response to the attack on Secondus, the Special Assistant to the PDP National Chairman, Mr. Ike Abonyi, said in a statement “no amount of provocation will make the national chairman take issues with any leader of the party talk less a state governor.”

“To do that is to remove the toga of a leader of the party. The impact of such response from the national chairman on the party will be worse than silence.”

However, it was not long before Secondus was almost choked by the suffocation caused by the resignation of the seven national deputies of the party.

As he was gasping for breath, he cried out publicly for the first time, alleging that a certain “Father Christmas” was using gifts to lure party stakeholders in an attempt to hijack its structures.

Though he did not name the ‘Father Christmas’ whom he accused of deploying all manner of resources to destroy him and birth a caretaker committee, accusing fingers were pointed at his benefactor, Wike.

A statement issued by his media aide, Abonyi had alleged that: “The media office of the National Chairman is privy to intelligence that the strong party chieftain bent on hijacking the party structure for destruction is still on the loose with the main agenda of denting the image of Prince Uche Secondus the National Chairman”.

“We, therefore, wish to alert the general public particularly media houses and party stakeholders to look out for strange deployment of luring gifts from this destructive ‘Father Christmas’ all aimed at having a grip on the soul of our party by having a caretaker Committee.”

“What continues to shock many party observers is the real reason behind the desperation of this man to get at the National Chairman and the quantum of public funds being expended to achieve this illicit goal a few months to the National Convention.”

“Prince Secondus through the media office, however, wishes to assure all critical stakeholders of our great party that every reasonable step is being taken to ensure that the image and status of the party is not injured by all these needless noise and scheming by desperadoes.”

As the crisis persisted, the party’s BoT and the governors had resisted the moves to oust Secondus, insisting that all actions of the party must be in line with its constitution.

Wike had allegedly used the opportunity of the BoT meeting to recall how he funded the party when other governors and party chieftains abandoned it.

It was however not certain how such generosity should result to an attempt to force Secondus out of office.

Secondus had also publicly vowed that he would not resign because there was no cause for him to do so. But despite the efforts of the governors and the BoT to douse tension and allow him to complete his tenure, the “needless noise and scheming by desperadoes” could not abate.

In other to give Secondus a soft landing, the party leadership agreed to allow the Secondus-led NWC to continue in office till the next national convention.

But the PDP had to appease the hawks by bringing the national convention forward from December to October, and also resolving that Secondus and other NWC members would not seek re-election.

Though it was said that the decision by the Secondus-led NWC to jettison re-election at the national convention was a gentleman’s understanding out of their freewill, such agreement was unconstitutional and a denial of their rights to seek re-election.

When the governors came out initially with this recommendation, it was opposed by some members who pointed out the illegality of such a move.

However, the NWC members were later cowed into submission to make it look as a gentleman’s understanding.

But the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, had dismissed any such agreement, saying “the party wishes to clarify that no decision was taken to bar any member of the NWC from exercising his or her rights under the constitution of the PDP to contest in the forthcoming National Convention of the party.”

However, his position had been dismissed as a volte face by other members of the party privy to the agreement.

For now, it is not certain if this agreement of abridging their tenure and denying them the opportunity to seek re-election will not be challenged legally before the October convention.

What is certain is that ‘Father Christmas’ and his group have extracted their own pound of flesh and any attempt to challenge this illegality and injustice against the Secondus-led NWC will plunge the PDP into deeper crisis, and further deplete its fortunes ahead of 2023 elections.