SECONDUS AND POLITICS OF CONSPIRACY

Of recent, the national chairman of the PDP was enmeshed in an intricate crisis that threatened to cut short his chairmanship position of the PDP. So many thought that Prince Uche Secondus would not survive it since his detractors are well connected and big sponsors of the party. To my mind, the national chairman of the party was wrongly accused for being responsible for the defection of the governors of Ebonyi and Cross River States to the ruling APC. This is unkind cut. If only the governors of Ebonyi and Cross Rivers State would speak for themselves, I am sure that they will put the reason for their decision elsewhere other than Uche Secondus.

Uche Secondus since he became the national chairman of the PDP has worked so assiduously that he succeeded in reinvigorating the almost comatose PDP and repositioned it from the colossal failure it suffered in 2015 general elections. Kudos should be given to him instead of this pull him down syndrome that is gaining momentum. In the wake of the concerted efforts to force him to resign or removed as the national chairman of the party, his traducers put up all manner of allegations against him. So when the PDP called for its National Executive Committee meeting, it was widely believed that Uche Secondus who has become a long distance runner will lose it. But in a mature and well received decision, it was decided that the PDP national convention that should have held in December be brought forward to October. By this decision, those who wanted the national chairman to be removed sucked their lips in regret.

Now an obscure court in Rivers State has made an ex-parte order that the national chairman of the PDP should stop acting in that capacity until a particular motion on notice is heard and determined. The conspiracy to remove Uche Secondus as the chairman of the PDP is unending. Having failed to remove him at the National Executive Committee meeting of the party, they have resorted to using the courts from the home state of the conspirators. This is bad politics. Why would the conspirators want a man whose tenure in office would end this October leave office by all means? Why would these conspirators in their determined efforts to show Prince Uche Secondus the door expose the judiciary to ridicule? Is the lady justice so blindfolded that it cannot see? Can the court substitute the decision of the National Executive of the party? Uche Secondus was widely elected the National chairman of the PDP and he has been acting in that capacity ever since.

So what powers or jurisdiction does the court have to issue an ex-parte order without notice to the affected person to stop (in the words of the court) from parading himself as the national chairman of the PDP when there is no contest about that position of the PDP chairmanship or the tenure of the chairman? Any serious lawyer will query the rationale behind granting such an order via an ex-parte motion. The judiciary is a public institution and not the private estate of one man. This may be the reason why Lord Denning in his Richard Dimbleby Lecture of November 20, 1980 said that “every judge on his appointment discards all politics and all prejudices.” Justice Frankfurter said that the courts should not “enter the political thicket.” The courts are now being used to play dirty politics and settle political scores because Uche Secondus must be pulled down. The courts have their limits.

The Executive Committee of the PDP has already decided the issue of Uche Secondus tenure and that is final. Anything outside of this is nothing but amala or stomach politics.
Indeed, those who have gone to court to obtain this laughable order are mere foot soldiers acting under the instructions of their masters. What is their interest? Apart from being members of the PDP, have they shown any interest that is worthy of considerations? Not general or vague interest. Soon someone will issue a statement that he is not behind this latest attempt to wrest power from Uche Secondus. Whether Brick House is involved or not, this latest move, is a slap on the Executive committee of the PDP that has already resolved the issues. This is politics taken too far. Whether these conspirators will succeed is buried in the belly of time. Brick House believes that it is instrumental to the emergence of Uche Secondus as the chairman of the PDP and therefore must remove him if it so wishes. This should not be so after all the interest of the PDP should override every other personal interest any other member of the party may have. If this latest move fails, one should not be surprised to see some urchins and big wigs of the PDP defecting to other parties.

• Chimezie Elemuo, Port Harcourt