PDP’s Endless Search for Peace

The recent visit by the Sokoto State Governor and Director General of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential Campaign Council, Aminu Tambuwal, to the leader of the G-5 governors and Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, in Makurdi, over the lingering crises in the party, has again shown that achieving peace in the main opposition party before the February 25, 2023 presidential election could be a herculean task, Chuks Okocha writes

Benue State Governor, Mr. Samuel Ortom, recently refuelled the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he accused the national leadership of the party of arrogance. Briefing journalists after a closed-door meeting in Makurdi with his Sokoto State counterpart and Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Governor Aminu Tambuwal who visited him over the lingering crisis in the party, Ortom said the party’s leadership had failed to take advantage of the challenges within the leading opposition party to make it stronger.

Since Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State lost his presidential ambition in the PDP’s primary to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, last May, the party has not known peace. Wike’s grievances were further aggravated by Atiku’s choice of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as his running mate.

Wike has since been at loggerheads with the PDP presidential candidate following his agitation for the resignation of the Nationl Chairman of party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. The Rivers State governor and four other PDP governors known as the G-5 or the Integrity Group, have insisted that Benue-born Ayu must step down for a southerner as a precondition to support the 2023 ambition of Atiku.

The disagreement worsened when the G-5 governors withdrew from the party’s presidential campaign. They have not only stayed away from the party’s presidential campaign rallies but have frequently been making incendiary comments to demarket Atiku.

Speaking when he hosted Tambuwal, Ortom attributed the arrogance of the party’s leadership to the crisis in the party.

According to him, the meeting between him and his Sokoto State counterpart discussed a variety of issues bordering on the internal wrangling rocking the party. He noted that it was the same arrogance that made the leadership of the party unable to resolve the crisis.

“Governor Tambuwal is the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and currently the acting Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum and the Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation. This meeting is at his instance. We have discussed quite a number of issues, including the division in the PDP and the G-5, of which I am a member. He is principally here to see how we can team up and work together as a party.

“I have told him we are members of the PDP and as I have always said, the leadership of this party has failed to take advantage of the challenges of the party and make the party stronger right from when we held our national convention.

“Instead of the party deploying its internal conflict resolution mechanism to look at the grievances that arose as a result of the primaries, no matter how stupid they were, they have failed to do this. Rather it is arrogance and a nonchalant attitude.  Nobody cared to reach out to us even when we voiced out that things were not going on well.

“For me, I commend him (Tambuwal) for taking this step to visit me and we have discussed my opinion on how I think this matter can be resolved and I believe that as a leader and as DG of the campaign, he will do the needful because I am not alone. Talking to me alone will not solve the problem, but reaching out to others will be more meaningful. I also believe he will also try to do the needful to put the party together as it is,” Ortom explained.

On his part, Tambuwal disclosed that he had a fruitful conversation with Ortom whom he described as one of the leaders of the PDP who hold an important position in the affairs of the party.

“I have said this before that internal party wrangling is normal and what we have been having is not a war of attrition, but political disagreement. Even in our families, we disagree and when you have such disagreements and come back, you even bond stronger and work stronger. So it is a work- in- progress. We have said several times that we are interested in bringing everybody together, to work together for this party and that is the mission of my being here in Makurdi.

“He (Ortom) is one of the principal persons on the issues that we are handling and I have a very useful conversation with him which I will of course engage with the rest of our colleagues and other leaders and see how best we can come back together as one family and work towards making sure that the PDP come out stronger and win the elections of 2023 convincingly,” Tambuwal added.

But Ortom’s claim seems to have been punctured by Atiku who revealed that he had met with Governor Wike five times to resolve the lingering crisis within the party without any way forward.

Speaking on the same night during a live discussion on People’s Townhall, a brainchild of Channels Television and its partners, Atiku who was asked why he was yet to resolve the imbroglio between him and Wike, said it was not on his part to resolve the crisis in the party but on the part of the Rivers State governor because he had personally met the governor twice in Port Harcourt, twice in Abuja, and once in London to resolve the crisis in the party with no headway.

“I have met Wike two times in Port Harcourt, two times in Abuja, one time in London, personally. It is not on my part; it is on the other side; I am waiting for him,” he added.

But Wike recently stressed that his group would only accept reconciliation that was based on equity, fairness and justice. The governor maintained that their position that elective offices must be shared equally between the North and the South in the PDP ahead of the 2023 general election remained sacrosanct.

“We stand for equity, fairness and justice. That is what the G-5 governors will continue to preach. We have said we are not against reconciliation, but reconciliation must be based on equity, fairness and justice. But now, because I said let the right thing be done, let agreement be agreement. Because I have said that, I have now become an enemy. Because we said, look, we had an agreement, do this, do that, and some people believe that they will not and we said it must be done,” he stated.

“You must tell me the interest of my community. I will not join anybody who does not want my state to benefit. I will not support anybody who does not like my state. Individuals can behave that way, I will not behave that way. If I say something today, I will do it. If there is any reason, I won’t do it, I have to come back to you and let you know this is the reason why. And that is what they call integrity,” the governor said.

While Governor Ortom was accusing the leadership of the PDP of arrogance in Makurdi, Wike was  busy chiding the Atiku-Okowa campaign, saying those who said that Nigeria was not ripe for a Muslim-Muslim ticket should also not justify and insist on retaining the presidency in the North.

Speaking at the special dedication service for the state PDP campaigns rallies for the 2023 elections, in Port Harcourt, he maintained that those involved in such double-speak and trying to hoodwink some gullible few, knew that they were insulting the sensibility of well-meaning Nigerians who wanted a united country that would promote national cohesion. He urged those people who delightfully condemned the Muslim-Muslim ticket to also condemn the efforts to retain the presidency in the North after President Muhammadu Buhari

“You play on people’s intelligence; you say Nigeria is not ripe for Muslim-Muslim ticket, I agree. But Nigeria is ripe for the presidency to remain in one zone? I mean, just look at the insult. You blow hot and cold,” Wike said.

Also speaking when his political associates and Rivers’ elders, led by the Chairman, Rivers Elders Council (REC), Chief Ferdinand Alabraba, visited him at his private residence in Port Harcourt to felicitate with him on his 55th birthday last Tuesday, Wike said with Ayu in office as National Chairman of PDP, aggrieved governors under the aegis of G-5 and their allies won’t give their support to the party’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).

The governor claimed he would have won the May 28 presidential primary of the party if the process had not been manipulated. He maintained that the demand that the north should relinquish the position of national chairman to the south remained a panacea to the problems rocking the party.

A member of the Integrity Group, Chief Olabode George, had also stated that he would not vote for  Atiku in next year’s election. Speaking in an interview with a national newspaper, George stated that the former vice president lacked character, adding that Nigerians must be bold to speak truth to power.

He said: “When you have built a house, make sure you don’t tamper with the foundation. Maneuvering can take you to the Villa but what sustains you there is character. If Nigerians decide to vote for Atiku, I will not because of this principle. If he becomes the president, it is his character that would sustain him,” he added.

Many believe that with these tough talks by members of the Integrity Group, many feel that achieving peace in the party before the presidential election on February 25 could be a herculean task.