PDP: Peace lies beyond the courts

Even before the verdict of the Court of Appeal Port Harcourt Division on who leads the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it was clear that the party’s problem extended beyond the leadership question. 

While doubts hovered over its future direction, the status of its very soul was also at stake. 

Hence when last week the appellate court finally pronounced Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, one of the factional leaders as the authentic National Chairman of the party, the development not only deepened the vortex of crisis in the party. It also betrayed the inherent risks associated with the ambivalence of law in addressing certain thorny issues in politics as well as society; with the PDP imbroglio not an exception.

Nevertheless, the cascade of intrigues that all along hung like an albatross on the neck of the party notwithstanding, that Appeal Court verdict remained the catalyst which all the party’s stakeholders were waiting for, to move things to the next level.

It is easily recalled that until and even after the judgement by the appellate court the party had been a victim of a power play in which two factions fought for the control of its soul. One faction was led by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff – former two-time governor of Borno State and a former Senator, and  until his foray into the PDP leadership circuit, was  a stalwart of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and therefore an outsider to the PDP.

 His road to the party’s leadership was courtesy of a convoluted process of filling the vacuum which was created when the former National Chairman of the party Adamu Muazu resigned from office following the serial defeat of the party by the APC in the 2015 general polls.

Sheriff fell out of favour with his mainstream PDP leaders over the failure of a May 21st 2016 National Convention in Port Harcourt, and he was fingered as one of the factors for the mishap. 

Some of the party leaders then adopted Senator Ahmed Markarfi as the Chairman of a Caretaker Committee to replace Sheriff and run the affairs of the party. But Sheriff would not take that, hence commenced the power tussle in the party.  

Just like Sheriff, Senator Ahmed Markarfi is also a two -term governor of Kaduna State, and a Senator, who was invited at a moment of intractable internal party crisis to lead the Caretaker Committee of the party. Incidentally both men trace their ascendancy to the contested seat under circumstances that can at best be described as controversial – having emerged by the typical ‘arangee’ (backdoor) system. 

A major fallout of the parting of ways between Sheriff and the other leaders of the PDP was the effective split in leadership of the party, and the attendant wild spin of its fortunes since then, which included serial electoral losses in at least two governorship exercises in Ondo and Edo States. 

Interestingly it was in the elections into National and State Assembly seats for Rivers State that the party’s fortunes witnessed a deft mark-up, courtesy of the ‘special operations’ rallied by that state’s governor Nyesom Wike.

Against the backdrop of the foregoing the enthronement by court order of Sheriff an erstwhile outsider, to rule over historical party insiders, has thrown up fresh challenges to both sides of the tussle. Firstly for the Markarfi faction, the immediate challenge is how to come to terms with taking orders from a ‘stranger’ as National Chairman of a system many of them cannot clearly see his contributions to its fortunes. This is especially acute in terms of Sheriff’s recent association with the rival party that is also in power – the APC.  

Secondly is the need to secure the remnants of the party structure from further haemorrhage in terms of exodus of members to other parties especially the APC as well as to the Sheriff side. 

For the Sheriff faction, the dispensation translates into a period of serious leg work in order to consolidate on the newly ‘conquered’ territory of the PDP nationwide hierarchy. Early in the wake of his victory Sheriff had announced immediate plans to conduct a National Convention of the party at which new national officers of the party will be elected. However, it is not clear if he has taken into account the feasibility of such a huge enterprise in the present circumstances given that a National Convention of the PDP cannot hold without earlier local government and state level congress elections from where delegates will emerge to attend the National Convention. 

And given the resolve of the Markarfi faction to which belong the PDP governors to shun his proposed National Convention, the project may as well be dead on arrival. 

He has also not helped matters with his indulgence in verbal exchanges with some key stakeholders of the party especially the Governor of Ekiti State Ayodele Fayose and the Rivers State counterpart Nyesom Wike whom Sheriff is reported to have threatened to neutralise in the affairs of the party. Coming from a man whose initial entry into the party enjoyed the support of these governors, it will be interesting to see him achieve their neutralisation. 

Having come into the party through a special vehicle, the least that is expected of Sheriff is to proceed to mend fences with all aggrieved interests of the party, especially in the light of the recent series of misfortunes of the PDP, and which has ushered in a landslide-grade migration of its members to the ruling APC.  As a leader he claims to be, he has an acid test of proving that he can be trusted to hold the fort in the party. 

A major twist in Sheriff’s grip on the PDP National Chairman’s seat is the fear among the PDP establishment that a mortal blow may have been dealt to the plans of the party to present a Northerner as its Presidential candidate in 2019 to face a possible President Muhammadu Buhari in a second term bid for presidency, or another Northerner whom the APC may present. 

If Sheriff a Northerner does not quit as party Chairman before then, the PDP may be compelled to field a Southerner as Presidential candidate in 2019.

That is why for Sheriff, a peaceful stay for him in the PDP either as National Chairman or floor member cannot come through the pronouncement of any court, but from building accommodation with the traditional owners of the party. That is if indeed he was not planted to kill it as is presently speculated.