Secondus: The banana peel that may consume PDP

Just like the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is also at a crossroads and its sitting on a keg of gunpowder which could explode anytime.

The major opposition party may however be lucky and live to celebrate and not regret, its decision to go ahead with its national convention that is ongoing at the moment in Abuja. This depends largely on the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling on the appeal that may be filed by its suspended chairman, Uche Secondus.

Secondus has been in court for months protesting the circumstances of his removal from the party’s leadership position, and to demand the enforcement of his fundamental human rights. In the course of the litigation, he prayed the court for an injunction to stop the party from proceeding with its convention where a new chairman will be chosen, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

He failed at both the court of first instance and the appellate court. Even before the Appeal Court’s ruling, the party hierarchy had vowed to continue with its preparations for the convention irrespective of whether the court will cancel it or not.

The party had in a statement before the court ruling on Friday said that the date of its convention remains October 30th and 31st. 

The Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, while briefing journalists in Abuja, had said arrangements for the convention were ongoing. 

Secondus has however vowed to challenge his suspension in the Supreme Court, a move seen by many as an attempt to plunge the party into another crisis. 

Meanwhile, party leaders from across the country have for months been begging Secondus to let go and take his ouster in good faith, and withdraw the matter in court but the suspended chairman has stuck to his guns, saying he must seek judicial interpretation of his removal.

Now that the Appeal Court has given the party the green light to conduct its convention and Secondus has vowed to proceed to the Supreme Court with his case. If Secondus wins the case, the learned justices will ask him to be reinstated to his position and the judgment will by implication render the convention and all the officers it produces null and void.

It will be worse for the party if the unfavourable ruling comes after the 2023 elections some of which the party may have won. The ruling can therefore extend to the point that a PDP President (if the party wins the presidential election), the governors, lawmakers and other elected officers may lose their positions to the APC (which may have come second in the elections) because the National Working Committee (NWC) that produced them is a product of an illegal convention and which automatically makes it an illegality.

Indeed, there is no doubting the fact that Secondus is a big banana peel that can land the PDP on the floor and break its spinal cord and entire back bone.

Adnan Mukhtar Tudunwada erites from Abuja