• Adeniran, Dokpesi allege irregularities
  • It’s free, fair credible –Wike, Fayose, Udom
  • Why South-west lost out

From Ismail Omipidan and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja 

Prince Uche Secondus early this morning emerged the new national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Secondus, a former acting national chairman carried the day at the national convention of the erstwhile ruling party held at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

More than 1,500 votes had been counted in his favour as at press time.    

Secondus beat his closest rival, a former minister of education, Professor Tunde Adeniran who scored 230 votes.

Former chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi came third with 66 votes, while former minister of sports and youth development, Professor Taoheed Adedoja came fourth.

  Prominent leaders and governors of the party hailed the outcome of the convention, describing it as a symbol of hope. They include Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, his Akwa Ibom State counterpart, Emmanuel Udom and Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose.

On his part Wike said the party had been repositioned to serve as credible opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He said: “This election has been quite credible, it has been very transparent and done in the full glare of the world.

On those criticizing the process, he expressed surprise. “If you have not done your homework well, you come forward to cry foul, it is surprising that even an election as organized as this, someone will still cry. You have an exam and you don’t prepare, but you expect to win.”

Udom also described the convention as a success. The governor who addressed the delegates said the convention was “the most transparent ever in the history of the party,” adding that the party was now prepared to play its expected role.

Fayose advised those who lost to accept it in the spirit of sportsmanship, saying that “sometimes the best man may not necessarily win a race. He advised the losers not top create confusion, head to court or decamp to the APC. They should rather wait for the next four years and plan to win in another convention.

He said: “Those who lost today, I say sorry. Come back and let’s rebuild our party. Don’t go to APC, they are wicked and terrible. And no judge will lose his job because of PDP, there is no more emergency judgments.”

He advised the new exco to sit down and do their work well; no more impunity.”

But despite the appeals and approval rating of the convention, some of the contestants protested the entire election process, saying that the party should get set for another convention.

Professor Tunde Adeniran was the first to reject the result. He said that the entire process was sham and travesty of democracy, as PDP governors prepared and foisted a ‘unity list’ of aspirants on the delegates. He therefore called for the cancellation of the results while the Board of Trustees (BOT) should take over the running of the party pending the conduct of a fresh convention.

Similarly, another chairmanship aspirant, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, faulted the convention, alleging that the voting process was manipulated through the ‘unity list.’ According to him, ‘unity list’ containing the names of a set of aspirants for the 21 positions contested for were freely distributed to delegates, to aid them in voting at the convention. He said the names appeared on the ballot papers in the same order.

Dokpesi said that it was unfortunate that a party, which just got out of a major leadership crisis would be involved in acts of impunity and election malpractice. He therefore called on the party leadership to rectify the observed anomalies before it becomes a major challenge ahead the 2019 General Elections. efore the election, a “unity list,” which purportedly emanated from the Secondus’ camp had names of preferred aspirants for each of the position.

Sunday Sun observed that delegates were being handed the list at the point of voting before some aspirants protested, thereby forcing the electoral committee to announce that delegates should not come with any list while going to cast their ballot. 

One of those who protested openly gave his name as Beruola Kehinde, an aspirant to the position of Deputy Publicity Secretary. 

Rather than allow delegates to vote their conscience they were “giving them list. What kind of a party is this?” Kehinde said angrily as he was dragged away from the voting area by some of the electoral officials who were trying to pacify him.

Botched Port Harcourt convention 

Shortly after the 2015 election, which saw PDP losing the presidency and other states hitherto under its control to the rampaging All Progressives Congress (APC), the party set up a committee led by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, to look at why the party lost and how it could forestall future occurrence.

When the Ekweremadu committee turned in its report, it recommended among other things that the presidency should be zoned to the North, the vice presidency to the South, while the party’s chairman should go to the South. 

And since the South-south was just leaving the presidency and the Southeast had produced two previous national chairmen, party leaders reasoned that the slot should go to the South-west.

This explains why at the botched Port Harcourt convention in May last year, only aspirants from the South-west indicated interest in the plum job. Secondus at the time was angling to return as the deputy chairman (South) of the party. 

This fact was reinforced by the former deputy national chairman of the party and an aspirant to the position of the chairman, Chief Olabode George in an interview with our sister publication, Daily Sun in October this year. He insisted that party leaders from the South were unanimous in their decision to allow South-west produced the next national chairman. 

According to him, former Rivers State governor, Dr. Peter Odili was also in that meeting and that he was one of those who canvassed the said position.

How the game changed

Sunday Sun gathered that if the national convention had held last year or early this year, stakeholders would have still allowed the South-west produce the chairman, since there would have been enough time between the time of the convention and the next general election in 2019.

But because the convention did not hold  earlier as anticipated, party stakeholders felt that there was no time “to begin another trial and error,” since the convention was holding close to an election year, Sunday Sun further learnt.

“One of the factors that worked against the South-west is the crisis in that zone. It will be dangerous to play into the hands of the ruling party. They could use any of our dissident members to drag us back through the various cases in court in the zone,” one of the sources told Sunday Sun.

“If you observe very well, at the beginning, Secodus was not in the race. He was drafted into the race when it became clear that we could run into trouble waters if we leave it in the South-west. 

“We also reasoned that there could be danger if we insist on a South-west chairman. I laugh when people say a certain governor was the one calling the shots. How can you put your money somewhere and the people who have not contributed a dime would say the man who is contributing should not call the shots? It defies logic.

“Suppose we insist and produce a South-west chairman and the South-south and South-east decide to pull out and refuse to fund the party. Won’t the party die? All these are some of the factors that were put into consideration to arrive at our decision,” another source disclosed. 

Reminded that South-west too was strategic in the build up to 2019, he said, “I agree with you. And that was why we set up a post convention reconciliation committee. It has not been formally agreed upon, but we are already toying with the idea of taking the vice presidency slot to the South-west.”

How South-west played itself out 

Apart from the issue of crisis plaguing the PDP in South-west, Sunday Sun further gathered that its inability to come with a consensus candidate from the zone or at least two persons from the zone to contest the election further reduced its chances at the convention. 

Before yesterday, seven aspirants were in the race from the zone against just two from the South-south. But by Friday night, Chief Bode George withdrew from the race. He, however, did not say he was stepping down to boost the chances of any of other aspirants from the zone.

By yesterday morning, three other aspirants from the zone also withdrew. They are : former Oyo State governor, Rashidi Ladoja, 2015 Lagos State governorship candidate, Jimi Agabaje and former Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel. Ironically, their withdrawal made little meaning as investigations revealed that it would not change anything in favour of the zone.

Speaking on South-west’s inability to speak with one voice, a member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) from the North said, “the North has sympathy for South-west. If they had actually managed the issues very well and come up with one person, perhaps we may not have any justification to dump them. But from the way they have mismanaged this chairmanship issue, if we give them the position, we may never get out of the crisis that will follow till 2019 general election. And we want to avoid that pitfall.

“Fayose, who is the only PDP governor from the zone and who is the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum made it clear that he does not want the position, either in his state or in the zone. He threatened that if we insist that South-west must have the position, he will leave the party. For God’s sake, what do you want us to do? We reckon that South-west is a very important and strategic zone that we must not ignore, but their leaders have not done anything to help their case?

“Only on Tuesday there was another court pronouncement over the leadership tussle in the zone. Now, it may get to the Supreme Court. So, we are afraid of witnessing another (former Osun State governor Olagunsoye) Oyinlola scenario, where a court nullified his election as national secretary of the party in 2013. You know it was the South-west zonal leadership crisis that led to Oyinlola’s ouster.

“So, just imagine the collateral damage it will have on us if we witness such a thing in 2018? To play safe, we are looking the way of the South-south. Please, no one should blame us for taking this position, it is in the best interest of our great party and that of the country,” the BoT member said.

2019 connection 

Sunday Sun further gathered that the race for 2019 also helped in shaping the outcome of the convention. All the presidential hopefuls from the North especially those who supported the emergence of Secondus would expect him and his backers to pay back when the time comes. Although none of the aspirants who withdrew from the race at the eleventh hour was willing to speak on record on the “deal “ that saw them withdrawing from the race at the eleventh hour, Sunday Sun gathered that one of them has already been promised the vice presidency slot for 2019.

George curses PDP 

Unlike the three others who withdrew from the chairmanship race and wrote the party to politely say so, as at  time the election commenced yesterday, the party said it was yet to receive any letter of withdrawal from Geroge.

But George who addressed journalists last Friday night said he was withdrawing from the race because the position “has been sold to highest bidder.”

According to him: “since the ancient days when the Yoruba people began their historical challenges on the plains and the hills of Ile-Ife, we have always been defined by our instinctive integrity, our methodical industry, our consistent loyalty and our steadfastness in protecting and defending the truth.

“It is in all these characterization that I have personally lived my life. It is in all these summative portraits that I have pursued my personal and political engagements, strengthened in the resolve that truth, sincerity of purpose, fearlessness, equity, ethical balance are the basic ingredients of a purposeful life.

“I have gone through many travails in my life. I have climbed the highest hills. and I have been through the lowest valleys. But in all, I have been guided by the holiest of heart’s affection, the genuine and the utmost surrender to the will of the Lord.

“But I have never been afraid of a good fight. I have never disengaged from a meaningful challenge. I have always committed myself to any struggle with absolute dedication and unflinching, resolute vision.

“It is in this spirit and clarity of selfless engagement that I decided to run for the National Chairmanship position of our great party. I did not enter the contest for any personal benefits. I did not throw myself into the fray because of some pecuniary benefits. I have come to serve. I have come to offer myself because I believe in the greater glory of our party and in the growth and development of our nation. I have served continuously for 10 years in various high level positions in our party administration, including the second highest echelon of Deputy National Chairman.

“With all sense of humility, I can say that I know the workings and all the administrative processes and the tools of making our party work.

“The zoning principle, which was publicly reinforced last year in Port Harcourt, had specifically and rightly affirmed the South-West as the zone to produce the National Chairman. This binding proclamation was based on equity, fairness and natural balance that hold any organisation together.

“But this old, legitimate and morally sound micro zoning principle has now been trashed, dumped in the waste bin, flung into the gutter by very little men who have compromised the pivotal moral anchor of civilised engagement for temporary selfish gains.

“Everywhere you look, the Yoruba people are now being brazenly insulted. The very traditional fiber of our founding fathers are now being trampled upon, debased and soiled by external forces and mercenary traitors within.

“It appears the PDP is now bent on self destruction. It has obviously allowed money moguls to dictate its thematic largeness. The party has lost its soul. It has lost its principled beginning and the predications of righteousness. It has traded the finer principles of democratic guidance and equity for the squalid, dirty and shameful resort to mercenary agenda where nothing matters save the putrid, oafish gains of the moment.

“I cannot be part of this screaming aberration. And as the Atona of Yoruba land, I do not expect any well meaning, well disciplined, forthright, sincere Omoluabi of Yoruba land to continue with this deceit and shameful theater.

“As a result of these observed aberrations wherein the position of the National Chairman has been apparently sold and auctioned to the highest bidder, I, as an Omoluabi and as an authentic Atona of Yorubaland, will not partake in this charade. I, hereby, withdraw from this brazen fraud and absolutely preconceived, monetized, mercantilist convention.

“The Yoruba people have been openly maligned. The Yoruba have been savaged, tormented, treated with contempt, scurried, scoffed at, humiliated and denigrated by little men whose sun will soon set.

As a Yoruba patriot and the pathfinder of Yoruba land, I will stand by our people, I will stay with them thick or thin, I will fight for their good cause without compromising any ethics,” George declared.