The greatest handicap of the Fourth Republic is in the attitude of impunity of its practitioners especially the political parties. The special purpose vehicle (SPV) with which political parties humiliate perceived political opponents within their political parties is ensconced in the omnibus provision “anti-party activities”. The provision is most times very vague in interpretation in some political parties. In some it has no interpretation at all. The more vague the phrase “anti-party activities” is in any Constitution, the more its interpretation and implementation on perceived political opponents is done with impunity.
In the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Section 58(1)(f) simply states “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the Party shall have power to discipline any member who engages in anti-party activities”. The All Progressives Congress (APC) went further to beef up the Section a bit when it states in Article 21(A)(ii) of its Constitution that “Offenses against the Party shall include, Anti-Party activities or any conduct, which is likely to embarrass or have adverse effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule or disrepute.” Labour Party (LP) has almost identical provision in its Constitution as stipulated in Article 19(B)(2) which states “Anti-Party activities by conducting self in a manner likely to embarrass the party or bring it into hatred, contempt, ridicule or disrepute in whatever manner.” It went further to include carrying out anti-party propaganda as one of the offences in Article 19(B)(5). One general provision common to all the Political Parties is that any party member who commits anti party activity must be made to face a Disciplinary Committee and the Committee must ensure the observance of natural justice which guarantees fair hearing for any accused person on the principle of “audi alteram partem” literally meaning “listen to the other side” or “let the other side be heard as well”.
As stated earlier, the more vague this provision is, the more it leads to impunity. There’s nothing that can be interpreted as anti-party activity in PDP. It’s no wonder why the Party has been the worst example of a Party with impunity. The PDP recently suspended Senator Chimaraoke Nnamani of Enugu State and some PDP Stalwarts in Ekiti State from the PDP for anti-party activities. Responding to the punitive action against him, Senator Chimaraoke protested his suspension by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying his right to fair hearing was allegedly violated. He added that he was never at anytime notified of any petition or complaint against him or informed of the grounds that formed the decision of the PDP NWC to suspend him from the party. He was not also invited to any meeting, proceeding or hearing of the NWC of the party where his supposed offence (s) was/were discussed. The APC just expelled Senator Solomon Ita Enang from the Party for anti-party activity. The Senator went to court to contest the result of the APC gubernatorial election in which he participated and for which he believed he was shortchanged. He, like Chimaraoke, alleged that he was not given a fair hearing contrary to the express provisions of his Party’s Constitution.
This “anti-party activities” provision has become an instrument for intimidating members without godfathers. Yet godfathers and their surrogates carry out the worst anti-party activities without any form of reprimand. This inequitable treatment is the root cause of the series of crises in our parties. Some party members are simply above the law. If Anti-Party activity is defined as any conduct, which is likely to embarrass or have adverse effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule or disrepute, then it’s either these major political parties adhere to their party Constitution and wield the big stick on all offenders or amend their Constitution to redefine what anti-party means.
Starting with the PDP presidential election which an aspirant, Hayatu-Deen, described as obscenely monetized. The winner Atiku Abubakar emerged after an aspirant from his ethnic, religious and sectional background, Aminu Tambuwal, was allowed to publicly flout the PDP presidential primary rules by speaking twice on the podium when all his co-aspirants spoke only once and his second coming was to collude with Atiku to manipulate the election to favour Atiku. He publicly declared support for Atiku and even went further to ask his voters to turn around to vote for Atiku at his rigged second coming. Using the same podium dedicated for the candidates to deliver their manifesto to the members to endorse and campaign for another fellow aspirant in order to shortchange other aspirants is the height of anti-party activity because it was a conduct which embarrassed and had adverse effect on the party and brought the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule and disrepute. Rather than making such an aspirant face disciplinary measures, the National Chairman of the Party, Iyorcha Ayu, committed a greater anti-party activity by visiting the house of Tambuwal after the presidential primary election to confer an award on him as the hero of the presidential primary election for betraying the other candidates in favour of his Fulani Northern Muslim relative and frustrated the presidential power shifting South, which even Atiku admitted was the right thing to do. The fuss about that error of judgement is yet to settle in PDP.
Ironically Atiku Abubakar engaged in anti-party activities throughout his political career. When his tenure as Vice-President was coming to an end in 2007 and his party PDP found him ineligible to contest the 2007 presidential election because of his propensity for corruption for which he was tried by an administrative judicial panel set up by his PDP government. He was duly indicted for corruption with unassailable evidence. Michael Achimugu, Atiku media aide, has in 2023, corroborated all the evidence of corruption levelled against Atiku by the Administrative judicial panel set up by the PDP in 2007. In the evidence publicly displayed by Achimugu, Atiku Abubakar admitted with his voice establishing companies like Marine Float, called Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) with names of trusted party officers, with which he used to siphon the Nigerian resources and money through paying non-existent consultancy fees that they will corner for themselves and families to satisfy their insatiable appetite for corruption.
Rather than accept this verdict and retire from politics permanently, Atiku, as serving Vice-President of PDP, committed the worst anti-party activity by joining another political party, Action Congress (AC), which accepted him and even gave him the ticket to contest its Presidential election. It’s not surprising that the politician that accommodated Atiku when he fled his party for corruption was Bola Tinubu who was the leader of the AC then and wanted to be his Vice-President. This is because Tinubu also established Alpha Beta company through other names with which he captured the revenue of Lagos State according to the petition of Dipo Apara, the former MD of the company. PDP government declared his seat of Vice-President vacant and sacked him from government. Rather than accept his fate, he went to court to challenge all the actions of PDP without first of all exhausting all the internal mechanism for the resolution of conflicts. This is another egregious anti-party activity. It is important to note that the courts did not exenorate him from corruption or justify his action of contesting election in another party while he was the Vice-President of another party, indeed the court condemned it as morally wrong. However, the court ruled that it is only the National Assembly that can remove Atiku as Vice-President, not the Party or the President. It also held that it’s the court that has the power to convict Atiku Abubakar and stop him from contesting, not an Administrative Judicial Panel.
Of course, Atiku went ahead to contest and lost. He has contested to be President in every election since 2007. He has contested for five times and the 2023 general election will be his sixth time. This is another anti-party activity. This runs contrary to the PDP Constitution which is clear that presidential power should shift between North and South after every 8 years and rotate among the Geo-Political Zones. There is no way it is the intendment of the framers of our Constitution and the PDP Constitution that power will remain with Atiku’s religious, ethnic, and sectional group forever as this will be the greatest route to political instability in Nigeria. Atiku even supported power shift from South to North and walked out on a sitting President of PDP, Goodluck Jonathan, when he couldn’t get it in 2015. He committed another anti-party with Tambuwal by joining APC in 2015 to defeat his former Party PDP after forming a faction of NPDP while still in PDP. Atiku firmly declared then that PDP was beyond redemption and has become a party of corruption, insurgency and unemployment.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that of the Parties are clear on the need to ensure sectional, ethnic and religious balancing in the recruitment of the leaders of Nigeria. The relevant provisions are Sections 14(3)(4), 15(1)(2)(3d)(4) and 17(1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended and Section 7(3)(c) of the PDP Constitution coupled with Section 20(v) of the APC Constitution. Paragraph 2(d) of the preamble to the PDP’s Constitution emphatically established PDP on the resolution “to conform with the principles of power shift and power sharing by rotating key political offices amongst the diverse peoples of the country”.
The party consolidated this provision in the body of its Constitution in Section 7(3)(c) where it admonished their members that they must pursue their aims and objectives by adhering to the policy of the rotation and zoning of Party and Public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness”.
Atiku, by contesting election at every election shows that he doesn’t have any regard for those provisions above. It’s even more instructive when one observes that the present President in office is a fulfude speaking Northern Fulani Muslim like Atiku who will complete 8 years by 2023. Any vote for Atiku will permanently destroy every notion of our federal character, power shift and rotation and deal a decisive blow to the unity and cohesion of our country. This is the greatest anti-party activity. It’s ridiculous that PDP is suspending, expelling and threatening innocent members of their political party, including the G-5 Governors, who are insisting that the Constitutions of Nigeria and PDP must be obeyed and cowardly exonerating Atiku Abubakar, Iyorcha Ayu and Tambuwal who are the main perpetrators of anti-party activities in PDP. If PDP refuses to do the right thing by suspending Atiku and co, the Nigerian people should do the right thing by voting them out to save our country from collapse.