Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in a fix. It does not know exactly what next to do over the stand-off between it and some of its members in the House of Representatives, regarding the leadership of the minority caucus.
For critical observers, the party is torn between accepting the House of Representatives minority caucus leadership led by Honourable Ndudi Elumelu and incurring the wrath of some interests within its fold or pushing the lawmakers out of the PDP and offending another interest group, also within the opposition party.
The opposition party has been at daggers drawn with some of its members in the National Assembly over the leadership of the minority caucus in the Green chamber.
Crisis broke our in the House minority caucus in July after the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, named Elumelu, Toby Okechukwu, Gideon Gwani and Segun Adekoya as minority leader, deputy minority leader, minority whip and deputy minority whip respectively, against Kingsley Chinda, Chukwuka Onyema, Yakubu Barde and Muraina Ajibola, who were nominated by the PDP for the positions.
Expectedly, the opposition party kicked. The PDP National Working Committee ( NWC), after an emergency meeting on July 5, suspended Elumelu, Okechukwu, Gwani and Adekoya from the party for one month for their role in the leadership crisis.
Also suspended for their role in the minority caucus leadership crisis were Wole Oke, Lynda Ikpeazu and Anayo Edwin.
The party also referred the seven lawmakers to its National Disciplinary Committee headed by former External Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi for further disciplinary actions.
According to the PDP, the role played by Elumelu and others in the leadership crisis “bordered on indiscipline, insubordination and disobedience of party directives contrary to Section 58 (1)(b)(c)(f)(h) of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017).”
Besides referring the lawmakers to the Disciplinary Committee , the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) on July 7, set up a five man committee to mediate in the crisis.
The committee chaired by Ayu, which was given seven days to submit its report, has as members, former Senate Presidents, Adolphus Wabara and David Mark as well as former deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu and former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara as secretary. However, Opara later resigned from the committee.
Similarly, the opposition party’s NWC set up another committee headed by Wabara to investigate why lawmakers elected on the platform of the PDP defied the party’s directive on the election of the presiding officers of the two chambers of the National Assembly, as well as the minority leadership in the House of Representatives and report back to it within 21 days.
Inaugurating the committee, the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, who was represented by his deputy, Yomi Akinwumi, said the party decided to investigate what happened during the election of presiding officers of the National Assembly, because it believes in internal democracy.
“We want to use this opportunity to call on them to come and look at the nomination of the Minority leader of the House of Representatives and advise us accordingly. We have confidence in you. What we are doing here has the approval of NWC and NEC, the highest organ of the party.
“You will look at the governors, the governors forum, all the strata of the party so that you can go into the nitty gritty of what happened and advise the party appropriately,” the PDP leader stated.
On his part, the PDP National Secretary, Umaru Tsauri, vowed that the party will take action over the rebellion of its members in the National Assembly.
According to Tsuari , “we have to take a decision whether right or wrong. We are not going back on our decision. It is either you are in PDP or you are not. No sitting on the fence.”
A party ‘s delimma
However, despite Tsauri’s boast, the party is finding it difficult to take a decision on the Green chamber ‘s minority leadership crisis because of conflicting interests close to three months after the PDP suspended Elumelu and six others.
Apart from the BoT panel, which turned in its report, few weeks back, neither the Ikimi-led National Disciplinary Committee nor the Wabara panel has made public their findings on the crisis, for reasons known to the party leadership. Unfortunately for the PDP, even the report of the BoT panel is gradually being enmeshed in controversy.
After the one month suspension slammed on the seven lawmakers elapsed on August 5, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan had told Daily Sun that their suspension will subsist pending when the National Disciplinary Committee would make returns to the NWC.
However, Daily Sun gathered that the opposition party is actually in a dilemma, on the best step to take in its standoff with the Elumelu group, so that the disagreement does not escalate into a major crisis within the party, hence, the delay by the committees in coming up with their findings.
A source within the opposition party told our correspondent that the dilemma of the party’s leadership on the issue stems from the fact that the House minority leadership enjoys the support of some of the governors elected on the platform of the opposition party.
According to the source “ they have realized they made a big mistake. They are trying to play safe now. We shot our selves in the foot. We should not have suspended them in the first place, knowing the intrigues. Of course, the party is in a dilemma. The governors are split over the matter. I doubt if there are up to four governors with the NWC on this matter.”
Regardless, Ologbondiyan told Daily Sun that it is not true that the party is in a dilemma over the matter. According to him, NWC cannot do anything on the issue until the National Disciplinary Committee completes its assignment and report back to it.
According to him, “There is no dilemma of any sort. Whosoever is saying that is not telling you the right thing. There are processes; the NWC suspended the lawmakers and referred the matter to the National Disciplinary Committee. We are waiting for the recommendation the committee will come up with. Until the committee submits its report, the status quo remains.
“ Until the National Disciplinary Committee makes returns to the NWC, nothing has changed. There is no dilemma anywhere, it is a process.”
According to the PDP constitution, whatever punitive measure prescribed by the Disciplinary Committee, will be tabled before the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the second highest organ of the party for ratification.
PDP leaders at daggers drawn
Last Thursday, the BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin and Wabara, who is also the secretary of the board, publicly disagreed over the report of the Ayu committee on minority leadership crisis. The BoT on that fateful day had met at the PDP National Secretariat in Abuja for over five hours, with the Ayu committee report as one of the main agenda.
It was after the marathon meeting that the BoT chairman and secretary squared up against each other at a press briefing, where they were scheduled to brief journalists on the status of the report of the Ayu committee.
While Jibrin said “it is an internal matter and we are handling it internally, nothing has been concluded on the report yet.” Wabara disagreed. According to him, “As far as I know, we considered the report and concluded everything about it and submitted it to the National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, who is equally a member of the BoT. “
Analysts say the open spat between the two PDP leaders over the report of the Ayu committee report, which is intended to chart the way forward in the stand-off between the House of Representatives minority leadership, is indicative of the schism among party bigwigs, especially the governors, on how the impasse can be resolved.
Last week, the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, had described the Ayu committee as the most corrupt in the history of the PDP. Wike, while applauding Opara for resigning from the committee, said :“We thank our worthy son, Rt Hon Austin Opara, for withdrawing from that committee, so that he is not entangled in the illegal activities of the tainted committee.
“We are warning PDP to be careful not to toy with Rivers State. Rivers State has all it takes to withstand the PDP and fight the party to a standstill. The Rivers State Governor is not one of those governors that anyone can cajole.
“The Rivers State governor is not one of those Governors that will kowtow to their illicit activities”.
Daily Sun reliably gathered that the Ayu panel had advised the PDP to accept the Elumelu-led minority leadership, a position that has not gone well with some party leaders.
Therefore, in the weeks ahead, one major challenge the PDP and its National chairman will face is how to bridge the gulf among its governors and leaders over the House of Representatives minority leadership impasse and how to resolve the issue once and for all.
For Secondus , it is even a more daunting challenge, as he is perceived as an interested party in the dispute.
On the one hand, some PDP members in the Green chamber, who are sympathetic to Elumelu, are crossed with the opposition party chairman for allegedly not managing the nomination of the minority leadership well. While on the other, lawmakers routing for Chinda as minority leader are expecting the Secondus-led NWC to enforce the party’s position or impose severe sanctions against those that failed to toe the party ‘s line.
Although the PDP has continued to insist on Chinda, as its choice for minority leader of the House of Representatives, it is unlikely that Elumelu will relinquish the position. And with the prevailing situation in the minority caucus, the party cannot muster the number to remove him.
Therefore, for the opposition party, it is either it accepts Elumelu and his team as the minority leadership or wield the big stick against them.
However, the question is would the PDP eat the humble pie and accept the Elumelu-led Minority leadership and incur the wrath of some powerful interests in its fold or will it stick to its guns, and alienate the minority leadership from the opposition party?