Attempts by the Peoples Democratic Party
to reinvent itself as a formidable platform continued to reverberate
across the country at the weekend as members braced for the May 21
national convention, which promises tough decisions that could
strengthen or further weaken the erstwhile ruling party.
National officers who would run the
affairs of the party for the next four years will be elected at the
convention. And interests in the various geopolitical zones are trying
to position themselves well for the coveted post of national chairman,
with those from the South making the strongest moves.
THISDAY learnt that many influential
stakeholders of PDP are favourably disposed to zoning the seat of
national chairman to the South. This is in view of the fact that the
party is likely to zone its presidential position to the North in 2019,
as recommended by the Senator Ike Ekweremadu- led 2015 post-election
panel.
But some members from the northern zones
argue that taking the headship of the party away from the North, where
PDP controls only two of the 19 states, to the South would portray PDP
as a southern party. They also insist that the proposed emergence of the
presidential candidate of the party from the North would not really
affect the chairmanship post, as the chairman would be on the last lap
of his tenure at the time of the 2019 presidential primaries.
With five of its six states under PDP
control, South-south, the zone of Bayelsa-born former president, Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan, who lost to President Muhammadu Buhari at the last
general election, currently has the highest number of PDP governors.
Those disposed to zoning the chairmanship to South-south say apart from
representing the loudest voice for the party at present, the zone also
provides the biggest funding for the party.
South-south man and PDP deputy national
chairman, Chief Uche Secondus, who had been serving as acting national
chairman, last month handed over to Borno State Governor, Senator Ali
Modu Sheriff, following his ratification as substantive chairman. Some
party leaders feel the zone that is providing the strongest pillar of
support for PDP should be compensated with the chairmanship post.
South-east has the second highest number
of PDP governors, with three of the zone’s five states controlled by
the party. Party members there, too, are struggling for the national
chairmanship post. Two former national chairmen of the party – Dr.
Okwesilieze Nwodo and Chief Vincent Ogbulafor – are from the South-east.
The South-west is also making out a
strong case for the chairmanship. The argument here is that the zone,
which has two PDP governors, has never produced a national chairman of
the party since 1999. Besides, the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum,
Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, and the man currently regarded
as the loudest voice of the party in the South, Ekiti State Governor Ayo
Fayose, are from the South-west. But sources within the party say power
struggle between the two most prominent leaders of PDP in the
South-west may cost the zone the coveted position.
Though, the scrambling to secure the
chair of the leading opposition party is more intense in the South for
the obvious reason of the zoning arrangement, which PDP members are
still keeping secret, the North is not left out of the struggle. Party
insiders say there is a groundswell of opinion in the North that the
region should retain the national chairmanship post, currently held by
Sheriff from the North-east, to give the people a sense of belonging and
curtail a growing impression that PDP is a southern party.
The North-east states of Gombe and
Taraba are the only PDP states in the North, but many in the North think
that retaining the post of national chairman there may isolate the
other zones in the region, giving Buhari and his All Progressives
Congress unfettered hold on the North.
PDP had during its 69th National
Executive Committee meeting on Monday in Abuja approved the timetable
for its congresses and national convention. The congresses will commence
on April 23 and culminate in the national convention, scheduled to hold
on May 21 in Port Harcourt. The NEC also approved the setting up of
four special committees to prepare for the national convention, namely,
the National Convention Committee, Reconciliation Committee, Zoning
Committee, and Finance Committee.
The crucial field of struggle at the
moment ahead of the national convention, findings reveal, is the
convention committees, which are expected to play a key role in the
emergence of the new national officers. The convention and zoning
committees are being considered as most strategic, fuelling a frantic
struggle to fill the two committees. The party is said to be in a state
of great agitation over the modalities for choosing members of the
committees.
But nearly every prominent leader of PDP
is playing his cards close to his chest on the zoning matter. The
deputy senate president, Ekweremadu, said in a statement on Friday by
his special adviser on media, Mr. Uche Anichukwu, that there was not
secret zoning arrangement, stressing that the party would announce its
zoning plan at an appropriate time.
The statement added, “The PDP will soon
convene a meeting of the relevant stakeholders and organs of the party
as stipulated by our constitution to come up with a clear zoning of the
national offices of the party in a transparent, democratic, and fair
manner.”
THISDAY 
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