Is South East Still In PDP?

Oguwike Nwachuku

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), once a political behemoth that loomed large in Nigeria which boasted as the largest party in Africa – but now in the opposition – is at it again.
It is working to recover from what hit it in last year’s presidential election when, surprisingly, it succumbed to the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is now in the national leadership saddle, basking in the euphoria of change.
Last week, it released its new zoning arrangement ahead of the 2019 presidential election which its leaders have bragged they will win with ease.

It appears the PDP is yet to learn from its mistakes and from its new zoning formula, another fresh seed of crisis has been deliberately sowed or about to be sowed. And that is the thrust of my argument today.

Those who analysed the exchanges between Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and a chieftain of the PDP, Olabode George, on Politics Today on Channels Television last week will easily conclude that the PDP is still far from being cured of the disease that befell it in the build up to the 2015 general election.
The disease that afflicted the PDP in the past? Selfishness. Greed (Avarice). Inordinate ambition. Hatred. Ethnic and tribal bigotry. Godfatherism. Politics of imposition.
These and others were the problems the APC saw as a window of opportunity and leveraged on to sell the dummy of change to Nigerians.

It is said that a man who does not know when rain started to drench him may not know when it will stop.
Most PDP watchers are looking forward to the so-called zoning arrangement and by extension, the party’s ward, council and state congresses to see if what the leaders are saying about their preparedness to return to power is real or a fluke.
Feelers from across the nation on its recent congresses are hardly encouraging. The stories we hear are not different from the ones we used to hear before which are reminiscent of the characters that most PDP leaders exhibit during election.

That is why many of the leaders are calling for the cancellation of the congresses.
Adamu Waziri, former minister of Police Affairs and a member of PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), said: “As one of the founding fathers of the PDP and longtime member of the Board of Trustees, I wish to express serious concern over the procedures leading to the national convention of our party; the last Saturday congress was a false start.
“In my state, Yobe, materials arrived there very late; the congresses were not conducted in line with the party’s guidelines, and being a veteran in the game, I know the congresses were skewed to achieve a particular purpose.
“And after due consultation with our supporters, I wish to reject the outcome of the congresses in Yobe State.”

Waziri also frowned on the zoning, saying the decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC) did not have input from the PDP BoT and other stakeholders. That is the same feeling George holds but which Fayose sees nothing amiss.
In Ogun, factional executive members suspended state PDP Chairman, Adebayo Dayo; and Secretary, Semiu Sodipo, for alleged gross misconduct.

Crises were said to have trailed Anambra congresses with state party Chairman, Ejike Oguebego, claiming that there was no congress election in all the 326 electoral wards in the state.
He alleged that Ladi Edun, the congress committee chairman appointed by the national PDP, sabotaged the exercise by failing to liaise with the state executive.

Rising from a news conference in Awka, 21 members of the state executive wrote a petition to the chairman of the PDP ward congress appeal panel asking for the cancellation of the exercise and the conduct of a fresh one.
The story is the same in all PDP controlled states.
As Ben Heineman would say, “the mantra for all leaders in crisis management must be – it is our problem the moment we hear about it. We will be judged from that instant forward for everything we do – and don’t do.”

But going by what transpired at the congresses and the feedback on the new PDP zoning arrangement, it is doubtful if the party has learnt anything in crisis management and if at all PDP minders will see any reason to pursue any challenge as a common problem.
Many PDP chieftains are more interested in what comes to them, their camp or their zone rather than what is public good. They are in complete alignment with Elbert Hubbard’s thinking that, “power flows to the man who knows how, responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them.”

To them, they are the ones who know how power ought to flow as well as the ones ordained to shoulder others’ responsibilities without sparing a thought on how much damage they have done to the soul of the party.
They have been doing it since 1999 and because it has become a habit, which dies hard when formed, they will continue at it.
Now in interrogating the zoning arrangement, which has chiseled the Igbo, a major ethnic nationality in Nigeria, out of relevance in political dynamics of the PDP, what comes to mind is what the designers intend to achieve.

Only three miserable offices – Deputy National Financial Secretary, National Organising Secretary and National Youth Leader – are assigned to Ndigbo.

This is the same South East which, less than a year ago, provided the PDP with the shoulder it leaned on when all other zones plotted mischief that saw to the defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan in particular and, the fall of the PDP in general.
Here are the offices zoned:
National Chairman (North East), Deputy National Chairman (South South), National Secretary (South West), Deputy National Secretary (North Central), National Legal Adviser (North West), and Deputy National Legal Adviser (South South).

National Treasurer (South South), Deputy National Treasurer (North West), National Financial Secretary (North Central) and Deputy National Financial Secretary (South East), and National Woman Leader (North-West),
Deputy National Woman Leader (South South), National Auditor (South West), Deputy National Auditor (North East), National Publicity Secretary (South West), and Deputy National Publicity Secretary (North Central),

National Organising Secretary (South East), Deputy National Organising Secretary. (North Central), National Youth Leader (South East), and Deputy National Youth Leader (North West).
The PDP is simply saying with the zoning that the South East has little to contribute to its preparation for 2019.

It is sad. This zone has produced national leaders, including Nnamdi Azikiwe, Michael Okpara, Akanu Ibiam, Mbonu Ojike, Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, Sam Mbakwe, Chuba Okadigbo.
The picture the PDP zoning arrangement presents is akin to what the APC did a few months ago.
While George and Fayose were washing their dirty linen in public, they made us understand that it was their personal interest or the interest of the zones they come from that was at stake.
Not surprisingly, on May 4 the South West PDP leaders came together in Akure to back the current zoning arrangement notwithstanding that other zones are kicking against it.

It is about them, their zone, and as far as Ndigbo are concerned, they can stay in the cold.
Rather than go for powerful positions that will enable them appear more relevant in 2019, South East PDP members kowtow to the whims and caprices of their colleagues from other zones thinking the vice presidency will come to them. Who says?

*Nwachuku is the Editor of TheNiche, a national Sunday newspaper published in Lagos